Boardroom of the future

The Q is a meeting experience that reinvents executive decision making to be more productive, data-centric, and enjoyable. We have created a physical environment that fosters teamwork, combined with a software system that provides instant access to live data and allows control of the meeting through a dynamic agenda. This integrated system embeds all required technology so executives have a predictable and uncomplicated user experience.

The Q accommodates eight people and consists of a table, a suspended overhead frame with eight displays, and a computer application. The hardware components forge a non-hierarchal condition for collaboration and decision making. By elevating state-of-the-art technology overhead, we remove physical barriers to inter-personal communication and furthermore allows easy viewing transition between the meeting content and the other meeting participants. The software components link key messages and live company data together for viewing on the communal displays. The meeting is controlled and progressed through using the interactive agenda on participants’ tablets. The story on the screen, the messages, and the live data that goes along with it are all shown on the overhead displays, and synchronized between all the tablets. Participants can discuss the data and story at once, drill down into it together, and annotate any of the content.

But even more than this, we have built a system that provides instant access to live data through natural language querying. So one can just ask a question like ``Show me the revenue in Canada for April 2013,'' and an up-to-date result is instantly returned for everyone to view and discuss. This lets management have in-­depth discussions even for unexpected issues, because queries are issued to the system using natural language with no specialized knowledge to retrieve data.

Executives will use the Q to make better decisions, faster.