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CBRE Meeting Room of the Year 2015 Winners have been announced

Companies show an enormous interest in the topic of quality office environments, with an emphasis on employee satisfaction.

CBRE Meeting Room of the Year competition knows its winners in all categories, which were announced at a presentation ceremony at Microsoft’s new office premises. J & T Banka won the Meeting Room of the Year category; Ogilvy & Mather took the top prize in the Office as the DNA of the Company category; JetBrains won the Most Attractive Working Environment, and LIKO-S prevailed in the Healthy Office category, while Etnetera Group took Future-proof and Innovative Offices and the Public Award was awarded to Paper Hub. The competition attracted over 80 companies from which the professional jury selected 33 finalists. The chairperson of the jury was the renowned architect, Eva Jiřičná. 

Eva Jiřičná, Chairperson of the jury for CBRE Meeting Room of the Year, said:

“The spaces of the winning companies generally have a common characteristic – they’re designed to satisfy the people who use them. They’re places where people work individually or collectively and meet in, while providing the conditions for having relaxed communication with one another. Their facilities are suitable for creative work and are also an integral part of the office. I’m glad that this approach is also catching on in Czech companies.” 

Petra Lávičková, Head of Marketing & PR at CBRE, added for the competition organizers:

“Compared to the previous year, we expanded the number of categories that evaluate office space from different perspectives this year. Similarly to the previous year, some members of the jury personally visited some of the spaces. The winners really stood the test in a competitive field and I’d like to congratulate them on their success. I’m looking forward to what the third annual competition brings, starting in May.” 

New categories in the competition were A Healthy Office, whose expert guarantor was the Czech Green Building Council and the Future-Proof and Innovative Offices category, which was overseen by Skanska. In the category of A Healthy Office, companies were primarily evaluated in terms of their impact on health, productivity and employee satisfaction. The main criteria were: abundant daylight and fresh air, the acoustic conditions, sufficiently large workspaces for individual employees, and whether the office supports productivity and if greenery is incorporated in them.                                      

Simona Kalvoda from the Czech Green Building Council, added:

“From the first year of the Healthy Office category, it was evident that companies are beginning to realize the importance of quality and healthy work spaces. The office workers have come back into prominence. We see this as an important step, as a healthy and inspiring environment can help employers motivate current and potential employees. A quality and healthy internal environment ultimately has a positive impact on the productivity of the whole company. At LIKO-S we highlighted the approach of a Czech family company that is not afraid of this exceptional experiment, especially considering the fact that the winning project was located in their development centre.” 

The Future-Proof and Innovative Offices category was assessed by the jury taking into account innovative technology, flexibility or how a company considered future development of the company and the employees when constructing their offices. 

Marie Passburg, General Director at Skanska Property Czech Republic, added:

“Future-Proof and Innovative Offices can satisfy needs that will arise in the future, and are equipped with innovative technologies which provide sustainable solutions for the coming challenges. They inspire employees and keep their enthusiasm and productivity in the long term. It’s precisely these attributes that are found in the offices at Etnetera. The offices reflect the core business of the company in innovative IT technologies.  The spaces are highly flexible and are able to accommodate new employees, while providing the flexibility to meet the needs of current ones thanks to the mobile components and furniture or adjustable rail lighting.” 

The third annual CBRE Meeting Room of the Year will be launched in May of 2016, with registration once again taking place at www.zasedackaroku.cz, where complete information about the competition can be found. 

The general partner of the competition is Skanska along with the main partners Cisco, Microsoft, Philips, Vodafone and Steelcase. Other partners include the Czech Green Building Council, Dark Side and Moser, who donated the original contest awards for the winners. LetsGood was the partner for the evening ceremony. The competition was covered in the media by Forbes, Hospodářské noviny, Jobs.cz, Direkt, Kancelář snů, PRIMA Living and CFO World.