Creative ambience

The atmosphere that the physical environment is able to create around the participation at a meeting. The "magic" that is stirred by the "rightness" of, among other things, the seating arrangement, the lighting, the decor, the sound quality, plants, etc. An elusive quality relying more on intuition than reason and highly specific in relationship to the content structure and process of each different meeting.[Advantages]

While extremely creative, conferencing can take place in the most sterile environment. There is no doubt that effort put into the ambience focuses and reinforces participation. The physical environment can be modelled on the social environment, reflecting the degree of structure, seriousness, and openness, and the contextual framework within which the conferencing is taking place.

[Disadvantages]

It is possible to overemphasize the ambience and to over- invest in gimmicky, distracting and artificial environments, which by their elaborateness communicate a message of inflexible, prescribed procedures. The ambience, effective for one conference, may not hold the same magic for another -an issue apparently overlooked by the standardized "five star" environments of many conference centres.