Sound the MORE NEW COOL STUFF IN BEDFORD klaxon, for the most exciting meeting rooms you have ever seen have just landed in town. They can be found at Maximo Learn, on Harpur Street.
It is unusual to put the words ‘exciting’ and ‘meeting room’ in the same sentence – unless plastic chairs and flipcharts particularly excite you – but these rooms are something really special. And different. They’d be quirky, if quirky was not now used to describe anything with even the mildest hint of creativity about it. These rooms are more than that. They are post-quirk. The Bedford Clanger booked in a meeting with the stylish creator herself, Sarah Clarke, and asked her about her vision, design style and AOB.
The original idea was to transform an old house, which was being used as an administrative office for a business, into a training academy. But halfway through the research, where she found most training facilities were ‘dull, boring and generally uninspiring’, Sarah decided that there had to be more to training than ‘grey days away’ – and decided to do something a bit different. Inspired by a stay at a boutique hotel – La Rosa, in Whitby -she came up with a plan to drag Bedford into a brave new era of work space. Companies like Google, Facebook and Innocent have led the way in creating interesting and fun spaces to work, proving that providing non-traditional office environments can inspire creativity and boost productivity.
‘Big cities have places like this’ said Sarah, and I walked around Bedford and thought ‘I think Bedford could do this too. There’s definitely something exciting happening here at the moment, with Coffee with Art and the new-look D’Parys opening. And there are vinatge shops and nice cafes and restaurants around here.’
The rooms are designed for hiring for company away-days, conferences or smaller meetings. They are for companies, or for a space for small businesses and self-employed people who usually work from home to meet clients in a more professional environment than their living rooms.
The decor is a mix of vintage items sourced from vintage and charity shops, ebay, freecycle and new, functional, bright pieces. An Ikea baby changing unit has been installed as a coffee bar – and the biggest room features a strip of astro-turf with a mini golf set. It also houses a full hostess trolley for serving tea, a shelf full of jars of sweets and flapjacks, and a table which is half shabby chic and half old-school pine. ‘That wasn’t even for sale really!’ laughs Sarah. ‘I just saw it when I was frantically looking for more tables, and persuaded the lady in the vintage shop to sell it to me – it was being used as a demonstration as to how you can restore an old table!’
The Living Room is inspired by ‘your Nan’s living room’, with retro wallpaper, a bureau and a comfy brown leather sofa – ‘probably my best ever freecycled item’. The ‘not bored’ room has a more industrial feel, with a bright metal sideboard, wooden board table, and a doodle wall. There’s a mini kitchen in here too, allowing for cookery demonstrations and food hygiene training. Hiring the rooms mean that you get Sarah on hand to help you with hosting your meeting, serving tea and coffee and generally making you feel very much at home here.
The rooms at Maximo Learn are for anyone who wants to hire a fun meeting space, or who can see that a day spent in an engaging, exciting environment is an investment in ideas, creativity, a good team ethos and mini golf skills.
We’ve said it before at The Clanger, we’ll say it again. Bedford – you lucky, lucky people.
