THE START-UP OPENS ITS FIRST CO-MEETING BUILDING IN THE HEART OF BRUSSELS
Comet Meetingsthe French start-up reinventing the meeting experience in the city, sets up in Belgium. A major player in the Future of Work, Comet Meetings officially opens the doors of its first co-meeting building in Brussels: a venue dedicated to corporate meetings and seminars in the Louise district. After a year 2020/2021 that shook up workplace codes and highlighted the importance of social ties between colleagues, the start-up is pursuing its ambition to restore the nobility of collaborative moments such as company meetings.
To coincide with the return to work and its arrival on the Belgian market, Comet Meetings has taken a look at the meeting habits of Belgians. According to its recent iVOX survey, nine out of ten Belgians (88%) prefer physical meetings to virtual ones. Indeed, 74% of respondents rank the opportunity for interaction between colleagues in the top 3 positive points of meetings, along with the chance to exchange ideas and the opportunity to make collective decisions.
Following the success of its seven Paris venues, which have already welcomed more than 220,000 customers, Comet Meetings inaugurates its first building outside France. Entitled "The Great Escape", this first co-meeting concept in Brussels offers participants a variety of travel-related activities on its 8 floors: 2,800 m2 of bright meeting rooms, communal areas, catering facilities and a rooftop overlooking the entire city.
For this new project, the start-up has teamed up with Belgian architect Lionel Jadot, renowned for his out-of-the-ordinary creations. Working in collaboration with Comet Meetings's design and construction teams, Lionel Jadot imagined the building as an invitation to a change of scenery and immersion. "I'm proud to have been able to work with Comet Meetings on its first project in Belgium. Our visions of living and working spaces matched perfectly, and together we imagined a venue for events that was off the beaten track. Each floor was conceived as a leap into a faraway destination, and we made a point of using as many recycled materials as possible for the furniture," confides Lionel Jadot.
In fact, by obtaining its Green Key label, the start-up is committed to sustainability. Equally concerned to ensure optimum safety for its visitors, Comet Meetings opens its doors in compliance with the sanitary conditions imposed by the Brussels Health Safety label.
Also according to the study, six out of ten respondents (57%) point out that holding a meeting outside the office makes them more creative (49%), more productive (48%) and more motivated (52%), provided the venue is suitable for a meeting.
The Comet experience promises to transport participants into a setting so far removed from their daily work lives that they can step outside their frame of reference and unleash their full potential. The Meeting Scientists team provides more personalized support, depending on the meeting objective defined by the customer: advice on the day's schedule and the configuration in which to place the group for greater productivity, and introductions to facilitators and content experts. Wellness sessions are also offered to groups to ensure their well-being and optimize their concentration throughout their seminars.
"At Comet Meetings, we're convinced that a meeting can be a memorable and value-creating moment for our companies, even more so after the year we've spent mostly far apart. With this in mind, we offer our teams not only an exceptional working environment, but also our expertise in organizing and running these meetings, as well as a range of services worthy of the hotel industry. The entire Comet experience is designed to stimulate team collaboration and collective intelligence," explains Victor Carreau, co-founder of Comet Meetings.
Since the start of the health crisis in March 2020, the organization of work has been undergoing an unprecedented revolution. It has become essential for companies to rethink the "office of tomorrow" as a place for meetings and encounters. The challenge is to cultivate the affectio societatis of their employees and attract young talent and high potential.
In Brussels, for example, before the crisis, 45% of workers "occasionally" swapped their usual workplace for an alternative (telecommuting, coworking, third places). Now there's a striking increase. Indeed, a recent study by SD Worx shows that 62% of Brussels workers will indeed be working from home after the crisis. However, after weeks of social distancing, two-thirds of employees say they have become aware of the importance of physical interaction with colleagues, according to a study by Tempo Team, both for their motivation and their enjoyment of work.
Comet Meetings is one of the pioneers of the "Future of Work", with its focus on spaces, services and the content of collaborative moments.
