Meet me in Hot Buttered Rum: How to approach conference room naming
In November of last year my sister-in-law Erica texted me:
“I need to come up with themes to name the conference rooms in our new office campus. Such as “tv shows”, “sports teams”, “types of trees” etc etc. Do you have any ideas?? I need to come up with 20–25 different categories (we have a lot of rooms 😅). Figured I’d ask the Naming Expert 😉”
“oh this is my dream”
Off we went.
Naming things is fun. Full stop. Naming things like conference rooms is particularly fun — in large part because the handbrake is lifted, you don’t need to worry about trademark, URL, SEO, visual identity, positioning, or building a deep and meaningful story. You can, pretty much, do whatever you want.
Erica landed on 30 initial themes with some light guidance from me, my wife, and Erica’s husband. Erica was tasked with naming dozens of conference rooms across eight floors in the company’s Santa Clara office. Ultimately, from the proposed 30 themes she and her company settled on these eight:
• US National Parks (Yellowstone, Haleakalā, Great Sand Dunes, etc.)
• Bay Area landmarks (Coit Tower, Lake Merritt, Point Reyes, etc.)
• Well known mountains (Fitz Roy, Mt. Hood, Pikes Peak, etc.)
• Constellations (Leo, Casseopeia, Draco, etc.)
• Cocktails (Lemon Drop, Long Island Iced Tea, Tom Collins, etc.)
• Islands (Kauai, Martha’s Vineyard, Zanzibar, etc.)
• Video games (Forza, Donkey Kong, Elder Scrolls, etc.)
Good stuff. Each category is plenty deep to accommodate a dozen or more rooms per floor. There’s nothing here that’s particularly offensive or troubling, cocktails maybe the only one in the set that can feel a little awkward for folks who don’t drink or have a difficult relationship with alcohol. Maybe video games aren’t so universal. But hey, you please no one by trying to please everyone. The categories have nothing to do with the company’s offerings (data storage), which is probably for the best. People think about work enough as is.
Now, while most of the usual naming considerations are absent when naming conference rooms, there are some pieces to be mindful of. Erica and I discussed the following:
1. It’s best to avoid divisive topics like sports teams. 49ers fans might bristle at the Seahawks or Cowboys room.
2. It’s wise to avoid famous people as new information may come to light and change public opinion. Everyone might love some big name today, but it might come out that they’re a secret Nazi, a former cult leader, or plotted to invade Fort Knox with rabid opossums and are now on an FBI watch list.
3. While these names are primarily for internal audiences, when you invite guests external to your organization, either in person or over video conference, they’ll likely see the name on a sign outside the room or in the calendar invite. Know that outside eyes will see these names so dial in your level of profanity, snark, or oddity accordingly.
So, if you ever find yourself in the enviable position of naming some conference rooms, go (mostly) all out and enjoy the process. Just be mindful of the few guardrails we discuss above.
