Hub Day: Change Will Do You Good

So. We're in a bit of upheaval here at The Hub CityView. Things are all topsy-turvy.

This is our Rittenhouse room. We're tearing down the wall so we give it the option of being bigger, when it wants to. According to our operations director, Peter Chun, it's going to have a "garage-door"-like opening to it, so that if your needs dictate a larger space, well, we have the capability to make it bigger for you.
Don't get us wrong. We did love the Rittenhouse. But the reality is, in our house, our clients are of utmost importance, and we want to make sure that we serve their needs first and foremost.
"If you look at our Cira Center office," says Peter, referring to our LEED-certified location, and the one we built from scratch, "we're capable of hosting two to three hundred people in one of the rooms there. We wanted to be able to have all of our facilities be similar to each other, and this was a good place to start."
So what's going to change? Well, our cafe (pictured below) is now up against our big picture window, so you can get a little sun with your coffee and tea.
And our lobby, below, has changed quite a bit.
Okay, we admit it. We like the idea of making sure that our clients have the flexibility they need to make our meeting spaces fit their needs. And it makes us really happy that we can have a beautiful view of Philadelphia while we're sipping our coffee. But you know what's been really interesting about this whole procedure?
It's the fact that the changes are keeping us on our toes. There are a ton of studies out there that demonstrate the fact that physical change in the office keeps employees productive. Physical therapists have long advocated simple things, like wearing your watch on your *other* wrist every once in awhile, just to keep yourself guessing.
So yeah, we like the changes. Just, maybe not for the most obvious reasons.
What are your favorite tips for keeping yourself sharp? We like Freestyle Mind's 30 tips, for starters.

Hub Day: Superfoods!

...What's that, you say? What is that peculiar sound? It's you, falling asleep on your desk just before your two o'clock meeting.
We know. It happens to us a lot. We used to fix the problem with a steadily percolating pot of coffee.
But then we figured that standing around jittery all the time was probably just as bad as falling asleep in meetings, so we went for another option, one that we think visitors to The Hub like just as much as we do: Our Superfood Shelf.

(Norma Jean, one of our key salespeople, tests out our most recent addition)

What *is* that, you want to know? We like to think of it as a little afternoon rejuvenation, a little pep up for your taste buds, and a better way for you to maintain good energy through the day. We stock our Superfood Shelf with all kinds of goodies: dried nuts and fruit, dark chocolate, and some other goodies, like yogurt-covered berries, that make sure we're happy and energized for the afternoon slump.
What's on your Superfood Shelf? We think every office should have one, but then again, we're biased.
Web MD's terrific list of Superfoods is here: Go on, stock up!

Hub Day: The Power of Play

At The Hub, we love to play. Or maybe that should be, Wii love to play.
Okay, rotten puns aside, we just got a Wii installed in our Cira Centre location, and boy, are we thrilled.
It seems our clients, are too. Although The Hub is already a pretty friendly place to be, we knew that there's more to great ambiance than just cool music (we favor classic rock) and comfy chairs. There's a real sense of joy to our offices, and since we're all for creative solutions, well, we bought a Wii. And now, instead of just classic rock, you might hear the melodic bip-boop! of a Wii tennis ball being lobbed across the net, or the rattle of a bowling ball as it gutters.
What's the point? We bought it because we're firm believers in the value of play. Peter Chun, our director of operations, calls it our coffee replacement, and likens it to taking a quick walk during lunchtime, or any other time you might feel slow and slumped. It's true--a little brisk activity definitely gets the blood moving, and that's always a good thing.

We'd rather be playing WiiSports at The Hub.

The National Institute of Play has another take on it. On its web site, researchers cite a study in which enrichment (or play) greatly stimulated the area of the brain that serves the highest cognitive function. More obviously stated, it just means that the brain that gets the most play also performs the best, comes up with the most creative solutions, and gets the most exercise.
Other studies have looked at the fact that productivity and play are inextricably linked. They talk about how rough-and-tumble play helps develop a sense of fair play, and how physical play and movement help you to really know yourself and how you'll react to specific circumstances.
Finally, we know for a fact that a little playtime can defuse even the worst situations.
We're not claiming that our Wii will solve everyone's work problems, but we have noticed our clients walking out of their meetings looking crestfallen and tired, going two sets with the Wii, and looking as if they feel much better for it.
Pretty good results. We think we'll keep the Wii.
This article lists ten good reasons that we're going to keep our latest office tool. Go forth and read, and then come on over and play with our Wii.

Hub Day: Social Media and The Hub

We think we're a pretty social office. Heck, we like each other: We go to Center City Sips together; we celebrate our successes and our mis-steps together; we play and we work hard together.
But the social media thing was a whole new quandary. We thought to ourselves, Gosh. We're already social. Do we really need to embark on social media?

Our office social committee is all of us, and we have better ideas than this.
(Webcomic via Shane Johnson.)

And then someone told us that being involved in social media was like having 500 sales calls all at once, and that made us think about it again.

See, here's the thing. For us, it's not the idea of boosting sales that got us into this social media game in the first place. And it's not the idea of having the most friends, or whatever, on Facebook. Honestly, it had mostly to do with the fact that we wanted really good, meaningful interactions with everyone who could potentially mean something to us.

We wanted an exchange of ideas. We wanted them to know what we knew, and we wanted to learn what they know about their businesses. There are meeting planning groups all over the nation. We were dying to find out how they plan meetings in Australia. We wanted to know if they were as serious about green in British meetings as we are at The Hub. We wanted to know how Japanese meeting planners think, and what people learned at MPI conferences that are too far away for us to get to.

We want to share our clients' successes. You don't always get to yell about the cool things your clients are doing. Social media--and we mean everything from the web 1.0-world of blogs and egroups to the current world of Gowalla and 4sq--lets your clients, past, current, and potential, know that you are proud of having them on your list.

We wanted our voice to be heard. Social media isn't the company newsletter, that carefully planned and worded medium of yesteryear. Social media gives your company a voice, an identity beyond its stock symbol and logo. We happen to think our employees are fun and frisky, so our voice is a little uppity. Sometimes weird things happen on our Twitter feed, but that's directly because sometimes weird things happen in our office. That's OK. It's real life at The Hub offices.

We want to have lots of conversations, with lots of people. That's it, really. Social media lets us do that. Why are you using social media in your business interactions?

Don't forget to come on over to our page and fan us on Facebook. We know, we said we didn't care how many friends we had, but it's nice to be liked.

Hub Day: Meet Danarita

Our staff is so fabulous, we want everyone to get to know them. From time to time, we'll post staff profiles, so check in every once awhile and meet us.
Today we'd like you to meet once of our sales associates, Dana.

Dana is a Philly-area native, and a graduate of Temple University. It's her job to make sure that our clients, prospective and past, have everything they need to keep coming back to The Hub.
Her experience (she'll be with us for three years this coming August) and her personal passions make her perfect for what we need.
Right around the time we were opening, Dana took a class in meetings, and boy, are we glad she did.
We knew immediately we wanted her for our team. But how did we know that? After all, this is a girl who, in her spare time, dabbles in retail by helping out her friend Kristyn Rudnet at Philadelphia boutique Shimmer and Spice, and also helps out a wedding planner on the weekends.
The answer is simple. We knew because we wanted someone with such varied interests to work for our clients. We wanted someone who could think outside the box and regularly deliver great value in line with our company ethos of sustainability and quality.

This is a cardboard box. Dana's thoughts are never found here.

So we hired her on full-time after her stint as an intern, and we're happy we did. We asked Dana recently what her favorite part of working here is. She only had to think a little bit before she answered. "The fun clients. I really like it when we work with someone for a long period of time," she said. "It just gives you the feeling that they’re really happy with what we’re providing to them."
Dana has another favorite part of working here. She says she loves the challenge for finding solutions that work for our clients. "In this economic climate, it can be a struggle to stay profitable and make sure our value comes through,' she said. "All the time, we'll be on the phone to STARR Restaurants, our caterer, seeing what creative ways we can work in to satisfy both ends of the equation."
Dana's creativity and her willingness to explore different options have helped us to add even more value to our packages in ways you might not expect. Our superfoods shelf, crammed full of dark chocolate, fresh fruit, seeds and nuts, is proof positive of that, and so is the Wii station that we have set up at our Cira Centre location.

But all that is fodder for another post.
For now, we're happy you got to meet Dana, and we can't wait to see what other great ideas she's got up her sleeve to share with our clients.
Follow Dana on Twitter here, and check out the boutique she's been helping out with at Yelp here.

Why you should leave your office

We don't mean that you should up and quit. We just think you might need a change of pace. A change of scenery, really.
Consider the traditional staff retreat. Why do companies have them? They say an off-campus retreat can build staff morale; encourage truer interactions between staff members; give everyone a little break.
We believe that. Heck, we're in the business of providing a change of scenery. Consider the following:

• Your everyday office is familiar to you. And that's nice, but it can also be boring. Hardly inspiring, staring at the same old walls every day.
  
• Your everyday office has a ton of distractions in it: Your office mates; your telephone; your inbox.
• Planning a meeting in your office is a lot like hosting a party. There are ton of unrelated things you have to consider, often in short time-frame.
  

Our solution is pretty obvious.

• Leave the office. Come stare at some of someone else's art, or at least at someone else's walls instead of yours.
• Leave the distractions. Work alone or have an off-site meeting (a mini staff retreat!).
• Don't work at all: Plan a day at home; take a day to rejuvenate. They're called "personal days" for a reason. Use them.
  
• Let someone else do the planning for you.

Taking yourself out of your normal environs can have a remarkable effect. Just try it; we promise you'll at least feel different, and that's worth a lot.

What's that? You say you simply must have meetings in the office? In that case, we highly recommend you take a look at this great post, from BlackRimGlasses, on how to avoid what he calls The Vampire Meeting. Yes, yes, named so because they suck the creative life out of you.

Do your meetings feel like they siphon the lifeblood from you? Maybe it's time for another way.

When you book a meeting or a room at The Hub, we provide all-inclusive options that include meals or refreshments. And hey. Did we mention that most of our rooms are designed for you to make the most of them? Did we mention that our staff is expertly trained to ensure that we deliver what you need to make yours the most productive meeting possible? Come take a look.

Friday is Hub Day

We know, it sounds suspiciously like Hump Day. But it's not. See, Hump Day is Wednesday. Hub Day is Friday. Got it now?
No, we're kidding. That's not the only difference. Every Hub Day from here on in, we'll post something here that rotates around our core values. We want you to get to know us, and we want to get to know you. Please, feel free to post comments.
Today, we'll tell you a little bit about some of the art in our space.
At our CityView offices, we're very fond of our Calder room, which we'll focus on today.
There were three generations of Calders, all with ties to Philadelphia, but probably the best known was the youngest of the Calders, Alexander, also known as Sandy. He confined himself not to working in one medium, like his father and grandfather before him, but stretched his limits to work both in two-dimensional and three-dimensional art.
In fact, Calder is the inventor of the mobile. You know, that thing that hangs over a baby's crib? It got its start as a piece of high-concept art.

Not this...


...but this!



In the Calder room, which seats 10-12 people, you'll be greeted by two works of Calder art.
Red Moon, Black Sun (1968) is a lithograph. We like it for many reasons, but we like to think of a young Calder in one of his first jobs out of college as a fireman on a boat. One morning, he woke up on the deck of the ship, which was docked just off the Guatamalan coast, and saw both the full moon and the rising sun. It was a motif that would inform much of his art.

"Our Unfinished Revolution" is from 1975, and is actually a cover from Calder's book of the same name.

Calder's life was peripatetic. He went from Philadelphia to Roxbury, CT; from there to Paris; from Paris to New York. His artwork meandered, as well; from paints to steel to wire and into the realm of jewelry. He is by far one of the most versatile artists we know of.
Perhaps it's for this reason that we chose Calder for this room. When you're here, we want you to think in terms that are as varied, as wide-ranging, as Calder was. We want you to feel energized, to come up with solutions and ideas that are innovative and creative. And although we don't guarantee that result in the Calder room, we think you'll feel just as inspired by his work as we were.
One more thing: Calder was also a huge fan of the circus. That could be part of the reason that much of his work was so playful-looking. We encourage that, too: Approach your work with as much enthusiasm as you would play, and that, we think, will have a terrific effect on your meeting.
To take a virtual tour of our Calder Room, click here. To find out more about Alexander Calder, visit the Calder Foundation on the web.