Office makeover contest winner enjoys new conference room

Tamarack Products Inc. of Wauconda boasts a new, state-of-the-art conference room, thanks to the Daily Herald Media Group's Office Makeover contest.

Tamarack, which manufactures specialty equipment used by printers of business forms and packaging, was the grand prize winner and received a conference room makeover, valued at more than $11,000. The prize was provided by Rieke Office Interiors of Elgin, VidTech Audio Visual of Lisle and LED Rite of Hampshire. Alger Painting of Palatine updated the walls.

"Your office and workplace is the first place your customers and clients see and you need to make a good first impression. In addition, you can really reinforce your brand by the kind of environment you create - both internally and externally," said Eileen Brown, director of strategic marketing and innovation at the Daily Herald.

Before winning the contest, Tamarack had suffered with an out-of-date conference room with white walls, worn carpeting, uncomfortable chairs and a small conference table.

Instead of updating their meeting space, David Steidinger, president of Tamarack Products, and his partner/brother, Mark, had chosen to reward the small company's loyal employees through their paychecks, forgoing office updates.

But when the Steidingers heard that they had won an office makeover, thanks to the initiative of Diane McNulty, Tamarack's sales and service coordinator, they were thrilled.

Now that the transformation is complete, McNulty is probably the office hero. The makeover gave them ten comfortable, state-of-the-art ergonomic conference chairs, a large new conference table, two large recessed LED lighting fixtures, cutting edge presentation technology, new carpeting and freshly painted walls.

"We now have three walls painted a soft gray and one painted a medium blue. The white walls had been stark. These are much warmer looking and, combined with the new carpet featuring grays, browns and blues, the effect is amazing," McNulty said.

The presentation technology that was added will allow the company to teleconference with their overseas customers, showing new products and helping their technicians troubleshoot problems by showing users how to make necessary machine adjustments.

The coordination of this makeover was handled by Rieke Office Interiors (ROI) of Elgin. Office designers on the Rieke team provide everything from floor coverings to furniture to lighting and soundproofing materials, panel systems and signage. They have become the "go-to" firm for corporations and other entities that want to update and improve their office environments in order to retain high quality employees and foster creativity and problem-solving, said to Mike Warren, workplace culture consultant for ROI.

"For Tamarack we coordinated a design board with graphic imagery that detailed the conference table, ergonomic chairs, lighting, painting and carpet. Our goal is to create a space for each client that reflects the quality of their products and their innovative team. So we provided them with vibrant, modern furniture in order to enhance their office environment," he said.

Colleen Baader, creative director for Rieke, handled the color scheme. "Many studies have shown that workers prefer being in an environment with color. Blue is a calming color. It promotes communication, trust, and efficiency. It also helps people with creativity by opening the mind to new ideas," she said.

The new lighting was provided by LED Rite, a lighting manufacturer located in Hampshire.

"We were willing to give Tamarack up to eight fixtures for their conference room, but they only needed two," said David Scheck, partner in LED Rite. "So we built two recessed lights for them instead of externally mounted fixtures and included a smart space system which allows them to remotely increase and decrease the brightness of the lights through their smartphones. They can also control the two lights separately so that it can be darker near the presentation screen and lighter at the back of the room."

The presentation technology was provided by VidTech Audio Visual of Lisle.

"It doesn't cost an arm and a leg to get your toe in the water with upgraded audio/visual and networking equipment," said VidTech Production Manager John Sink.

"An investment of only between $1,500 and $2,000 can get a company or organization a high-end Smart television that is internet-ready, a hi-definition camera that can be remotely controlled, an audio system with a microphone and speaker, and a hot spot/communication device which allows employees to use modern software like Skype and Go To Meeting in order to interface with others remotely and wirelessly."

"This can make a huge difference in the way employees interact with vendors, customers and each other," Sink said.

"In years past, if an employee saw an idea that they wanted to use, they would have to call a meeting, propose the idea and then probably call a follow-up meeting. Today it is all about getting the idea out there first."