Crowne Plaza’s Plaza Workspace Has Me Sold on Working from Anywhere
by Amanda Lederman
POST SPONSORED BY:
Plaza Workspace is designed with your work-life balance in mind
Our Community Manager, Amanda Lederman, visited Crowne Plaza White Plains – Downtown to take a closer look at the perfect workplace for entrepreneurs, influencers, and business women.
Picture this: Your inbox is empty. You’ve met all your deadlines for the week. You just held your first meeting and pitched your business concept to a potential investor over lunch. And you did it all without leaving your hotel. No, you’re not dreaming. You’re at Plaza Workspace.
At #BlogHer19 Creators Summit, Crowne Plaza’s Meredith Latham joined us for a spotlight talk about Crowne Plaza’s new accommodations for the hard-working business woman, Plaza Workspace. The VP of Crowne Plaza, Americas made her passion for creating products that people love while keeping the “why” and what they do in focus. Being a self-proclaimed “bougie” blogger who travels for our conferences, I took Latham up on her invitation to check out Plaza Workspace myself.
Crowne Plaza is the third-largest upscale hotel brand in the world, with more than 425 locations. Their hotels are designed for guests who want to shift seamlessly between their productive work time with their available playtime. Select Crowne Plaza hotels, including locations in Paris, Seattle, Hamburg and Atlanta, are currently home to these Crowne Plaza Innovation experiences created to maximize your time in a space that allows you to accomplish what you need to do. Located in gateway cities, business hubs, airports and resorts, Plaza Workspace is everywhere modern travelers want to stay.
When I arrived at the Crowne Plaza in White Plains, New York, I was excited to check out the amenities offered to busy boss babes. I could automatically tell that Plaza Workspace was designed with my work-life balance in mind. Their service philosophy, Dare to Connect, is all about fostering deeper human connections with their guests. As a modern traveler, business woman, and community manager, I appreciate that their services are provided with a real, emotional connection. When I walked through the hotel, needed assistance at my pod, and received food from my server, I was always greeted with a friendly “hello” from the staff and asked if they could assist me with anything further. Crowne Plaza’s employees consistently checked on me to make sure I was enjoying my experience. Talk about service!
Plaza Workspace provides flexible working spaces for small groups and those riding solo. They include pods for working on a private project or catching up on emails; small, closed off huddle spots for mini-meetings; shared work spaces for collaborating and socializing and on-demand Studios for workshops that guests can book by the hour. These spaces include plenty of charging stations and have built-in technology so you can order food and drinks right to your workspace. The Crowne Plaza in White Plains also had a phenomenal grab-and-go marketplace with both healthy and indulgent options. Each Plaza Workspace area is equipped with a tablet (for ordering the aforementioned refreshments) and a screen to project content, making it easy to blend business and leisure as meetings become social events. We fully endorse their “meetings and margaritas” ethos!
Their lobbies, restaurants and bars are designed to be a carefully-crafted collection of energizing zones — and that thoughtful attention to detail helps the entire space seamlessly adapt to your business and leisure needs. I was particularly impressed by The Studio, a private room with a locally inspired design that you can reserve for an hourly fee. Studios can be found in all Plaza Workspaces and are super comfortable and efficient. The Studio offers multiple seating areas, including a conference room table with a monitor as well as a living-room style space all contained in an open floor plan. There are white boards with markers for planning, plenty of outlets for charging devices, and a small kitchen-like area because coffee is always necessary. With almost 5 million square feet of meeting space around the world, Crowne Plaza knows meetings. Big or small, they have the right space for any type of meeting, from flexible Studio spaces to large meeting rooms.
If you’re like me, and terrible with technology (but in my off hours, I can take a great boomerang selfie), Crowne Plaza has teams, trainings and spaces to make sure you are successful during your stay. Their hotels are also uniquely staffed to meet your needs, with on-site meetings directors and a trained team of individuals to help with your IT. At Crowne Plaza, it won’t be just any member of their staff who helps with a meeting, it will be one of their Certified Meeting Professionals, a globally recognized badge of excellence in the meeting, convention, exhibition and event industry.
From checking my emails and ordering a Tuscan Pizza and Margarita from the tablet located in my pod (with my feet up) to holding a conference with my colleague in The Studio and writing articles in a huddle spot, I’m now putting in a “work from wherever” request with my manager. Thank you, Crowne Plaza, for creating an environment perfect for any on-the-go entrepreneur, business woman, or influencer. I’ll definitely be back soon, so please reserve my pod!
This post was created by #BlogHer for Crowne Plaza.