With companies struggling to find work and meeting space in offices already crammed with staff, Bristol-based Do Company and its innovative space-saving and portable workspace – the Nook – is making a big impression.
We all knew there was no stopping its founder David O’Coimin, especially after securing pods at Web Summit 2016 – one of the world’s biggest web conferences held in Lisbon last November.
This time the Nooks have made their way over to sportswear giants Adidas in their European Headquarters in Amsterdam.
“The Nooks are in constant use, all day, every day, and people love their intimate atmosphere”
David tells us: “Adidas is a great new customer who had a severe shortage of small meeting spaces so we are helping out.”
Adidas’ Management Assistant Hellen Engel’s already has some great feedback to the office’s newest solution: “The Nooks are in constant use, all day, every day, and people love their intimate atmosphere.”
Check out the below video of Do Company setting up the new Nooks in Adidas’ offices:
Jealous visions of space-saving cosy pod working aside, the technical development of the Nook has come on leaps and bounds since its first prototype was tested at Bristol’s Engine Shed last year. Especially given that the pods have become particularly popular amongst techies and in coworking spaces, David has been working on packing out the next generation of Nooks with a whole host of new features.
Tech upgrades
In the case of Adidas, this meant a more personalised approach to power, as David explains: “It was beneficial that the power distribution units we chose for Nook allowed both the native Adidas employees to plug their European plugs in and the visiting UK and US employees to plug their laptops and devices in too.”
But for future Nooks, the potential is even greater, and David tells us: “As a priority, we are adding battery power so Nooks can be placed away from sockets for an entire day or more.
“[We] always design with the future in mind so every current user can adapt as the product evolves”
“Next, come Bluetooth speakers to connect to personal phones and tablets to create an even more personal experience inside the Nook and to aid conference and video calling.
“Following this, we will be participating in a pilot wireless power scheme so you can charge several devices right on the desk, then spending some time considering the merits of screens versus projectors, built-in tablets, microphones, sensors, voice activation, Wi-Fi & GSM, GPS and even VR.
“Our long-term objective is to make Nook the best place you could wish to work, research, meet, collaborate, concentrate and whatever else people dream up to do in them. We’ve already had a customer adapt one for sleeping in.”
“What will form part of the standard Nook and what will be optional remains to be seen, but the original premise remains, to keep Nook open and flexible so it can be many things to many people, and to always design with the future in mind so every current user can adapt as the product evolves.”
You can find out more about Nook on the Do Company and Nook websites. You can also follow Nook on Twitter: @nook_pod.
Shona Wright
Shona covers all things editorial at TechSPARK. She publishes news articles, interviews and features about our fantastic tech and digital ecosystem, working with startups and scaleups to spread the word about the cool things they're up to.
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