Boardroom undergoes high-tech makeover

It’s no wonder high-tech companies are drawn to the new board room at the Canyon Suites, the posh new resort-within-a-resort at the already elegant Phoenician.

Touch the right spot on a hand-held screen that looks sort of like a Black-Berry on steroids, and the room lights dim.

Touch another and a painting on canvas slides down into its frame revealing a plasma screen.

Grab a marker and write on the “electronic white board,” touch another button, and the system interprets your chicken scratch and translates it into print.

And that’s only a smidgen of the state-of-the-art electronics incorporated into this technological marvel of a meeting room.

While several companies have booked the Red Rock Boardroom since it was launched just a couple of months ago, at least two high-tech companies scheduled sessions in the Valley and at The Phoenician specifically to use the electronics, said Mike Stephenson, the resort’s director of event technology.

“I am unaware of any U.S. hotel that has a system like this,” Stephenson said.

The Phoenician spent $400,000 of its Canyon Suites budget to make this relatively small space into a boardroom extraordinaire, he said.

The room is only big enough for a meeting of corporate officers, directors or other VIPs. Plush seats for 20 are placed around the massive mahogany conference table.

At first glance it’s just an elegant boardroom, worthy of an intimate get-together for a Fortune 500 company’s top management or prime customers — the type of guest likely to be staying at the tony Canyon Suites.

But start pushing the buttons, and an amazing array of technology appears or disappears.

There are the simple tasks — drapes close, lights dim or a movie screen descends from the ceiling.

And the surprising ones. Besides the plasma screen behind the painting, there are the eight video monitors that pop up from the table. Play a video and movie theater surround sound fills the room.

That’s great for checking out how a commercial might sound to customers, said Rachel Sacco, president of the Scottsdale Convention & Visitors Bureau. Sacco said she got to see that happen during a site inspection of the new space.

“It combines technology and entertainment. It was like the screening room of a theater,” Sacco said. “It was incredible.”

There are three video cameras hidden behind the wall decor. They can be used for video conferencing, Stephenson said.

The boardroom table itself was assembled out of 27 pieces of wood. It cost $50,000 not including the electronics imbedded in it, Stephenson said. That includes not only the pop-up monitors but also pop-up ports to connect with just about anything else — phones, computers, he said.

That’s if you need a port. The whole room has wireless access, of course.

The two giant plasma screens, movie screen and pop-up monitors can operate with the same or different displays simultaneously, Stephenson said.

Canyon Suites is an exclusive 60-suite retreat within the 650-room Phoenician, at 6000 E. Camelback Road in Phoenix.

Canyon Suites is aimed at wooing celebrities, politicians and high-profile corporate leaders looking for privacy as well as upscale accommodations.

It’s the high-level business bunch that the Red Rock Boardroom was designed to attract.

The meeting room goes for $2,500 a day, said Phoenician spokeswoman Valerie Poulos. The price includes a technology butler — a tech expert who can run the show for nontechies or back up those who want to do it themselves, she said.

Sacco said the room will be a huge selling point for high-level executives.

“Meetings today are so sophisticated,” she said. “To attract the Fortune 500 companies you have to provide great services and great technology. And this is probably the most state-of-the-art meeting room in the country.”