硅谷那些挑戰想象力的會議室名字

????在Pinterest位于舊金山“市場南”街區的辦公室中，員工們每天都穿梭于一個個叫做“時髦嬰兒”（Hipster Babies）、“海灘婚禮”（Beach Wedding）和“小貓連指套”（Kitten Mittens）的房間中。繼續往下，就到了Airbnb位于布蘭南街富麗堂皇的新總部。就連文藝復興時期王室宮殿的中庭都難以超越Airbnb總部之堂皇。 而這家公司的會議常常都在“米蘭”、“雷克雅未克”或者“巴厘島”舉行。

????Airbnb發言人瑪吉?卡爾表示說：“這有時候的確會讓人迷糊。我剛來到這公司時，有次曾聽到說‘某人正在柏林開會’，而我的大腦當即卡殼：‘你在說什么??？我今天早上剛剛見過他?！?/p>

????如今，“31B”和“就五樓那個”這樣的會議室名稱成為過時的概念之后，類似上文中的會議室名稱就開始流行起來。許多初創公司已經把會議室的命名當成了一項讓員工施展創意的協作活動，借此來發揚公司的企業文化。

????Facebook發言人斯萊特?托爾說：“通過與員工表決來決定會議室名稱是我們這里的一項長期傳統?！痹贔acebook位于各地的辦公室中，各工作區域的員工都會投票決定本區域內的會議室名稱。投票首先會挑出一個會議室名稱主題，然后再表決這個主題范圍內的各個名稱。

????托爾說：“當投票結果不相上下時，活動就更有意思了?！盕acebook門洛帕克（Menlo Park）總部的一棟辦公樓中，“星球大戰人物”和“雞尾酒”兩項命名主題就打成了平手。最后，員工決定將兩者混合，從而出現了類似加?加?飲克斯（Jar Jar Drinks）和達斯-野格酒（Darth J?ger）等奇特的會議室名字。

????Pinterest也采用了同樣的民主過程，但會議室的命名主題則固定為網站用戶關注最多的熱門話題。因此，會議室出現了“羽衣甘藍蔬菜片”（Kale Chips）和“電暖鍋”（Crock Pot）等命名。而在Dropbox公司的總部，三名員工為43間會議室逐一創建了QR碼。好奇的人們可以從中探究“門童德魯”（Doorman Drew）的命名到底是否是在開Dropbox公司CEO德魯?豪斯頓（Drew Houston）的玩笑。（其實，它實際上是在向這家公司第一個辦公樓的門童致敬。）

????不過，民主程序偶爾也會跑偏。去年，Dropbox就忽然覺得有兩個房間的命名不妥，從而將其移除。這兩間房間分別叫：基情廳（Bromance Chamber）和分手間（The Break-up Room）?！舅鼈冞€沒有新名字，但員工提交的替代命名之一是“雞毛蒜皮棚”（Bike Shed），以此抗議公司管得過寬?！?/p>

????比起其他公司，Airbnb 在會議室問題上更進了一步。它把網站上的一些熱門租賃房間進行高度還原，然后把它們搬到了現實中——建筑師甚至成功在辦公室實現了巴厘島溫泉房的茅草屋頂，而且還是防火的。而另一間名為“勞施”（Rausch）的房間則是復制了喬?吉比亞與布萊恩?切斯基公司的這兩位創始人在舊金山的合租房，紀念兩人于2008年在那個房間里萌發了Airbnb的想法。房間復制相當逼真，連棕色乙烯基沙發等細節都不放過。最近一個周二還能看到房內一面墻上貼滿了各種信手寫下來的便利貼，表明這間房不是裝飾，而是真正的工作間。

????還有的公司則使會議室的命名方案契合公司名。移動支付技術公司Square的舊金山辦公室就用世界各地的著名廣場為自己的玻璃圍墻會議室命名，比如阿薩迪（伊朗德黑蘭）和拉法耶（Lafayette；在美國許多城市常見，但最著名的也許要數新奧爾良的那個）。

????這一切奇思妙想有時候需要花點心思。Pinterest發言人米思亞?斯里尼瓦桑就說，知情的員工不得不就一些別出心裁的會議室名費一番口舌，就比如“青年布”（Chambray；一種常用于紐扣休閑襯衫的輕型面料）。

????斯里尼瓦桑說：“說來有趣，你在‘無限長圍巾’（Infinity Scarf）會議室里跟工程師談著，他們忽然說，‘原來這就是無窮長圍巾啊’，因為真的就有人圍著這種圍巾。然后他們就會恍然大悟般表示明白?！?財富中文網)

????譯者：Liam

????On any given day at Pinterest's office in San Francisco's South of Market neighborhood, a staffer could hop between Hipster Babies, Beach Wedding, and Kitten Mittens. Down Brannan Street, at Airbnb's palatial new headquarters -- Renaissance royalty couldn't have wanted for a grander atrium -- meetings might take place in Milan, Reykjavik, or Bali.

????"It can get confusing," said Maggie Carr, an AirBnB spokesperson. "When I first started, I heard that someone was in a meeting in Berlin and I was like, 'What? I saw him this morning.'"

????This is what happens when conference room names like "31B" and "the one on the fifth floor" become passé. Many startups have turned the naming of meeting spaces into a creative, collaborative event in an effort to celebrate company culture.

????"It's a long-standing tradition here that we vote on conference room names," said Slater Tow, a Facebook spokesperson. In every Facebook office, employees vote on the name of the conference room in their designated area, first by picking themes, which get voted up or down, and then by voting on names within the theme.

????"The fun part is when two ideas tie," Tow said. In one building on Facebook's Menlo Park campus, Star Wars characters tied with cocktails, so staffers decided to combine them, resulting in conference room names like Jar Jar Drinks and Darth J?ger.

????Pinterest also uses a democratic process but anoints meeting spaces based on what the site's users are excited about, hence Kale Chips and Crock Pot. At Dropbox's headquarters, three employees created individual QR codes for each of the 43 conference rooms, so inquiring minds can find out whether Doorman Drew is a joke about Dropbox CEO Drew Houston. (It's actually a nod to the doorman at the company's first office.)

????Occasionally, democracy can run off the rails. Last year, Dropbox removed the names for two of its rooms, Bromance Chamber and The Break-up Room, after deciding they were no longer appropriate. (They have yet to be renamed, but Bike Shed is among the alternatives submitted by employees.)

????Airbnb goes a step further than most companies by recreating some of the home rental site's most popular listings to the truest extent possible -- architects managed to make a thatched roof in the spa-like Bali room that is also fire-proof. One room, Rausch, pays homage to the San Francisco apartment where roommates Joe Gebbia and Brian Chesky hatched the idea for Airbnb in 2008, down to the post-collegiate brown vinyl couch. Dozens of Sharpie-scrawled Post-it notes covered a wall on a recent Tuesday, indicating that work, indeed, takes place here.

????Some make their conference room naming scheme fit the company's moniker. Square's San Francisco office named its glass-walled meeting spaces after famous squares around the world, like Azadi (in Tehran, Iran) and Lafayette (common in many U.S. cities, though perhaps most famously in New Orleans).

????All that whimsy sometimes requires work. Pinterest spokesperson Mithya Srinivasan said in-the-know employees have had to give tutorials on some of the more sartorial conference room names, like Chambray (it's a lightweight fabric often used for button-down shirts).

????"It's funny, you'll be in Infinity Scarf talking to engineers and they'll say, 'So that's what an infinity scarf is,' because someone's actually wearing one,'" Srinivasan said. "It's like, 'I get it now.'"