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Local Voices

United Shore Celebrates Dearborn, Great Michigan Cities with Unique Conference Rooms

How does your company differentiate its conference rooms?

With varying levels of success, organizations around the country are using themes like meals (breakfast, lunch, dinner); bodies of water (Atlantic, Pacific, Superior); and the Three Stooges (Larry, Moe, Curly).

At United Shore Financial Services in Michigan – one of the largest, fastest-growing independent mortgage lenders in the U.S. – the management team took a unique approach to naming and decorating conference rooms to make them memorable by recognizing employee hometowns.

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“We wanted something that would make our meeting areas stand out and, at the same time, celebrate our home state,” USFS CEO/President Mat Ishbia said. “Our employees are our greatest asset, so choosing the cities and towns they are from or currently live in was an easy choice. And it works! I love to hear people say, ‘We’ll convene in East Lansing’ or ‘The operations meeting is in Oxford.’ “

In all, 22 cities are represented in USFS’ 140,000-square-foot headquarters. The entire workspace has a “city” feel to it with street signs, faux-grassy areas and hallway “roads.”

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On the second floor are conference rooms Ann Arbor, Royal Oak, Grosse Pointe, Plymouth, Flint, Ferndale, Farmington, Detroit and Berkley.

The third floor includes Rochester, Dearborn, Pontiac, Birmingham, Clawson, Lake Orion, Northville and Clarkston.

On the fourth floor are Auburn Hills, Troy, Franklin, East Lansing and Oxford.

Photos of each are available here: http://on.fb.me/15CjCOh

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