Daniel Kosh
Some of the best work I’ve ever done didn’t happen in a meeting. It happened around a table.
Not a calendar slot. Not a grid of tiles. A table.
The kind where ideas overlap, someone sketches a thought on paper, someone else interrupts mid-sentence, and suddenly something new takes shape - not because it was planned, but because you were there together.
That’s the dynamic Katmai is built to bring back.
Why meetings feel flat
Traditional video calls aren’t broken - they’re just missing dimension.
They flatten everything that makes in-person collaboration feel alive: proximity, energy, tone, and shared context.
You’re looking at faces, but not with them.
You’re together, but not there.
That missing layer - that physical and social awareness - is what drives fatigue. It’s why a day of back-to-back calls feels heavier than a day of in-person work. The brain is working harder to fill in cues that should come naturally.
In Katmai, those cues return.
You sit around a table again. You look up and see who’s across from you. You feel where voices come from. You can tell when someone’s leaning in to speak, or just listening.
The difference isn’t cosmetic - it’s cognitive. It changes how people talk, how they listen, and how quickly they align.
Why the table works
It’s not about novelty; it’s about neuroscience.
Humans process spatial and social signals together. When those are separated, communication gets mechanical. When they’re reunited, collaboration starts to feel intuitive again.
That’s what happens when people sit around a table in Katmai:
- Conversations flow faster. No more “Sorry, you go ahead.” Turn-taking becomes natural again.
- Decisions get made earlier. Context lives in the room, not buried in follow-up threads.
- Culture feels tangible. You can sense who’s around, who’s focused, who’s available - even without words.
It’s subtle, but it matters. Because teams don’t just need to talk - they need to feel together to think clearly and move quickly.
Beyond 3D
This isn’t about “metaverse meetings” or digital gimmicks. There are no headsets, no avatars, no cartoon boardrooms.
It’s you, your team, and your environment - rebuilt for presence.
The table is simple, human, and scalable. It anchors the experience, bringing back what’s been missing in the modern workplace: the physicality of connection.
Once people experience it, they stop thinking of it as a feature. They start thinking of it as the way work should feel.
The psychology of proximity
Something powerful happens when you can see who’s nearby. It changes your behavior. You’re more likely to ask quick questions, offer help, or join a conversation in progress. The workplace becomes porous again - open to spontaneity.
This is why people still go to offices: not for the walls, but for the access. Katmai gives distributed teams that same sense of reach. It recreates the “across the hall” moment that sparks progress.
One of our customers - the head of McKinsey’s EU team - recently told us,“The fact that I can be across the hall and next door to my team across the continent has changed our working relationships and increased our speed.”
That’s the goal. To make work faster, more natural, and more human - by rebuilding the way we gather.
Try it for yourself
Next time you need to align on something that matters, skip the link chaos. Open your Katmai office, take a seat at your table, and watch how fast the conversation finds its rhythm.
Because collaboration doesn’t need a better calendar. It needs a better table.
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Dan Kosh
Chief Product Officer, Katmai