TECHNOLOGY In today’s business
environment where increasing efficiency while cutting costs is paramount, online meetings make sense. But, if you’re used to organising more traditional conferences, where do you start? Andy Hollis reports on taking the boardroom into cyberspace
SINCE THE DAWNof the television, meeting via screens has been a sought after high-tech solution to some of the problems of the traditional face-to-face conference. But sci-fi has become reality as many companies are now choosing to hold more of their meetings over the internet for ease of logistics and to save time and money. The convenience of being able to
attend meetings without travelling large distances was highlighted during the eruption of Iceland’s Eyjafallajökull vol- cano in April 2010. About 100,000 flights had to be cancelled due to the ash cloud, and many of Europe’s business commu- nity were unable to attend vital meetings. During this crisis, companies turned to videoconferencing to keep business run-
Virtual reality
ning smoothly. Workspace provider Regus saw a 180 per cent month-on- month increase in video communica- tion enquiries in April and May that year and interest had not waned a year later when enquiries were 75 per cent higher than before the ash cloud. Celia Donne, Regional Director at
Regus commented: “The worldwide dis- ruption caused by the volcanic ash cloud had a beneficial consequence: it taught businesses that video communication can replace time-consuming and costly air travel.” As a result, many companies in
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Asia and Europe were persuaded that they no longer need to cross continents to hold effective meetings. “At a time when companies of all sizes want to cut travel costs and shrink their carbon foot- print, why spend money on flights abroad when they can achieve the same results at a nearby video communication stu- dio?” Celia added. So, being an active and valuable online
meeting participant is becoming an ever more important workplace skill. And it seems that women are more clued up about it than men. In general women were
more likely to see the benefits of taking their meetings online than men, accord- ing to a survey of more than 2,500 Amer- ican businessmen and women. “These findings demonstrate that women are on the cutting edge of technology and are having a big impact on the way the mod- ern office is evolving,” said Holger Felgner, General Manager at TeamViewer, whose software can be used for online meetings and who commissioned the survey. But if you are used to organising tra-
ditional face-to-face meetings and your boss asks for you to organise one to be
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