24 Hour Conference Ideas

Hello there -

As a topic of discussion, I thought it would be interesting to comment on how collaboration via conference calls and other mechanisms are used in corporate america today. As companies work globally, there is an increased need to a) work 24 hours a day and b) figure out ways for international teams to work virtually in real-time. There are many tools that enable companies to accomplish both - one tool is a Blackberry (I have one, I hate it), another is Microsoft's touchscreen laptop. The Blackberry chirps away at all hours of the night, letting you know that you’ve just received some really important email – the result is that you are always “on” – responding to the silliest things at any time you aren’t doing something else. The touchscreen laptop lets you quickly navigate through software programs and capture your notes/thoughts without editing the document. With the tap of the screen, you can send off your masterpiece to the next person who has to edit it. Other tools are surprising – IM’ing is the latest craze as companies are starting to see value in employees using a communication tool that is even quicker than email. An article about IM was in WSJ just this morning. Companies have been using in-house skype type systems for a while and as the technology improves, the use increases. The interesting thing is that the technology has improved so much that companies are opting for virtual meetings to close major deals and conduct major business, whereas before they would fly a group of folks out of town or overseas for such meetings. There are no delays in the connections, the sound quality is excellent and the participants are able to see each other with HD quality. Scott joked about setting up cameras and projectors so that Basekamp’s tables would look like an extension of the set-up in London – I’ve seen pictures of something like this being used by companies – it looked basically like the extension of a boardroom table. The jury is out on if any of these devices actually improves business, but I think the point is that corporate America is looking for ways to increase the productivity of distanced collaborations.

On the topic of meetings – I like noting the differences that are observed across industries. In more “conservative” industries like banking, oil and gas, financial services, consulting, ect – meeting still have a board room feel. There are distinct roles (notetaker, timekeeper, facilitator) that everyone has to abide by. The roles are important because companies feel like they increase the productivity of the meeting. I would personally like to be involved any meeting where the purpose is to NOT be productive! In less conservative industries, the companies are more “creative”. For instance, and advertising firm in Austin has a basketball court in the middle of their building. This serves as an alt space for holding meetings…they actually hold discussion while playing basketball – not that much different that our soccer match this past weekend. At my Dad’s old internet company, they specialized in breaking down traditional meeting roles – everyone was expected to do everything and they passed a ball around to signal who had the floor to speak.

All in all – what is interesting to me is exploring how business collaborates and how art worlds collaborate virtually and internationally. The forum is an example of a virtual collaboration…and it’s close to something that I use at work. Whenever we have a large project to work on that requires everyone to participate, we centralize the discussions on a website that also stores documents and notes from meetings. Certain people have certain “rights” to edit and to “check-out” documents for editing.

Again – this was just to put some thoughts out there around the 24 hour meeting…what do you guys think about sharing some of these ideas?