Hybrid is Happening

Virtual Reality

Using Cisco TelePresence technology, both Marriott International and Starwood Hotels & Resorts have started to launch virtual meeting suites at properties in major business gateways this year. Among the first to get the technology is the W Chicago City Center, which unveiled one of the suites earlier this year.

The suites, which contain a wall of large, high-definition monitors with real-time audio, enable small groups of 20 or less to come meet with participants in one or more other telepresence locations.

Other Starwood locations with the suites include the Sheraton on the Park in Sydney, Australia, and are soon expected to include the Sheraton New York Hotel & Towers, Sheraton Kuwait, Sheraton Centre Toronto and Westin Los Angeles Airport. Marriott locations where suites are up and running include ...

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Hybrid is Happening

Technology is taking meetings beyond the room

By KATIE MORELL


Welcome to the era of the hybrid meeting. While meetings may still emanate from within a function room, they are increasingly extending far beyond the four walls to draw in audiences not subject to physical boundaries.

Whether through personal mobile devices or sophisticated virtual meeting suites, technology is revolutionizing the way meetings content is communicated—both in and out of the meeting room. Not only are people outside the room drawn in, but those within the room have access to a heightened degree of interaction.

While it once was considered taboo for attendees to check their cell phones during a keynote address, today it is expected that delegates tweet away, thereby personally participating in what is called the speech's "backchannel discussion."

Corbin Ball, meetings technology guru and CEO of Corbin Ball and Associates, observes that the tweeting phenomenon is part and parcel of the two biggest technology trends in recent memory.

"The two hottest trends that are happening right now are mobile technology and social media," he says. "In the 30 years I've spent watching technology, those are the two most explosive booms I've ever seen."

Starting with social media, Ball says the advent of Facebook has changed the face of meetings, if just from a marketing standpoint.

"I believe in the golden rule of marketing: Market where people already are," he says. "One in 14 people on this planet are on Facebook. The site is becoming the new inbox for many in the under-35 crowd. For meetings, it is about engaging people before events and making announcements."

According to Ball, mobile technology has completely changed the face of meetings.

"A mobile phone is morphing into a mini computer," he says. "Before, when you were at a meeting, you couldn't carry around a computer with you, but now mobile phones ....

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PCMA
Co-locates with Virtual Edge

One big indicator of growing interest in hybrid meetings is the recent announcement that PCMA's next Annual Meeting will be co-located with the Virtual Edge Summit, a two-day event filled with sessions and workshops pertaining to virtual meeting education.

PCMA's Annual Meeting will be held Jan. 9-11, 2011 ...

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