Boring Meetings Suck: Get More Out of Your Meetings, or Get Out of More Meetings

The Very Basics

The following is the easy stuff—what you need to start implementing technology in your meetings. It's basic, so feel free to jump ahead as needed.

Wi-Fi	Broadband access in all meeting spaces should be readily available.
Phones	A better term would be mobile devices: They are our personal digital companions more than phones nowadays, and their possible uses in meetings are endless, from custom collaboration applications to note-taking. They are here to stay and to stay on. Live with it and welcome it. With so many ways to use mobile devices, what works best for you?
Texting	You will see references throughout this book to using texting for quick information gathering, meeting updates, and ways to get out of boring meetings. Don't fight it anymore. Use it to your advantage.
Web	Stop printing all the documents for distribution, and instead provide attendees with a Web URL from which they can download and print documents, as they desire. No projector? Place your presentation on the Web and provide attendees with the address. They can follow along on their phones as they wish.
iPad	As the iPhone drove the touch screen phone markets, the iPad is driving the touch screen mobile computing market. Dell is in the game as well with its Streak tablets, and Microsoft has plans of its own. This could very well become the type of mainstream apparatus that changes the face of meetings, just as the PC did in the 1980s.