E-Meetings A Growing Option,
Survey Says

By Christopher Hosford

MeetingNews.com

7/12/04

JULY 12, 2004 — Today's fears and uncertainties have influenced an increasing number of corporate executives to rethink their travel and meeting habits. Some have turned to various electronic conferencing technologies as an alternative to face-to-face meetings.

Those results are reflected in a new survey of 480 middle- and upper-management respondants. Of those, 63 percent said they were taking fewer trips because of war, terrorism, security inspections, new budgetary restraints and the like.

And those habits seem to be spreading. In a similar survey conducted in 2002 in the immediate wake of the 9/11 attacks, just 44 percent indicated they were restricting their trips.

The surveys were conducted by market research firm Wainhouse Research, of Brookline, Mass., and sponsored by Polycom, a large provider of electronic conferencing services based in Pleasanton, Calif.

In-person gatherings declined by about 7 percent from 2002 to 2004, according to the survey. Meanwhile, the use of webconferencing and videoconferencing, while still comprising a very small proportion of all meetings, rose 37.5 percent and 25 percent, respectively, in the past two years.

"You'll never replace face-to-face meetings," said Bob Swing, president and COO of IVCi (http://www.ivci.com), a Hauppauge, N.Y., company specializing in electronic conferencing solutions. "It's necessary to be there in person at conferences, conventions and trade shows. But with the events of 9/11 and afterwards, people are looking to alternatives."

As business travelers and planners have restricted travel, Swing said, they've become more familiar with electronic ways to fulfill the same needs.

The mini-surge in electronic conferencing has occurred most noticeably, according to the survey, in company training sessions.

For example, the use of audio training increased 34 percent, web-based training increased 15 percent, and videoconference training jumped 32 percent in the two years between the first and second study.

The Wainhouse-Polycom survey confirms some of the findings of a MeetingNews survey conducted late last year. In that study, 67.2 percent of 284 meeting buyers indicated their organizations' use of webconferencing and webcasting had increased that year.

It is unclear how well the Wainhouse-Polycom survey pertains to meetings as traditionally defined by the hospitality industry. Most web-based meetings, for example, are held for groups of 10 or fewer. Further, the survey also asked questions about "group calling" on mobile phones and PDAs, a topic perhaps of concern to individuals but not meeting groups.

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