CBS-magazine February - March 2016 (EN)

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Nr 48 February - March 2016

Huddle Rooms Are Multiplying!

In the United States, the number of huddle rooms (small meeting rooms) is growing extremely rapidly.

Work spaces are changing. For many businesses, large conference rooms intended for meetings and videoconferences are being dropped in exchange of small simple and connected rooms.

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2016 Tendencies in Hotels The meeting also should be a friendly space for collaboration

Content Marketing takes over Destination Marketing

While it is very recent, it feels very antiquated

Traditional meeting rooms of yesterday sported leather and

By Christian Mutschlechner, Director Vienna Convention

ahead of their time?

mahogany‌ They gave an old-fashioned charm to the room.

On their way, they adapted, and featured the emergence of

Bureau

we considered hotels with a Wi-Fi connection as

Nowadays, the majority of clients expect this service from every hotel they visit!

PowerPoint presentations.

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already... Remember the good old times when

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Proven language solutions to develop your international business online On-site and online interpretation for your conference, meeting or online video chat

Translation of your presentations, web content, websites and online campaigns

Transcription and translation of audio and video recordings, subtitling, voice-over

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Not Using Digital Signage Is Costly!

Revisiting the Question and Answer Session Page 16

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The Unchangeable Rule Of Digital Signage Page 15 16

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Top 5 demands for the digital meeting

By Michael Leslie Pryner, Head of Advisory Services at ConsensusOnline The professional meeting- and event planners are constantly searching for new “showstoppers” for their next event. Often they dig into the abundance of applications from the digital world to find a new one, because applications can cover a wide range of needs.

But often it turns out to be a bigger challenge to implement new technological showstoppers than it is to choose them. If the meeting venue does not meet the needs in terms of digital infrastructure to support the technology, you won’t get far.

activities needs power for all the equipment, secondly the participants also require power to charge their tablets, mobile phones and computers if they are supposed to actively utilize these during the meeting.

Possibly there is astonishing few power sources and often the participants will approach your AV supplier to get power. This is not the best solution because a de-

Hybrid meetings (events that are attendable both online and in person) can be especially challenging depending on how high quality and reliability you expect of the video streaming to your online audience.

Some meeting owners are fine with using a steady web camera and an open window at the webpage for the streaming but it usually do not meet the expectations of the audience. It’s like watching a conference through a peephole.

A proper streaming setup requires a strong dedicated internet connection, meaning that you do not have to share the streaming connection with anybody else. It also requires a certain software framework for the transmission as well as a crew to execute it. You’ll need a producer and somebody to take care of audio, lights, camera(s) as well as the streaming.

Regardless of your technological choice; either apps for mobile phones or tablets, voting systems, social media or video streaming for your next event, there is five important aspects to consider. If you manage these five aspects at your next event, you have a good chance of succeeding with your digital initiatives.

Power It may seem obvious, but without sufficient power sources it can be problematic to execute an event with digital involvement.

Firstly, the supplier of the digital

fect charger from a participant can jeopardize an entire chain of power to the AV equipment.

This is why you have to consider how and where you offer the participants to charge their electronic devices if they need to during the day.

Wi-Fi Is the Wi-Fi on your meeting venue strong enough to cope with your activities?

When you visit the venue, they should be able to tell you if they have any areas with bad or no signal to the Wi-Fi. And you have to know how many IP addresses (units) their network setup can manage at once.

At some venues they have enough access points to handle data connectivity from all guests at once, but cannot handle if all traffic is di-

rected to the same target which is the case if you have a poll or Q&A.

Bandwidth When you and your guests’ units have gained access to the Wi-Fi at the meeting venue, the next question is how much bandwidth and speed you have available.

portunity to try it out themselves.

This is the best way to train them in how to cope with the most plausible challenges. It is also a very good idea to have a support station where assistance can be provided if needed.

E-mail: mlp@consensusonline.dk Website: www.consensusonline.dk

Wi-Fi is merely the network connection in house, but what is the capacity when you twist the traffic out of the house?

Previously the participants used to check their email during the event (downloading), but today the social media also encourages to post pictures and videos (upload), and at the same time you might be trying to push out questions, polls and pictures to the participants at once (up- and download).

This requires a quick and stable connection. The free connection you have access to in many hotels, is usually low speed. Furthermore, you’ll probably loose the connection if you aren’t active for more 10-15 minutes which will reduce the urge to participate in the digital game for sure.

Mobile signal If the guests experience problems with the Wi-Fi signal provided at the venue, they are likely to use their own 3G/4G/LTE connection on their devices. Suppliers of digital participant involvement often use the same type of connection as a back-up (a plan B).

That is why you must investigate in the mobile signal strength on the venue and preferably for each of the big telecompanies in your area. Are there any “dead” zones in the meeting rooms as you checked for with the Wi-Fi?

Training/ Support Instruct the crew about the technology that is being utilized for the event and give them the op-

Michael Leslie Pryner is Head of Advisory Services in ConsensusOnline which is one of the worlds leading companies in Audience Participation using Meeting Technology like iPads and Smart Phones. Headoffice is in Copenhagen, Denmark, but they operate all over the world. You can reach out for Michael Leslie Pryner at mlp@ConsensusOnline.dk or find him at LinkedIn.

Keizershoevestraat, 26 2610 Wilrijk - Belgium Tel: +32 478 948951 Fax: +32 3 2397516 Email: jp.thys@cbsmedia.biz Website: www.cbsmedia.biz Publication Manager Jean-Pierre Thys Editor Jean-Claude Lesuisse Translation Babel Ophoff Vertalingen Printing Lowyck Publisher Jean-Pierre Thys Keizershoevestraat, 26 2610 Wilrijk - Belgium Communications Business Solutions is published 5 times a year. Online registration forms on our website will be considered for a regular free copy.

Subscription Print: 55 € (Belgium) – 60 € (Europe), 85 € (other continents).

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Organize Your Meeting Room to Suit the Work of Your Collaborators

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umerous are the businesses that have “old school” meeting rooms.

They do the job and we can settle for them, but why not go a bit further?

This room is really good. It is finally well equipped, but the audiovisual materials are a bit outdated.

When Disorder Joins the Noise Of course, we agreed to replace the big 30 inches television with a new ultraflat 55 inches screen, but…

The participants are complaining: the sound used to be better (normal, the sound is less projected since the screen is “slim lined”), and the image is somewhat blurry. We need to mention that the device still runs on VHS tapes and an old U-Matic.

The computers and tablets that collaborators use don’t have big screens. One needs to make a major effort to see anything on the small displays of these personal devices. The situation usually turns ridiculous since the graphics and visuals, that are supposed to help comprehension, add disorder to the noise.

The flipchart works well. However, the participants try to copy schemes and ideas on their notepads as fast as possible, which

makes them lose track of the ideas discussed, putting form over content.

As for audioconferences, they are limited to the speaker function of different smartphones… A tin can effect is guaranteed.

After all this, there is an Internet connection, but only cabled, so it is practically unusable for tablets and smartphones, except for desktop systems.

From Caricature to a Profitable Arrangement Of course it’s a caricature! Your meeting room is much more modern, we’re sure of it. But sometimes, making the problem look worse than it actually is makes you realize that more than a simple paintjob needs to be done!

Images, sound, information, everything is digital these days. Did you integrate digital technologies to these different domains?

Have you “unified” them so they work well together?

Now let’s ask another question and add it to the equation: have you organized your meeting room to suit the work of your collaborators?

Steelcase We live in a world where communication is key. Allowing your meeting room to be open to the world (your clients, your prospects, your employees that live far away) is of utmost importance. Videoconference is important here, along with making sure that all the devices that your collaborators use have a good connectivity to the system.

No need to be skeptical here, these arrangements will quickly become profitable by an increased performance from your employees.

When we describe the ideal meeting rooms in our articles, we know that they are goals (sometimes distant) to reach, but when these rooms exist, they deliver an exceptional return on investment.

Wireless Connections: Expectations and Restrictions A group of integrators recently searched to evaluate the expectations of users when it comes

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to wireless collaboration tools and transmission of content.

hey searched to determine what was most important for their clients in these domains: quality, function, ease of use, and cost.

“Staying Practical” Generally speaking, transmitting a high resolution video by streaming in a conference room might be a problem because of the limited bandwidth. But most of the time, the content of presentations in conference rooms is made of static material.

In practicality, allowing different participants to plug in their material and showing it on different screens is judged more important than being true to the quality of the video.

Of course, today’s technology often allows us to stay true to the high resolution of the video, but the important part is still to “stay practical” and that commodity usually wins when opposed to “high” quality.

Therefore, it won’t surprise you that users also prefer ease of use. As a matter

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of fact, it is inconceivable to have to fight with a stubborn connection that leaves the screen black in the middle of a meeting! The importance of this point is even greater with the emergence of BYOD in businesses, since collaborators use their own devices, such as smartphones, notebooks, and tablets more and more often.

Taking Precautions In the Wi-Fi world, it is useful to know that the bandwidth drops really quickly the further away you are from an access point.

Connections that require a high band-

width (generally for video transfers) will have to be as close as possible to the device. Keeping this restriction in mind usually considerably reduces losses such as interruptions or image jumps.

It is also possible to place “repeaters” at different locations in the meeting room to maximize bandwidth.

Today’s high speed Wi-Fi works on the 802.11ac technology with channels of 80 MHz that allow a larger stream of data.

This technology is three times faster than the last norm (802.11 n). However, having the most efficient access point is not the only requirement. The devices that are connected to it need to be able to take advantage of the high speeds procured by exploiting the same frequencies and channels. In everyday use, the high quality access point will send the maximum amount of data that the connected device can “support”: it will automatically connect itself to the best available channel for an optimal performance.

The access point sometimes uses beamforming, which targets the signal towards the connected device.

ICCA The result is a stronger, clearer, and faster Wi-Fi signal.

The meeting also should be a friendly space for collaboration Traditional meeting rooms of yesterday sported leather and mahogany… They gave an oldfashioned charm to the room. On their way, they adapted, and featured the emergence of

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PowerPoint presentations.

owadays, they stopped whining.

The real new technologies changed almost every aspect of the meeting room.

“A Beautiful Island Far Away”…

The old-fashioned charm of yesterday is done, the pompous use of the room is also done. The meeting room must be used frequently, and it needs to be the cream of the crop! It should not exist as “a beautiful island far away”. In fact, it should be based on the look of the office we work in every day. Users want to be able to share content wirelessly like they do on their personal computer or tablet. We have to immediately find our identity, it shouldn’t be a “step towards the unknown” or a specific experience distinct from others.

The meeting room also should be a friendly space for collaboration with integrated communication tools.

Of course, the best realisations even use the walls to project images in large formats, using the “videowall” techniques. The effect is spectacular, and since meeting rooms are generally used to receive outside visitors or clients, the ICCA

impact is exceptional and the business’ brand is reinforced. In the meanwhile, LCD screens are mostly available in medium sizes, but after the maximum size has been passed, it is clear that different technologies need to be looked at, such as projection, retroprojection (which eliminates the sound and heat while, ideally, the device should be in a separate space), and image walls.

On top of this, many rooms have many individual smaller screens, allowing collaborators to work together on graphics or data.

luxe huddle room” The equipment of the meeting room must also make sure that participants hear as well as they see. In larger rooms, the echo effect must be avoided by rounding the walls.

Acoustics have a key role to play, even more today because many meetings have distant interlocutors by videoconference or else. In these conditions, the physical participants need to be able to speak and do interventions without ruining the sound in the headphones of virtual participants… or in the ears of others. In this case, directional microphones are very important, along with the possibility to automatically cut sound when the person is not speaking to avoid unnecessary

Prysm

noises.

The furniture must also take into account this restriction by eliminating all squeaking or scraping noises while insuring optimal comfort.

Finally, the lighting must be uniform without being blinding. Indirect lighting is often chosen. Windows, while they are very nice in some circumstances, must have blinds or curtains to stop the sunrays from ruining a comfortable projection.

No Squeaking or Scraping!

A well-equipped meeting room can also be made profitable by doing more than hosting meetings. It can also be used as a calling room or as a room where decisions are made, like a sort of “de-

Steelcase

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Videoconference: User Experience Is Primordial!

Collaborators work more and more out of the business’ physical location. Teleworking takes many forms: while it obviously happens from home, it also happens on the road, in the businesses

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of clients, etc.

usinesses try to reduce operational costs, which means mobility fees are the first in line to be looked at, and at the same time, they ask for a clear and evident return on investment before adopting new technologies.

Essential Total Simplicity Videoconferencing is the answer to all these preoccupations. It offers important benefits to businesses and their collaborators. However, not all types of videoconferences are the same and to guarantee the best return on investment, the decision makers must choose the best solution for their needs.

Evidently, the chosen videoconference system will have to be easy to use and correctly integrated in the existing communication platforms. They will also need no (or little) maintenance, especially if it’s a system that will be used daily. It is particularly important to make sure that communication by videoconference must be as easy to set up as a simple phone call or the writing of an email.

When we talk about ease of use, we mean “intuitive” use. It is even more important now since collaborators evolved in a world of

“apps” that they use without ever reading instructions. It needs to be even simpler with the stigma of difficulty that videoconferencing carries! The interface should be of total simplicity. The single press of a button should initiate the videoconference, without any training required or having to contact IT services of the business.

Steelcase

Integration of Unified Communications To respond to the extreme mobility of the personnel, the chosen videoconference solution needs to allow for all these things: the user needs to be able to connect from anywhere with any device (notebook, smartphone, tablet), and also needs to be able to establish communication on any network and bandwidth. The result needs to be the best communication possible for the environment used. The user with an HD connected device will certainly have a better experience than the one with an iPad application at the airport, but both of them should have the best result available considering their connection and device.

The videoconference will also need to be integrated in “unified communications” (UC).

Voice, email, instant messages, audio, web, and social media must be taken into account.

In fact, a collaborator will need to be able to launch a videoconference at the booting of an application without having to quit their work environment, improving productivity.

Videoconferencing can go downhill in many ways, such as the image quality going down.

Telepresence, which is immersive, offers to participants the illusion of being in the same room. High definition dedicated rooms are used for group reunions and strategic sessions. Systems based on PCs are perfect for fast contacts, while tablets and smartphones are mostly used by the sales force that needs contact on the spot while they’re on the move.

Huddle Rooms Are Multiplying!

In the United States, the number of huddle rooms (small meeting rooms) is growing

W

extremely rapidly.

ork spaces are changing. For many businesses, large conference rooms intended for meetings and videoconferences are being dropped in exchange of small simple and connected rooms.

The Multifunction Space Has Imposed Itself These huddle rooms usually have a video screen, a microphone, a phone system, and a center table with four seats (sometimes less). They may have better technology, depending on the employees’ needs.

What is the Reason for its Popularity?

Businesses often aim for a “multifunctional space” structure. In fact, a growing number of collaborators work from a distance, from home, many days a week, sometimes even full-time. Furthermore, the global market is now open to businesses of all sizes, which means that employees travel more often and that their working hours usually follow the hours of their international clients. Less workers occupy the office during the regular office hours. In short, the spaces that were dedicated to collaborators at the office are now useless.

The multifunctional space allows employees to install cubicles and work tables in the room without losing space for personal offices.

When teleworkers come back to the business, they use these huddle rooms instead of the now defunct offices. These same huddle rooms are also of use for all resident employees when the teleworkers are absent.

Versatility and Efficiency Guaranteed!

Steelcase

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Huddle rooms are perfect for impromptu meetings as well as

presentations to small groups in a calm environment. They are also a welcoming place for brainstorming meetings. In the case of a collaborator meeting with a client or a prospect, they can use the huddle rooms exactly in the same way you would use a traditional office. Teleworkers can use the rooms to establish quick and private videoconferences.

We can see that the most important aspect of huddle rooms is their versatility.

Theoretically, we could imagine a traditional meeting room occupied simultaneously by multiple small work groups. One group would do brainstorming on the whiteboard, another could distribute information to its members and a third could group up in front of a notebook and discuss the agenda with a teleworker.

This situation would slow down work efficiency since the three groups would inconvenience each other mutually. If, to fix this problem, we only allowed one group at a time in a traditional room, waiting times would multiply because the second group could only start working when the first group would be done, and so forth.

The huddle room solution fixes the problem elegantly by putting each group in a closed, intimate, and private space.

The Meeting Room Is Not Dead, It Is Now Virtual Today, we realise that meetings are changing. Real time communication and elaborate collaboration tools, brought forward by the millennium generation, are slowly becoming the norm. These digital age natives, before they even step in the business world, are attached to new computer tools and their possibilities in terms of productivity and efficiency.

T lized.

he number of meetings an employee has to assist each week augments at the same time as these meetings are virtua-

According to the results of a study published in 2015 by Wainhouse Research named «the Collaborative Enterprise», only 40% of participants, on average, are physically present during a meeting. Others connect themselves in different ways. 35% are installed in an individual work space, 18% are teleworking, and 7% are travelling.

Of all the tools used to be connected, video is becoming more and more popular to bring together geographically dispersed teams since it promotes a high level of engagement and a larger implication from all participants.

The same study indicates that 63% of interrogated professionals say they would use videoconference if the meeting room has it equipped.

However, it is far from being available to everyone. Frost and Sullivan estimate that there is 60 to 70 million meeting rooms in the world, but only 5% have adequate material for videoconference.

This percentage is very low considering that videoconferences are modern solutions that are very far from existent costly telepresence rooms, and they let you equip any room with high quality equipment at a low cost.

These solutions work like any modern peripheral and require no additional driver installations.

They are compatible with most collaboration platforms on the market (Skype, Google Han-

gout, Vidyo, Zoom, etc.), which makes it easier for the IT team. Effectively, it is frequent for users to use platforms that are not supported by the business because of the presence of a client or a partner on X or Y network. Some of these solutions, like the ConferenceCam Connect from Logitech, even offer additional functionalities such as screen sharing and Bluetooth call compatibility, which lets you modernise any meeting room for a few hundred euros.

The number of weekly meetings in a rapid growth As a guideline, in the conclusions of the study «Global View: Business Video Conferencing Usage and Trends» directed by Redshift Research in 2013, it was established that in 2016, the videoconference would take over the email and the phone as the most popular mean of communication in the busiVirtualization of meetings: less than half of the employees on site ness world. or physically present

About Logitech Logitech makes products that are useful for everyone’s everyday life, connecting them to digital experiences that are important to them. 30 years ago, Logitech began to connect people to computers. Today, Logitech conceives products that reunite people through video, music, gaming, and information technologies. Created in 1981, Logitech International is a public limited company listed on the Swiss stock market SIX (LOGN) and on Nasdaq (LOGI). Reach Logitech on the website www.logitech.com, on their blog and on Twitter @Logitech.

Patricia Gomez: Sales Manager, Southern Region Video Collaboration @ Logitech

Equipment of meeting rooms: videoconference in the lead of employee expectations

Logitech : N°,Stand Logitech @ISE : Booth : 9-B125 Logitech France 168-170, Rue Raymond Losserand 75014 – Paris France Website : http://business.logitech.com

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Walking Meetings? They Work!

Staying locked in an office all day while the sky is blue and the sun is shining... It’s hell!

H

owever, going outside to breathe some fresh air improves the mood, and physical exercise is excellent for coming up with new ideas... Why not do walking meetings?

mation.

Having such an unorganized discussion is extremely rich from a relationship standpoint.

Removing the Barrier

The interlocutor is approached in a more intimate and personal way than in a meeting room.

The idea is simple, and trying it will convince you of its efficiency. Every day, transform two 30 minute meetings into two 30 minute walks and you will feel the difference. You will feel a physical difference, since you will walk a total of 5 hours a week, and you will also see results from a professional perspective!

The pace to adopt, unless spoken about beforehand, will be the one of a pleasant walk, not the one of a run,

CEO IBM: Virginia Rometty CEO Apple: Tim Cook since the objective isn’t to work a sweat.

Leaving the traditional meeting room changes everything. It’s as if you remove a barrier.

Walking with someone keeps you connected to them in the conversation, whether it is intense or not.

Of course, the walking meeting cannot replace every type of meeting.

Some meetings require the use of presentation tools or must host a large group of people that would be very hard to take out of the meeting room!

The conversation will be about a predefined subject, but will offer a lot of manoeuver for improvisation.

When it comes to the smartphone, it is best to forget about it for the time of the meetICCA ing, even if some prefer to keep it in their hand to record the good ideas coming out of the conversation. Ideally, it is best to leave the phones aside and simply remember the ideas!

Logistically, it is a good idea to warn the person you plan to take a walk with, at least the

first time.

This will give them the chance to wear comfier walking shoes and bring a jacket better adapted to outside conditions than the usual businessman outfit that is common in traditional meeting rooms.

ICCA

To succeed a walking meeting, you must set an itinerary that fits in the usual slots: 15, 30, 45 or even 60 minutes. Avoid loud or overcrowded areas. It is a good idea to have a “goal” to reach. For example, you will walk to “enjoy a good coffee”. Obviously, you must also take weather into account.

Extremely Rich from a Relationship Standpoint According to specialists (and from a logical standpoint), the walking meeting is best with two to three participants. They are effective during job interviews, for example, or for direct reports, or even for informally catching up on missed infor-

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David Cameron - Barack Obama

Return On Investment: The Cornerstone of Video Deployment In Business Video streaming is without a doubt one of the most interesting technologies to setup in a business.

Is It Worth The Cost?

Effectively, business leaders can use video streaming to diffuse a unique and coherent message, on a global scale and in real time -or on demand-, to their employees.

Business trainers can also take advantage of it to improve the training and learning of workers.

The marketing team can use it to enlarge the reach of their product launch online and to improve their campaigns, or again, to make their websites more attractive.

But is it worth the cost? Partisans of streaming are always searching for tools to quantify return on investment because they want tangible proof that the invested money effectively produces an interesting and measurable ROI. Video streaming is not sheltered from related economic laws. If this technology does not let the business augment income, improve productivity of workers, or permit a reduction of costs, a lot of leaders will think twice before deploying it!

Everyone agrees on this base principle. The thing to identify is the commercial value generated by the deployment of video streaming and to evaluate it in contrast to its cost of deployment. It must be noted that there is little consensus concerning the way of measuring efficiency of this technique. In the studies/researches done, the respondents talk of productivity improvement and reduction of travelling fees. Everything depends on the domain of activity.

The Virtuous Circle Is Breaking It is obvious that every technological solution that reduces travelling fees, especially for global businesses, creates substantial savings. It is not only travelling fees: when employees stay where they work, they save time and are more

productive than when they work in airports and travelling. It is easy to quantify this point by transforming it into cold hard cash.

Business leaders, instead of travelling to different locals of business to diffuse their messages, can address every collaborator at once, reducing the total necessary time to communicate their message. They save time to devote themselves to their main task.

Skills, experience, hands-on experience and expertise are rare commodities for a business.

“Skill transfer” is generally done by veterans instructing new recruits. This virtuous circle can be broken if, for some reason, a key collaborator quits the business. Video streaming can solve this problem by “capturing” these skills and sharing them with all collaborators at once.

This is worth… a pretty penny!

Reducing Unpleasant Turn-Over Business interior communication gains a lot from video streaming. It allows higher management to transmit their message to the workers.

The value here can correspond to the supposition that collaborators are at least 1% more productive when they develop better comprehension of objectives and the business’ strategy.

Thus, you only have to multiply the total of the salaries and social advantages by one percent and it gives an (minimal!) estimation of the advantage that streaming provides.

The satisfaction of collaborators and the turnover rate can give other indications of ROI. The business interior communication aims to offer to collaborators a better idea of the objectives pursued and of their own roles in the organisation. If you notice a reduction of turn-overs after the adoption of streaming, it is an important return on investment, since it allows the business to save on the hiring of new workers (identification of candidates, interview time, training,

etc.). About the hiring process, using video to record interviews that were done face to face or on webcam (Skype style) is particularly rich, since we can share these images with different people in the business that may be interested.

A pertinent preselection can be done rapidly.

The return on investment is also easy to calculate here since you only need to put numbers on the time saved by different managers, considering the number of candidates were eliminated by the process.

Training, A Key Branch Training is a branch that pairs very well with streaming. It is a key branch for video. The “on-demand qualification” is a nice example of it. The ideal would be that the personnel would theoretically be competent in every branch of the business, but we know very well that this is totally impossible. Here, by adopting a realistic stance, the business can offer to collaborators “video tutorials on-demand” which will qualify them, in a short time, for doing a task or another in a specific way. The return on investment can be calculated by the number of real training hours saved, for the trainer and for the collaborator, considering they can only be trained in a very specific branch they must learn.

Let’s note once again the intervention of specialists who can, remotely, give their precisions and recommendations, in meetings as well as training.

The examples are plenty and we cannot talk about every single one of them in this short article. Many approaches can be used to justify the advantages of deploying video streaming in a business.

Either way, each business will need to analyse their situation by considering their own objectives and their own performance indicators.

Streamdis E-mail: askit@streamdis.eu Website: www.streamdis.eu/webinar

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2016 Tendencies in Hotels While it is very recent, it feels very antiquated already... Remember the good old times when

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we considered hotels with a Wi-Fi connection as ahead of their time?

owadays, the majority of clients expect this service from every hotel they visit! Technology evolves at a very fast rate, and the norm is now to offer guests digital solutions to augment the user’s experience while at the same time helping hotelkeepers manage their hotels.

When the Information Booth is... a Smartphone!

Today’s travellers, especially young generations, are completely ready to sacrifice the antiquated customer service on the altar of efficiency. They would rather use their smartphones to pay for the services.

The hotel industry must take this into account. Self-checkout solutions are currently revolutionizing reception, check-ins and check-outs. 85% of clients prefer this solution to traditional signups.

al of hotels’ reception desks. It is simply the smartphone.

This idea is based on the fact that more travellers constantly use their smartphones and that they are strongly interested in the convenience of the actions allowed on the device. For example, Accor (Sofitel, Ibis) recently set up a mobile signup in a large number of their establishments. The check-in is done online via an app, and the user gets a welcoming message when their room and key are available. When he arrives to the hotel, he is welcomed by the staff and receives his key. No more paperwork, and in certain cases, no more reception desk. Marriott is also using this scheme and offers a mobile signup in 500 locations.

smartphone or tablet. This saves time and prevents headaches for both the guests and the hotel staff.

In 2016, these applications will gain even more functionalities to streamline the communication to the guests and from the guests.

Let’s note that these applications do not have to be specific to the hotel. Smaller businesses, boutiques, and hotels can make use of third party applications with numerous options.

Saving Time and Avoiding Headaches

The interactive hotel information booth, already implemented in most places, is basically the same system that we use in airports. At the Yotel New York, they even have a robot that picks up and stores your luggage.

However, innovation keeps happening. A medium smaller and more efficient than an information booth is now at the dispos-

The check-in and the check-out processes are only the beginning of this spreading phenomenon. Hotels’ mobile apps allow travellers to add services, modify their reservations, and even more. Will the guest store his luggage after he checks-out? Will he stay an extra night? Does he need an extra bed in the room? In each of these cases, the traveller can order these services through a good mobile application, either on his

Virtual… Concierge Concierge service is evolving towards the virtual world. With these applications, it will be possible to find information on the destination, to obtain the itinerary, to ask for recommendations and services. The James Hotels from Chicago and New York are at the forefront in this domain. You can receive all necessary information about the hotel on your phone and it is possible to communicate with the staff to ask questions about the area and the region, just like you would do with a traditional concierge.

One of the advantages, aside from convenience, is that the traveller can start his research before starting his trip. Let’s note that the applications do not “kill” the job of the concierge: it merely gets rid of an important part of their work that is mundane and repetitive to let them have a better and deeper interaction with their clients.

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Content Marketing takes over Destination Marketing

By Christian Mutschlechner, Director Vienna Convention Bureau

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f we are looking back to the golden years of congresses and conferences money was not really an issue, sponsors were around, high level „touristic“ elements dominated the official programmes of scientific meetings, receptions, gala dinners, extensive official accompanying persons programmes etc. A paradise for destinations to market the key assets of their offer, attendance to scientific meetings was partly driven simply by the appeal of the destination and the marketing of the organizers was based very often on the top social programme highlights. And there was an obvious discrepancy between the number of people registering for the event and the number of those really attending sessions. Accompanying Persons have been key as contributors to the budget but also for the social aspect of the meeting.

But the scene changed dramatically – in the medical world compliance rules and regulations were introduced, the behaviour of participants changed, the increasing interest in education, networking and a generetaion and gender change among participants – all these elemetns were driving forces for change in the perception of scientific meetings. Since the beginning of this century the importance and the value of the old fashioned way of destination marketing is diminishing. Destinations still need to provide and offer the infrastructure but the marketing to the potential participants and the convincing arguments to attend moved away from destination marketing to a new way of „selling“ attendance to scientific meetings. „I do not want to see a single participant in my meeting due to the destination appeal, they have to come only for the content“ a meeting planner of a scientific associations said. „Ladies and Gentlemen, the future of our meeting is based on content marketing and not on destination marketing“ a recent quote of a CEO of a scientific association.

We are already quite familiar with the saying „content is king“ but we will see and see already that working, promoting the content offered in a scientific meeting will become the leading argument when it comes to promote an event. The participant of today and even more for tomorrow analyses what type of content is offered in a meeting but there is also a growing interest in how

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the content is delivered.

The future is the „Designed Content Transfer“ – the way content is presented, not only by the presentor but also in which environment, which interactive elements are added and how involved the individual participant can be.

Time is over where organizers can successfully promote their event with London Tower, Bridge, Tour Eiffel Paris or Vienna State Opera – successful meetings will promote key note speakers presenting world leading scientific findings, new forms of knowledge transfer and new and different ways of learning experiences.

Those associations trying out new forms of content transfer will survive in a long term.

Those who stick to the old fashioned way of running meetings will probably get in trouble.

Human knowledge increases exponentially every day - the role of scientific meetings is to grab the right content and to promote this content to the potential participants – in a changing economical environment, the role of the individ-

Christian Muschlechner ual participants becomes more evident than in the best. There is a clear trend that participants choose attending a meeting based on content and individual learning exepriences and from the organizers point of view – yes you need to deliver best content and market it properly as the participant finally pays the bill by paying the registration fee.

Content marketing means also that associations have to become more proactive in promoting their events and a new approach in „selling“ has to be found, three hours intense learning with a leader during a scientific meeting pays off by far more in the future than trying to convince attendance with a sexy destination.

Prepare Well For The Interpretation Of An Event, A Conference, A Congress

Did you decide to setup an event that will need interpretation? We know it well: there is nothing like

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communicating in the participants’ mother tongue to put all the chances on your side.

owever, the event needs to be well prepared for the interpretation to be optimal. There are a few measures to take before the event‌

tated and precise. Example: information, discussion, vote, etc. Generally, these documents will be given to the interpreters in their booths.

Inform The Interprets Beforehand

Essential Education Of The Speakers

The first step will be to figure out which languages the reunion really needs. This depends on the number of people speaking different languages. It will be up to you to decide how many people need to be in a group to have an interpreter for their mother tongue.

From this moment, and as soon as the interpretation society gives their agreement, the participants will need to be informed of the languages they can speak or listen to.

The host of the reunion will help prepare the interpreters before the reunion begins. It is important for him to be clear, and he must not hesitate to do a slightly longer explanation if needed.

In the same spirit, the interpreters will need to be supplied with technical terms, abbreviations, and jargon that is used in your line of work.

The timing is important: it is advised to indicate how much time is expected to be used for each item on the agenda. Each item should be anno-

It is advised, before the event, to have a short interview with the interpreters to inform them properly and look to maximise their implication in the event.

The technical aspects (microphones, booths, possibly cameras) have to be mastered and used to their desired goal. The intervention of a specialised society is essential: no amateurism can be tolerated.

The speakers need to respect a few base rules that are useful in every reunion, such as speaking audibly and concisely while avoiding interminable speeches. The flow must be constant and without

rush. They will be asked to speak, if possible, in their mother tongue. A small but important tip: it is preferable to speak than to read.

All the screens will need to be visible from

Brahler every interpretation booth, because even if the interpreters should have a printed version of the presentations, they still need to have a good view of the screens.

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Move On to a Client Oriented Approach!

A business without clients? There is no such thing! Despite this, a lot of businesses forget that good customer support and good listening skills are fundamental elements to satisfy existing clients and

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to grow as a business.

oo often will you see collaborators forget that the existence of clients is the reason they have a job and get paid every month! Customers are the blood that keeps the heart of the business pumping.

Creating “Client Obsession” Competition is ferocious: if they want to change supplier, clients will be received with open arms by other businesses that may not propose a radically different product or service, but that will listen to the needs of the client by paying attention to the details that matter.

Let’s remember a simple rule: an existing client takes much less effort to keep loyal compared to the effort it takes to transform an ordinary

global image that the client has of the business.

Interacting Subtly With Your Customers To create a “client ethic”, it may be useful to detect which collaborators in your business have the “customer” fiber in their DNA, to train them further towards this goal, and to count on them to preach the good word to others.

This will facilitate the global “culture” change process in your busi-

ness.

Thereafter, during the hiring process, the business will have to identify applicants that are naturally “client oriented” and to favour them when comparing two applicants of equal skill.

Being client oriented means thinking about new mediums of communication to interact with the clients. Videos, for example, are a way of having rich interactions (containing body language) and creating a personal connection.

These aspects are not possible with phone calls or emails. It is also very important that the client has a contact person that is as fixed as possible in the business, a “Mr. Business”, a “One Stop Shop man”, whom he can contact to solve problems and explain in detail his needs.

Electronic newsletters and posts on the webpage of the business (for example a “client oriented” community) will reference observations made by clients that were taken into account. This will update all the customers and also broadcast a dynamic image of a business that knows how to evolve and adapt.

prospect into a new client. A consequence of keeping your clients satisfied is that they will spread the good word around and, consequently, bring in new clients. This phenomenon is now amplified by social media.

Changing current schools of thought is not easy. The first step is to find a way to put the client in the thoughts of the collaborators. This could be called the “client obsession”. Every collaborator, at every level of the business, from operator to accountant services (therefore not only at marketing or commercial level), must understand that their work influences client satisfaction.

An example would be how the delay before the phone is answered and the first 30 seconds of communication are essential. It is at that moment that the client comes up with his own opinion of the business.

Another example would be how the look and the wording of the invoices participate in the

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The Unchangeable Rule Of Digital Signage During the integration of digital display solutions into businesses, hotels,

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congresses and conventions, there is one unchangeable rule…

imple and vital: the success or failure of digital signage is linked not to the technique, but to the content.

Content is key.

We Are Conceived To Capture Movement The people that will see your messages do not care about the material you have installed: they care about what they see and hear and how messages apply –or don’t– to them.

To obtain good content that works well, some major blunders need to be avoided.

First, all static images will need to be removed. The content must constantly be “in movement” since it attracts the eye and also the attention. Our eyes and brain are conceived to capture movement. It is easy to prove this by taking a look at how quickly we notice when a fly is close to us. Take note that even still images can be in movement, it is only a question of creativity: they can be set as a puzzle or zoomed in, for example, without exaggeration.

The freshness of the content is very important. The information dispensed needs to be up to date. A digital signage system is

conceived to refresh the information when you wish, so… do it! Whether it’s weather, agenda, stock market, it doesn’t matter, but the content must LIVE and dispense USEFUL information.

The Ultimate Goal: Provoking Interaction

As soon as possible, you will need to motivate your spectators to interact. It is the ultimate goal. There are many ways to achieve this: pressing on a touchscreen when possible, using a smartphone to go on a website or to send a text message,

As you know it, a paper magazine owes a lot to its graphic designers. It’s the same for digital signage: everything must be well balanced and conceived!

And… also conceived to accept updates and movement, which goes hand in hand.

If you use a wall of screens, the space between the screens needs to be taken into account to avoid important information disappearing, or to avoid the results ending up unsightly, such as, for example, stretching an image without holding into account its proportions. It is often better to fill each screen separately with pertinent information. Either way, it is once again the job of graphic designers.

3M Touch Systems ISE: Hall 8 - Booth N350 Website: www.3M.co.uk/Touch/Contact physically going to a specific place, or by… simply buying something. At the same time, in terms of this return, you will be able to quantify the impact that information has compared to another set of information.

Revisiting the Question and Answer Session In the conception of a meeting or congress, it is common to have a question and

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answer session.

his session can be a very powerful tool, but sadly, we tend to underestimate it. Here’s a few tips and tricks (to look at with moderation!) that will strengthen the session!

More Pressure on the Speaker!

Generally, the question and answer session is after the speaker’s speech. In reality, we could do the opposite: the crowd would ask questions right at the start so that the speaker could adapt his speech to the needs and desires of the participants. A logical consequence would be that the participants would pay more attention to what will be said since the speaker is answering their questions.

This could be done in a delayed manner, before the meeting itself, and computer applications would allow it to become a reality.

Of course, this also puts more pressure on the speaker, who must now be able to adapt his speech, even improvise, which is a feat big names can easily pull off.

Another thing: one of the challenges speakers face is to adapt their speech to the participants’ level of knowledge. To fine tune it, it could be interesting to have a question and answer session mid-way through the speech.

this… After a question from the crowd, the speaker could ask the participants if they can help find a good answer. Nothing is more powerful than a group of people to find answers and solutions! In this scenario, the speaker basically transforms into a “facilitator”.

The Q and A session must be adapted to the crowd and realistic: many of them are bad excuses for interacting with the crowd. Giving only 5 minutes to 200 people for questions is ridiculous. If there is a planned Q and A session, it needs to be done correctly to properly connect with the crowd.

A good Q and A session must, just like any meeting, have an objective. This means that the questions must be going in a certain direction. For example, it should not be: “Are there any questions?”, but instead: “Are there any questions on the theory of the speaker?”.

Last piece of advice: keep the people that always want to speak on the backburner. These big talkers are always present in every meeting or congress. You obviously have to give them their time to speak, but you also must know when to move on and give a chance to other participants.

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Yet another suggestion: the speaker speaks, since he is considered an expert in his subject. But if you think about it, participants are also experts in their specific needs! Why couldn’t we replace the usual rhythm (30-45 minutes of speech for 10 minutes of Q and A) by the opposite (10 minutes of speech and the rest in Q and A)?

When The Answers Come From… The Group!

“The group has the answer”! If we admit that the participants are able to ask relevant questions, why not have confidence in them and listen to their answers? Let’s explain

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Not Using Digital Signage Is Costly!

Digital signage, or dynamic signalisation, is a relatively new concept in the world of publicity, which has always reasoned in terms of printed media, radio spots, and TV.

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f course, the business is at first afraid of the idea and often estimates that setting up a digital signage network costs way more than printed communication. This is true if we compare its price to a SINGLE printing. Long term, the situation radically changes.

production begins, there is no turning back.

Every error, typo, or failure in the concept, immediately noticed, cannot be corrected.

Since there is a delay for producing the material, the information diffused may even be obsolete by the time it is ready for publication.

The Cost of the Absence of Digital Signage

A Win-Win Situation!

Using digital signage has many specific adICCA

vantages. Here’s a statistic: 76% of American consumers want to enter a new store based on the attraction and efficiency of the messages diffused by digital signage. 68% also declared to have made a purchase based on a specific message that caught their attention.

Obviously, the opposite can also happen: badly conceived messages can do more wrong than right. Today’s consumers have the habit of using seducing mobile devices that display a lot of messages to catch their eye. Therefore, the outside stimuli needs to be particularly interesting to attract their attention. Nothing is better to destroy a brand than messages strung together by ama-

Digital signage, on its side, allows you to keep updated the visual presence of a business in real time. It offers this flexibility by giving you complete control of the message.

It is even possible to update the content at any given moment. This way of communication pays itself off. Additionally, logos, signs, and conception sheets are reusable, contrarily to their paper counterpart. Some smart businesses even sell publicity space on their digital platform to non-competing announcers to generate a new form of income.

But the advantages of digital signage are not limited to cost reduction only. The styles of presentation, evolving screens, and movement can attract more crowds than the old paper posters. In waiting lines, it has been proved that the usage of digital signage reduces by 40% the subjective impression of waiting time. This is totally a win-win situation: clients feel like wait times are reduced, and businesses have an audience that is “captive” to their messages. This reinforces the engagement of the client, the fidelity of the client to the brand, and improves the general shopping experience.

Digital signage can be used to help the client when he is making his purchases. Interactive expositions strategically placed, special offers, technical specifications, or even demonstrations of the device and its use, everything is possible. The evolution of screens and the movements are an efficient way to attract the attention of potential clients. Research has shown that digital signage can increase sales by 40% (!) in certain stores.

A “Green” Product, Good for the Environment! teurs.

Instead of wondering about the cost of a digital signage strategy, it is more important to ask yourself the cost of not having this system in place.

Advantages of Digital Are Important.

The realisation of a traditional print is a slow and labor intensive process. The development, the conception and the different preliminary tests can take weeks, even months. This means that planning the communication material for a congress – the retail – in a hotel is a very large task. Once the

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Using digital signage is also creating less waste. Traditional print systems consume a ton of material, and once the campaign is over, it begins all over again. It is impossible to update these posters or paper documents. However, digital signage can be reused as often as needed since it is easily modified to promote different products.

What is shown can be changed at the drop of a hat, instantly.

This intelligent management of resources puts digital signage in the category of “green” products, ecologically “good for the environment”, when we compare it to “traditional” methods. Obviously, like any other material, digital signage systems have a

determined lifetime. The components (copper, aluminum, plastics) are easily recyclable, and, on top of this, many digital signage systems were made from recycled base materials.

In conclusion, not using digital signage is more costly for a business than using it. The necessary investment pays itself off by having a better communication efficiency.

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