CBS-magazine October/November 2016 (EN)

Nr 51 October - November 2016

A Large Association With an Open « Heart »

By Didier Hespel, Secretary General of AIACE International.

The AIACE, or International Association of former European civil servants (French: l’Association des Anciens de l’Union européenne), held its 47th annual Congress in Bratislava in 2015.

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Businessmen Want Wi-Fi and Electrical Outlets!

It is their main request. In these conditions, ho-

Prodigiously Efficient Video has a Name: Streaming

New Interactive Boards Have Arrived!

A long time ago, when the video recorder came to life, the

Collaboration

sharing

Of course, it is in the hoteliers’ best interest to

professional world was very interested in events that were worth

between distant groups made a lot of progress these last

show creativity with the services linked to mo-

recording, whether they were for business video presentations or

years. Videoconference, for example, has now spread to

dern ways of communication, such as mobile

for internal communication.

not only desktop computers, but also mobile devices.

apps.

teliers would be wise to jump on this favorable occasion!

technologies

allowing

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work

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Allowing Huddle Rooms to Communicate As we know, huddle rooms are popular in the business world. They are, let’s recall, small meeting spaces designated for meetings “on the go”.

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Smart Cities and trends in Intelligent Urban Infrastructure

“The Future of Sales” Will Be At Viscom POS 2016 Page 14

BYOD Takes on Videoconference Page 16

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A Large Association With an Open « Heart »

By Didier Hespel, Secretary General of AIACE International.

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he AIACE, or International Association of former European civil servants (French: l’Association des Anciens de l’Union européenne), held its 47th annual Congress in Bratislava in 2015. The AIACE has approximately 11 000 members (close to half of all the retired workers of all institutions and agencies of the EU), spread between 15 national sections and a few members spread all over the world (e.g. Colombia, New-Zealand, Vietnam, Brazil, and Rwanda). The objective of the AIACE is to defend and represent the interests of retired workers, to fight to improve the wellbeing for all former civil servants, while maintaining the friendship, fellowship, and good spirits, the links that unite them and the administrative services of the institutions.

The Congresses (since 1970) are held annually in a different town of the EU. The heart of the Congress is evidently the annual General Assembly as well as sessions on important subjects for the pensioners and a meeting of the administration council; after that, it’s a great time to be surrounded by former servants in a pleasant atmosphere, thanks to the communal meals and planned trips to explore the city and its surrounding regions. These last years, the congresses were held in Thessaloniki, Riga, Valletta, Porto, Brussels, Bratislava and Trieste. The number of participants is usually around 250.

But why Bratislava and not Budapest or Warsaw? We try every year to choose locations that are less known or visited, but with the necessary infrastructure and moderate prices. Also, since many of our members have not met the “new” member states, we chose these destinations so they could discover them, which explains the choices of Riga, Valletta, and Bratislava.

Bratislava is a town on a human scale, with a highly compact and pedestrian historic

Didier Hespel centre, below average prices, and a negligible crime rate. A few years ago, a first visit to the city established that it did not have the necessary infrastructure, but in 2015, the town evolved a lot and now has a large array of new possibilities.

The geographical location of Bratislava makes it easy to travel to Austria and Hungary. Just a stone’s throw away, in Austria, particularly, we need to mention the roman town of Carnuntum, one of the largest north of the Alps, with a few remarkable reconstructions, as well as the Neusiedler See, the second largest steppe lake of central Europe. In Hungary, the Esterhazy Palace in Fertöd, called the small Hungarian Versailles, is a must see. And Vienna is only 60 kilometres away…

A large advantage of Bratislava is its proximity to Vienna airport (Bratislava’s airport is not served well at all on the international level, except by Ryanair, which is not the favourite airport company of most of the pen-

sioners) which offers a direct link to all the large cities of the EU, often at a good price.

Given the nature of our population (often older people that are not very mobile), the presence of direct flights avoiding random flight connections is very important. Only a 35 to 40 minute transfer is required, thanks to the new highway, which is shorter than many other cities.

We chose the Sheraton Hotel part because of its location (right by the Danube, only a 10 minute walk from downtown), but especially because it was (except one other hotel) the only to offer rooms with walk-in showers; once again, given the nature of our population, many of our members can’t or don’t want to step over a bathtub. Thus it is another important criterion for us. The other hotel had access problems since it was located in a pedestrian zone with steps to access the car parking. Another criterion: the number of rooms; to effectively promote a pleasant experience, we try to lodge every participant in the same hotel.

In the past, Bratislava sorely lacked spaces that could host at least 250 participants in a school disposition (plus interpretation cabins), except exposition centres (that are, however, unattractive, naked hallways, needing a lot of decoration). These things have evolved over time. We had the chance to host the General Assembly in the solemn amphitheatre of the Economy University of Bratislava, which is in a magnificent location (and affordable) right on the university campus, on the right shore of the Danube. The room does not allow for the installation of tables (as we usually do), but the seats are equipped with tablets that the students use to take notes, and that our participants use to place their documents. The other meetings were held at the hotel.

It was a first, because until then, the General Assembly was always held in the hotel itself where the majority of the participants were staying (which is practical, you have

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to admit). The transfers by car went well, with no complaints from the participants. This solution expands the possibility of hotel choices and allows to not systematically be in high end hotels (which is critiqued by certain members), which are usually the only ones to offer very large meeting rooms as well as necessary space for the meals.

During the General Assembly, aside from the administrative formalities of any association, the participants heard speeches from the mayor of Bratislava, the rector of the Economy University, and the representative of the Commission in Slovakia.

The vice-president of the Commission, M. Šefčovič, sadly had to cancel at the last minute. We also listened to a presentation of a local charity that we decided to support, as we do every year. The report of the President proceeded to take a large part of the schedule since the last year had been very busy on many respects (pensions, health insurance, internal

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ite residence of Empress Maria Theresa. After all, Bratislava was for many centuries the capital of Hungary and the host of many kings and emperors of Austria-Hungary.

The gala dinner was hosted in the almost magical atmosphere of the ancient central market of Bratislava, an Art Nouveau construction in glass and steel, having a second life pumped into it by a team of volunteers.

Castle, a massive building, originally a fortress, transformed over time in an elegant baroque residence.

For the participants that wished to prolong their Slovakian experience, a 3-day trip was organised in the high Tatras, an impressive mountain chain in the countries’ north side. They discovered the summits and panoramas, the ice grotto (unique in its genre with hundreds of

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tent and impressed. A well recommended destination for any association…

All of this was made possible by the strong and unwavering support of the Slovak Convention Bureau and our excellent PCO, Artion Conferences & Events with the help of the local business Emerge.

organization, partnerships with institutions, attacks against the European public service, etc.). The afternoon was essentially devoted to a meeting with representatives of the administrations of different institutions, explaining last year’s decisions and their perspective for the next year.

The city was a great discovery for all the participants, even the ones that visited in the past, since Bratislava had undergone a serious transformation in the last 15 years. The roads make you want to wander and the terraces invite you for well-deserved breaks. The town centre has a series of buildings in Art Nouveau style, but is also punctuated by ancient palaces, mostly baroque from the Austria era, when Bratislava (Pressburg back then) was the favour-

We also made the participants discover Bratislava’s surroundings. The modern art museum Danubiana, located on a peninsula in the Danube, is worth the trip on its own, even if only to see the building. The city of Trnava, ancient historical religious capital called the Slovakian Rome because of its many churches, is very charming and interesting. The wine route allows you to discover the wine regions of Slovakia where excellent wines are produced, but sadly, very little are exported. The closing ceremony was hosted in one of its modern caves, which double up as a modern art museum; the participants dined surrounded by art from the likes of Andy Warhol (of Slovakian origins!).

On this road, we can also find the impressive Červený Kameň Castle, called the Red Stone

steps…) and a few cities and sites on the way down.

Globally, Bratislava was a great success on all regards. The participants went back home con-

Didier HESPEL Secretary General of AIACE International European Commission SC29 02/04 B-1049 Brussels Tel.: + 32 2 295 29 60 E-mail: aiace-int@ec.europa.eu

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Injecting Value in Corporate Events We know the question: are face to face meetings susceptible of being replaced by virtual techniques such as videoconferences, webinars, and virtual meetings?

Encourage the CEO to shake hands!

Harder to hide your identity: we live in an increasingly digital world where technological advances double every 11 months!

But it remains true, more than ever, that people stay attached to relations that can only grow from physical meetings.

However, to stay competitive in relation to virtual meetings (in terms of cost and time gained), these real meetings have to prove their ROI (Return On Investment) The event has to have an important impact on the participants: it needs to meet their expectations, and the “event experience” has to be polished. Here are a few simple and cheap tips to increase the value of this “experience”.

Make sure that the president, CEO, or personalities greet the incomers personally. For example, if participants are coming from different branches or divisions, you can be sure that being received (shaking hands, welcoming words) by a “big shot” of the main branch will have a serious impact! People love to be approached by “stars”! However, not a lot of people have the nerve to start a conversation with a

ping pong tables or card games, and invite your participants to come lounge into it. They will have the opportunity to do networking, discuss together and find affinities within each other, all this at their own pace, without pre-established rules.

Invest in technology!

Jenalee Anderson Digital Advertising Specialist leader! Offer them this pleasure!

Networking and Involvements If there is a large hole in the schedule between the end of the work session and the lunch, do not try to fill it at any cost!

Use this opportunity to have a relaxed room with tables, chairs, maybe even

Do you wish your participants to be involved? There is an app for that! Seriously, the app store is full of applications that help people by offering a “good technology” that can even improve face to face experiences.

You can also choose an agenda app that will track updates and last minute changes, a fun game-based app that can give points (or real prizes) to participants that have a significant involvement (“fun competition” aspect), an app that authorizes contacts and messages between participants, and last but not lease, an application that allows to send and receive feedback instantly via notifications and surveys, acting a bit like a “thermometer” of the people’s feelings, allowing to eventually readjust certain aspects of the event in real time.

When the Press Conference and Press Release Flop Hard!

It is a story from the other side of the Atlantic, but that many business leaders and communication chiefs experienced in our latitudes. It finished in a bitter failure… Effectively, this can happen to any business if one does not pay close attention to the situation beforehand.

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ou have received an order from your boss: the heavy task of organizing a press conference on a short notice, or even to do a press release, and here we are at the fateful hour.

In front of you are rows of seats… desperately empty and no RSVPs.

An Absolute Flop We wait for the famous “academic quarter”, but it doesn’t solve anything. The seats are still unoccupied and you sadly shuffle around with your colleagues while your boss is angry. The cold coffee in the thermos and the cookies will be useless since your stomachs, tied by the stress, would be unable to benefit from them.

An absolute flop… also a shame… However, when your boss asked you to organize said press conference or send said press release, taken by surprise, you accepted, despite the hunch that told you something would go wrong.

Obviously, the essential question was to ask yourself on the interest of a press conference: let’s not forget that reporters will spend half their day listening to you,

and use the other half to tell the story of the event.

What kind of event will it be? Will it be information where the proposed visuals will allow an audiovisual press broadcast?

More importantly, is the information really interesting for the exterior, or is it only “internal” information?

Invitations to press conferences and press releases often come from communication agencies. The situation is not always great, since often, they do not really know the concerned services or products and quickly get lost in the jargon... In these conditions, we often quickly land back in the same “failure spiral”.

Possible Solution: Use New Technologies The important part is to focus on the REAL advantages of the information for businesses and consumers, and trying to stay away from technical descriptions that only flatter the ego of engineers and that are, let’s be honest, more than unclear.

An ultimate test to do in your head: objectively, if you received an invitation as

a reporter, would you attend? Is it really “interesting”?

You need to take in a dose of reality: newspapers are making cuts left and right, and a reporter that is busy outside weighs on the organization. There needs to be really good reasons to attend conferences. Keep in mind that you’re not announcing the release of the iPhone 8, you need to curb your enthusiasm while it is still time!

A good formula, before organizing a press conference or broadcasting a press release, is to contact the reporters directly using new technologies to reach them: phone and emails, of course, but also videoconference! With the help of these different communication mediums, the reporter can hear you out and ask questions while staying at his office and minimizing his lost time. Of course, you should prepare visual documents to backup statements.

After contacting a few reporters this way, you will rapidly–and concretely! – know if organizing a press conference or sending a pressrelease is justified… or not.

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Prodigiously Efficient Video has a Name: Streaming A long time ago, when the video recorder came to life, the professional world was very interested in events that were worth recording, whether they were for business video presentations or for internal communication.

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any business leaders recorded messages that were diffused to their personnel in mess halls and cafeterias.

The Thrill of Live Viewing is Priceless Events and some important meetings were also recorded then diffused subsequently, or viewed by interposed VHS (or Betamax) tapes.

This prehistoric way of visual communication in the business world left its place to a new era, the era of Internet and fast connections. This allowed live streaming to cruise ahead at full speed, thanks to the digitization of images and democratization of video capture protocols.

Streaming is as live as it gets (sometimes slightly delayed for security reasons). It

There is a reason why large businesses, such as Apple for example, stream their

that are in the room, they are on the same vibe, which makes a huge difference.

Viewing peaks of live streams prove this point well: even if the servers risk being saturated during the live broadcast, the videos will be available a few hours or days later.

brings enormous advantages to the spectator experience on top of being as close as possible to the events.

Effectively, when we watch a recorded video, we already know that it will be “perfect “, that there isn’t a risk because video editing straightened out the “kinks”. We also know that the message or the event is already part of the past. As it is, it is useful and interesting, especially for formations (we can watch the video as many times as necessary).

However, the “thrill of live viewing” is priceless.

An Incredible Impact According to “Viewing Peaks” We could compare the two solutions to viewing a football match that has already happened (rebroadcast) versus one that is currently being played live as we watch it. The tension and interest are fundamentally different.

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big news! The distant spectator almost feels like he is there because he is “participating” in the live event. He is learning the news at the same time as the people

Considering the incredible impact of streaming, business and association congresses use it more and more often to “bolster the community spirit” and allow people that couldn’t physically participate to the event to feel “as if they were there”.

Streaming can be a two-way interaction: broadcast towards the distant participants, but also broadcasting FROM the distant participants to the main event (video and audio, of course). In these conditions, the organizers should have set speaking (and video) times to the outside participants so they can interact, ask questions, and get answers.

The best of both worlds!

20,000 attending the largest international congress ever hosted in Copenhagen 20,000 scientists, doctors and specialists from more than 130 countries gathered in Copenhagen from 7 till 11 October 2016 to improve the quality of care for all cancer patients at The European Society for Medical Oncology congress ESMO.

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SMO 2016 is the largest congress of its kind ever hosted on Danish soil.

The fact that 2016 is going to make it to the history books as the busiest congress year Copenhagen has ever seen, was extra visible the four days when 20,000 - out of the total number of the 100,000 delegates who were expected to the city this year – paticipated to the oncology congress ESMO2016.

Copenhagen is a knowledge hub, and the region’s position within life science was one of the reasons to why the city has been chosen as the back-drop for this year’s ESMO congress. Within the field of cancer treatment, Denmark is especially excelling on the patient care area, which ties directly into ESMO 2016’s motto: “From disease treatment to patient care.”

”Cancer patients and their needs are at the centre of all that we do: our profession is driven by our determination, individually and collectively, to secure the best possible outcomes for people with cancer across Europe and around the world. ”We were happy to be able to highlight that the Danish Agenda, with the cancer patients in focus, is similar to ESMO’s mission when it comes to fighting cancer on a global scale.”

At the pre event on the theme ‘The Dan-

ESMO - European Society for Medical Oncology

Wonderful Copenhagen ish Model for Cancer Research and Treatment’, the ESMO president Fortunato Ciardiello, said: “The Danish cancer plan is a model that can be used in other European countries because what you have done here - to bring together all actors who can make decisions and experts and create a model of comprehensive cancer care - is maybe the key to use our research the best. In fact, the motto of this year’s congress is “From disease treatment – which is something that is in personal – to patient care”.

So what we really want to do is to translate what we have in terms of knowledge in real action to be learned. […] I’m learning here from a small but very civilized country something that I will bring home.”

ESMO is the leading European professional organization for medical oncology comprising more than 13,000 oncology professionals from over 130 countries.

Founded in 1975, ESMO has European roots with a global reach, welcoming oncology professionals from around the world.

Wonderful Copenhagen more than 22,000 hotel rooms.

When accommodating congresses like ESMO the fixed link to the neighboring country Sweden comes in hand, offering an additional 10,000 hotel rooms within a radius of no more than 1.5 hour drive from Copenhagen City Hall. www.copenhagencvb.com

The congress in Copenhagen showed presentations of some of the most recent research, and trials including targeted therapies and immunotherapeutic approaches, joint symposia with representatives of all oncology specialties, and robust debates on the clinical challenges oncologists face today including collaborative discussions that advance oncology and improve patient care.

Why Copenhagen?

Copenhagen is located in a major knowledge area with 10 universities, 165,000 students and 16,000 scientist and researchers.

In recent years, Copenhagen’s range of hotels and meetings venues has grown exponentially. Today the greater Copenhagen region offers

Wonderful Copenhagen

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Videoconference, Or Choosing to Write Prose Of course videoconference is on a constant rise! The equipment has finally reached an important price point: a price that small and medium businesses can afford.

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owever, we still face two main philosophies: the dedicated room with dedicated equipment, or the material designed to move around.

The Comfort of “First Class” Videoconference The dedicated room keeps its fans and is constantly moving towards what we could call “high-end”. The layout of the room and the quality of the used material are carefully conceived and chosen, in a way to offer the most comfort possible for discussions. We are approaching, or even reaching, telepresence, this “first class” of videoconference that gives the illusion of actually facing distant correspondents. This kind of achievement is still expensive and must generally be accompanied by a high grade technical service. Logically, these rooms are used by distant high ranked personnel (higher management and direction).

The other set of material does not look for perfection of image or sound. However, it procures a communication tool of excellent quality that can be used anywhere, as long as there is Internet access, or when appropriate,

a 3-4G connection from a SIM card.

We are not playing in the same court, and these “nomad” solutions are greatly appreciated by collaborators that are fans of BYOD (bringing their own smartphones and tablets to use them at work). In this case, we do not need “technical support”, users know their devices (since they use them all the time) and use apps conceived to work trouble-free.

Striking Down the Barriers “Between all Sorts of Devices and Operating Systems” Just think about Facetime by Apple, innovatively placed in every iPhone to have an idea of the ease of use we’re talking about.

We mostly aim for content, with less focus on form: we need a “teleconference work tool” that can be used in almost any circumstance.

It must be accessible on the largest number of devices possible (smartphones, tablets, and notebooks mostly) and not have any “operating system barriers”: an iOS user, an Android user, and all the Windows and MacOS users must be able to communicate without even noticing that their correspondent is using another system.

If the circumstances ask for it (lack of broad-

band for example), the application allows to shift towards audioconference, which obviously uses less data.

It is also possible to contract “subscriptions” to videoconference services, a practice that is similar to the “rented” software that is popular today, claiming a monthly or annual payment (SaaS, or Software as a Service, such as Microsoft and Adobe).

In the future, these nomad solutions will be increasingly used spontaneously, just like today we’re writing prose without even knowing it!

New Interactive Boards Have Arrived!

Collaboration technologies allowing work sharing between distant groups made a lot of progress these last years. Videoconference, for example, has now spread to not only desktop computers, but also mobile devices.

The Interactive Board’s Forward Step Today, anyone can connect with other collaborators (to hear and see them) from many different and varied locations.

Webconference platforms allow users to share their screen and to work together on the same documents!

latter, in certain cases, may not be able to see what is written. In this case, an operator that runs a video feed of the board can fix the problem. But by doing this, it stops the distant participants from interacting visually with the people in the meeting.

Additionally, they can not add or modify elements that are on the board.

However, meeting rooms still exist and their equipment has to be integrated in the logic of these new communications across the board.

This includes the white boards. We already passed from the simple, manual white board, to interactive boards, which is already a significant step forward.

However, staying with the simple interactive board has its limitations which can impede on the shared usage by distant participants. The

Oblong tactile modifications or saving of content.

Innovating Solutions In the same way, it is impossible for them to keep a copy of the content attached, unless they use their smartphones to photograph or take screenshots.

Oblong

Today’s new interactive boards solve this problem. They are conceived from the ground up for mixed uses between groups, with options for

It is clear that this kind of product will be very popular in meeting rooms, achieving the goal of an efficient, unified communication for every distant participant.

According to the experiments lead in the United States, this kind of board compensates very rapidly for its high price tag by having a high increase in efficiency in these “mixed meetings”. In other words, trying them is adopting them after only a few tries.

This is the reason why some manufacturers use the technique “Try before you buy”! Interesting lead to follow!

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Allowing Huddle Rooms to Communicate As we know, huddle rooms are popular in the business world. They are, let’s recall, small meeting spaces designated for meetings “on the go”.

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hey allow small groups, from two to four or five people, to comfortably have short meetings whenever they feel like it.

It is easy to understand the importance of having an audioconference solution: the users expect to be able to make and receive calls without having to return to their respective offices, while allowing the other

Multiple Possible Solutions We are not blocking the real meeting rooms, everything is done in an informal way: do we have an idea to develop, a diagram or spreadsheet to analyse, an approach to explore?

The huddle room is designed for this and is only two steps away.

Videoconference is not necessary in all cases. However, the future will claim its presence, even in the simple webcam form. Evidently, high-end systems can be considered, especially since the cost of equipment is becoming very affordable.

Usually, the huddle room has a table, a few chairs, and possibly a phone line and a flipchart.

However, it is realistically possible to equip these spaces with audiovisual equipment, for example, an audioconference system, a monitor, an internal presentation system, or even a mini version of a videoconference solution, allowing collaboration with outside correspondents.

ing more and more popular, especially with the collaborator’s attachment to the BYOD (Bring Your Own Device). It is becoming essential to be able to share, wirelessly, the content of smartphones and tablets on a large monitor to avoid having to clump around a device’s small screen. The chosen solution must have a superior ease of use and efficiency.

Logitech

The Essential Criteria to Respect

Since huddle rooms are “immediate” solutions to impromptu meetings, the concept must not be destroyed: the essential criteria to respect, in the implementation of any audiovisual material, is the EASE OF USE.

The possibility of rapidly and simply displaying documents on a monitor is also becom-

Any complex product or “solution” will have to be rejected!

participants to also profit from the calls in the huddle room.

Nothing on Paper… But All Available and Without Errors!

The meetings of yesterday where tons of paper was used are now over… or, at least, are looked down upon.

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oday, the term “paperless meeting” is becoming popular, and this new way of organization has many advantages.

Time Gained, Stress Reduced, Efficiency Increased Let’s look at the time gained. Preparing a meeting claims a lot of work time. In the printing room, how many times were you done printing the material only to have a last minute change that forces you to reprint all or most of the work? It is estimated that working in paperless mode is equal to saving 70% of the preparation time! And let’s not mention the possible manipulation er-

rors when we reprint a part that has to be inserted in all the copies. As soon as we work paperless, participants have the most recent version in front of them. No more participants having, erroneously, an old version of the documents.

shared, and be available to everyone after the meeting for analysis or to refresh their memory.

By going paperless, we also eliminate an important stress source for the meeting organizers and for the participants.

Working this way eliminates the usual excuses of people that pretend, falsely or not, to have lost the minutes from last meeting.

It also reduces to a minimum the necessary time to write and share these minutes.

On top of this, it is impossible to blame the paper documents for a mediocre piece of work! Everyone is situated in the most favorable work context.

Let’s speak efficiency. We are in a situation where tablets and laptops replace mountains of paper. Everything we need is already in front of us, and we can share –or not!

– our personal notes at any moment, which highly facilitates collaboration between team members.

The decisions taken in a meeting can easily be added to the document,

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Direct Line Towards Efficient Collaboration!

Evidently, a paperless meeting also saves money on the paper, ink, and lifetime of the printers. Since the organization is more efficient, the time needed for the meetings is reduced, which saves money on man hours (especially when the people around the table are high management), and keeps the participants more attentive (we know that the longer a meeting lasts, the more likely it is for participants to start daydreaming).

Finally, paperless meetings are excellent for the environment. It is evident, but it doesn’t hurt to be proud of it. Just run the numbers on the amount of paper saved! Think about the toners that used to rapidly empty themselves!

BYOD Takes on Videoconference For a business, being able to communicate with your clients, providers, and personnel is essential. This communication can be done in person or by the medium of technology.

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the business benefits from high-technology devices that can perform well at many different tasks!

Tablets are on the Rise

Satisfied and More Efficient Collaborators!

ith the increased use of smartphones and tablets, a new era of communication has begun: the BYOD era.

BYOD (or Bring Your Own Device) is the new favoured way for businessmen to call, to participate in meetings from a distance, or to interact with any person involved in their projects. It is easy to point out the cause of this phenomenon: smartphones and tablets are now a large part of our everyday life, they’re a second nature and we use them naturally – and preferentially – for many tasks.

For videoconference purposes, tablets are used more often than smartphones since they offer a larger surface to visualize the participants and to draft documents. They also allow having multiple windows open more comfortably, even though smartphones’ screen sizes have increased.

82% of American companies allow their collaborators to use their personal devices at work. It is a win-win deal: collaborators use devices that they are comfortable with, and

Setting up videoconference communication has never been so easy! The days of dedicated rooms equipped with costly technology requiring the care and attention of a dedicated IT personnel of its own are now over; we now save a lot of time and money.

The needs of today’s collaborators are not the same. They need to be able to establish connections where they are, without fail. A major advantage: we do not need to look for a meeting room to connect, which opens the door to instant communication, 24 hours a day if necessary.

BYOD uses videoconference systems based

on Internet connection, which limits the required technology to the device used, a login into the app, and connectivity between the different systems, which is mostly a given these days.

An important psychological consequence to take into account: collaborators that use their own devices are more satisfied and feel more efficient.

This makes them more motivated to communicate. Since they master their devices, they tend to use them more often and travel less often than before.

Businessmen Want Wi-Fi and Electrical Outlets!

It is their main request. In these conditions, hoteliers would be wise to jump on this favorable occasion!

A Lot of Online Time!

Of course, it is in the hoteliers’ best interest to show creativity with the services linked to modern ways of communication, such as mobile apps. However, the “fundamentals” need to be covered: free, fast and omnipresent WiFi, as well as plenty of electrical outlets.

This data came from a study realized by the “Global Business Travel Association” on 831 business travelers. The results are

clear: businessmen directly reserve rooms in hotels that offer free Wi-Fi or a fast Internet connection.

They are also interested by incentives and promotions such as special discounts for members, or also the possibility of having ULTRA fast Internet connections. However, the ultrafast Internet connections is mostly false promises, since only 16% of the respondents actually had it, while 61% declared having a “normal” Internet connection (available to all, without distinction).

Businessmen spend a lot of time online. 55% of businessmen that go online while in their room will be online for at least an hour a day and use the connection to work. Additionally, about half of the respondents spend at least one additional hour online as a hobby.

An Ever Evolving Landscape Concerning apps, more than 60% of business travelers have at least one hotel app in their smartphone and more than half have two apps.

They use apps mostly to consult the state of their reservation, to manage their reward points, or to make reservations for a trip.

They use them much less to contact the personnel or to order room service. About a quarter of the travelers used the app for the check-in, but the results have shown that this number is most likely to increase along with the popularity of the keyless room option.

We already said it, business travelers hate the lack of electric outlets, especially since they have a lot of mobile devices to recharge.

They also hope to benefit from streaming services such as Netflix and smart televisions with Internet access.

In the future, hotels would be wise to invest in these new technologies while continuing to offer great quality in their existing conventional services.

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How to use Technology to Enhance the user Experience at your event

By Smart-AV

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large part of what makes an event, a meeting, a conference, a congress a success is more than just metrics, numbers and length of attendance. While these are all good at justifying spend and sponsor ‘ROI’ they tell us little on how an attendee actually felt about an event. Humans are both rational and emotional creatures.

For an event, a meeting, a conference, a congress to be a success, the attendee must appreciate why they are going (rational) but also how much they enjoyed going (emotional) and that’s where creating a great user experience comes in. Technology is often the gateway to this, as one of the easiest and most effective ways to let an event attendee engage with your brand and come away feeling as though they’ve had a worthwhile experience. Here are some of the ways you can utilise cutting-edge event technology, to enhance the user experience at your next event, meeting, conference or congress.

SURPRISE AND EMOTION It’s well known in marketing that emotional campaigns have the most success and an element of ‘surprise’ is a key part of this. This can also be a very effective way of creating a great user experience at an event, a meeting, a conference, a congress.

When you utilise custom-built technology such as seamless screens or LED panels, you are given the freedom to create a design of your own choosing.

This means you can think outside the box about the type of experience you want to create.

A cube of seamless videowall screens, allows the user to step into a space that is all your own, momentarily transporting them from the hustle of the exhibition into an area that is solely owned by your brand. Similarly, a large LED wall that can be 5 or 6 feet high, is a great way to draw in attention and broadcast a video, image or presentation that will delight the user while passing by.

PERSONALISATION Event, Meeting, Conference, Congress content can be hard to produce and often leads to the same presentation being broadcast on repeat, regardless of the visitor or their needs. With a little extra technology you can change this, so that whoever steps onto your stand (Exhibition, Meeting, Conference, Congress) is given a fully personalised user experience, where they are only shown the case studies, images or videos that are relevant to their use case. By using custom software loaded on an iPad or tablet, your sales team can send content of their choosing onto a screen with just the flick of a finger, allowing them to do an ‘off the cuff’ presentation that’s 100% personalised and therefore, much more meaningful.

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This also looks pretty impressive to other passers-by who will see the content changing and want their own personalised experience.

INTERACTIVE EXPERIENCES It’s one of our many office in-jokes, that even when you put up a screen that’s not

ting effect on your event visitors is to create an authentic experience from start to finish.

One of the ways you can achieve this is by thinking about the branding throughout every element of your stand.

Perhaps you want to custom-brand your digital signage solution, or give your sales team tablets to collect data from attendees which are fully branded, such as those shown below.

Similarly, you might want to surround your stand with LED washlighting, an impressive solution that will allow you to bathe your attendees in the glow of your company colours. All of these individual touchpoints will improve the overall user experience and help visitors to feel

interactive, many event visitors will walk up and attempt to touch it anyway.

What this really shows is a need from the visitor perspective, to be in control and involved in the event experience. With simple, off-the-shelve software you can transform a static show reel into a series of images, videos and case studies that your event attendee can flick through or even email to themselves to read at a later date.

Multitouch tables and kiosks bring in an element of fun or gamification to your event area, where attendees can play games, answer quizzes or even play around with a live tweet wall, to pull out the messages they are interested in reading. This interactivity will keep them engaged with your stand for up to 5 times longer than a static screen online and will draw in other eyeballs from those passing by, who will also want to join in the fun!

AUTHENTICITY One of the keys to providing a strong, las-

Digital Signage Summit Europe Identifies Future Business Strategies With over 500 delegates and 40 exhibitors and conference sponsors, Digital Signage Summit Europe 2016 reinforced its position as Europe’s must-attend event for professionals involved with digital signage and DooH.

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ith the current conference location operating at capacity plans is already underway to relocate DSS Europe to a larger venue in 2017.

Digital Signage Summit Europe 2016, held at Munich Airport, featured a packed programme of presentations and workshops featuring over 40 international digital signage experts and thought leaders.

Digital Signage Summit Europe is a joint venture between digital signage consultancy invidis consulting and Integrated Systems Events, the producer of the Integrated Systems Europe exhibition. Integrated Systems Events is coowned by international trade associations CEDIA and InfoComm International.

with two parallel tracks of sessions. It worked extremely well.”

The overarching theme for the 2016 summit was Challenging the Fundamentals of Customer Engagement – Strategies for Tomorrow’s Advertising, Retail and Public Spaces. Day One covered Smart Cities; DooH and Multiscreen while Day Two covered Turning Stores into Stories and Digital Signage.

Innovative session high-

Florian Rotberg 7,500 old style payphones being replaced with Link structures that will provide fast, free municipal WiFi to the public.

Day Two included a panel discussion chaired

by Rotberg on how to convert shoppers to buyers, how to connect to the customer and what data is needed to achieve it. Linda Ralph, from Mood Media UK, discussed multi-sensorial environments such as high-street fashion chain New Look and Dutch bank ING. The latter companies experienced a 40% uplift in customers purchasing car insurance products after the implementation of a digital signage and displayed information solution utilised during customer queuing time.

Rotberg confirmed that the Smart City topic will return for 2017: “We’ll be keeping Smart City as a topic based on its success this year and the opportunity it offers us to reach a whole new audience group,” he said.

invidis consulting Managing Director and DSS Europe Chairman Florian Rotberg commented: “DSS Europe 2016 proved to be a fantastic event and was the first time we did two full days

lights on Day One included a presentation from CIVIQ’s Brad Gleeson who talked about ‘smartscaping’ cities and presented a case study of a New York project that has seen

“Moving forward,” he continued, “we’ll have three pillars that we believe are the future for digital signage as a conference: smart city, retail and digital out of home advertising.”

Linda Ralph

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Smart Cities and trends in Intelligent Urban Infrastructure

By Brad Gleeson, Chief Commercial Officer, CIVIQ Smartscapes

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f you are following technology as part of your career or simply to stay on top of current trends, it’s likely you’ve been hearing a lot about “Smart Cities” lately. The interest in and news about Smart City projects and initiatives has been growing rapidly on a global basis and it now seems there is a conference, tradeshow or seminar on the way Smart City technology will influence our lives taking place somewhere nearly every week.

So why all the interest in Smart Cities and IoT technology?

There are several megatrends that are driving the interest in Smart City and IoT solutions and technology: Urbanization – current statistics indicate that the global population that live in urban centers

Brad Gleeson

is growing at a rapid pace. In fact, there will be an increase from 50% of the world’s population living in cities in 2020 to 72% by 2050.

Mobility – mobile phones are on pace to outnumber humans within the next 5 years with the majority of people in developed countries owning smartphones.

Connectivity – the number of IoT devices connected to the internet is expected to increase to over 35 billion devices by 2020 and bandwidth demands are forecast to increase by 400% within the next five years.

to gauge sentiment and gain input from those most effected by the city’s challenges and solutions.

As cities grapple with the need to provide services for an expanding population, they are looking to technology to help make cities more efficient, secure, sustainable and to improve the quality of life of citizens and visitors.

The increases in connected citizens and devices make it possible for cities to better monitor their environments, measure utilization of city resources and services and connect with citizens on both a macro level and as individuals

At CIVIQ Smartscapes, we believe part of the

Urban Technology Infrastructure

solution for the future depends upon cities upgrading their urban infrastructure to support this increasingly mobile and connected society. In today’s Information Age, there remain significant disparities between those who have access to the benefits of high-speed internet connectivity, and those who don’t – a phenomena known as the digital divide. The success of a city providing increased efficiency, security, sustainability and quality of life will be dependent, to some extent, on its ability to close this digital divide and ensure all citizens can benefit from the opportunities presented by access to this connectivity and information.

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LinkNYC One example of this concept in the real world is the LinkNYC project in New York City. The objective of this ambitious project is to close the digital divide in New York by providing a seamless canopy of high-speed Wi-Fi connectivity across all five boroughs completely free of charge to residents and visitors alike. By replacing the city’s antiquated public payphones with up to 10,000 high-speed Wi-Fi kiosks (called “Links), LinkNYC will bring to New York the largest and fastest free Wi-Fi network in the world.

The Links are sleek, modern and relatively unobtrusive, offering a number of free services on a 10” tablet while generating revenue to pay for the network through (2) bright LCD advertising monitors mounted high on each side. Through the tablets, visitors can browse the internet, navigate to anywhere they want to go, access the city’s information website to report a problem or get information on an initiative in their neighborhood, they can make a free phone call to anywhere in the US, and they can even activate a 911 emergency call to access first responder services in the event of an emergency.

This network of thousands of communications hubs is currently being installed throughout the city and response from citizens has been extremely positive. Besides providing free Wi-Fi at up to 1GB speeds, along with the other services, the network is completely funded by the CityBridge consortium made up of three independent companies – Intersection, Qualcomm and CIVIQ Smartscapes. This solution is being delivered to New York free of charge, and the consortium estimates it will also return up to $500M in revenue to the city, helping fund other valuable needs and services the city requires.

The Future of Intelligent Urban Infrastructure While the LinkNYC network is exciting and impressive, this is only the beginning. With the addition of smart sensors, networks like this in cities around the world can monitor air quality, measure congestion, reduce energy usage and improve transportation. You don’t have to live in New York to benefit from city-wide high-speed internet connectivity, two-way communications with your city leadership, or the increased transit information and efficiency. Intelligent Urban Infrastructure is currently being evaluated and planned into future smart city deployments in cities around the world.

Smart City plans and initiatives are increasing at a rapid pace and CIVIQ’s vision of intelligent urban infrastructure networks is just one of the many exciting new developments that will help cities meet the challenge of an ever increasingly urban, mobile and connected world.

About CIVIQ Smartscapes CIVIQ Smartscapes designs and manufactures smart city communications devices that provide a host of benefits to cities and communities, including enhanced public information, commerce, safety and efficiency. We deliver a turnkey solution where up to 100 percent of the cost can be covered through advertising revenue.

For more information, visit www.civiqsmartscapes.com

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“The Future of Sales” Will Be At Viscom POS 2016 Viscom POS 2016, which will be held in Frankfurt from November 2nd to 4th, is an indispensable event to discover the newest tendencies, best practices, and tips in the POS domain (“Point Of Sale”).

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he program, aimed at every sector of visual communication, is logically built and helps every person to rapidly find a perfect fit.

Expanding the Environment with Digital Solutions On November 2nd, the subject will be digital communication in retail. For example, the interconnection between the “online” and “offline” world will be discussed. We will see how the commercial environment can be expanded upon with digital solutions and the impact that these solutions can have on the buyer and the seller. We will also discuss the differences between “concept, context, and content”.

On November 3rd, the focus will be on communication of the point of sale.

There will be a speech from Martina Vollbehr on “the future of sales”, research and discussions on the “best display”, and studies on “the best practices” to integrate a campaign in the communication signs of the point of sale.

Learning from One Another On November 4th, “interior design”.

Digital printing has revolutionized interior design, personalized printing solutions via examples grouping the main printing options and the different possible materials.

The “Lunch & Learn” program is clearly positioned under the “Learning from one another” banner. During this period, the speakers will present various subjects and the active exchange between speakers and visitors will be of importance.

New products, problems encountered, and new ideas will be discussed.

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