Technology will contribute to, rather than replace, in-person meetings

Every year Meeting Professionals International (MPI) holds a conference called Meet Different to brainstorm ways of improving the meetings and conventions industry. This year if you can’t make it to Houston to be there in person, you can watch the live streaming of the opening general session online.

Just as with every other industry, technology is playing a larger role in meetings and conventions. Workplaces are constantly changing, perhaps more so now than in recent years, as the recession causes companies to trim travel and event budgets while they struggle to accommodate a new generation of employees. Enter technology, enabling virtual meetings that cost nothing to attend for a breed of workers raised in front of computer screens. Unlike other media threatened by technology, such as newspapers or CDs, it’s doubtful that virtual meetings will ever replace face-to-face interactions. According to the 2009 MPI survey Futurewatch, while 11% of meeting professionals expect technology will be used more in their industry, 75% of Fortune 1,000 chief marketing officers say in-person meetings are still their most effective marketing tool. “I don’t ever see online learning taking the place of face-to-face interactions,” says Brooke Bode, MPI’s director of knowledge. “You can’t get those emotional connections and physical experiences on the web.” Bode also mentions that with highly interactive projects, web participants can’t feel the product, limiting their experience to a visual one.

Rather than replacing real interactions, technology will be used to enhance meetings with webinars, blogs, and wikis. A report from a discussion group posted on MPI’s website suggests interactive technology should be used before a meeting to “create a community, ensure people are not taught things they already know, and engage attendees of all ages and experience levels.”

Bode points to the rising popularity of wikis, a blank web page that anyone with an Internet connection can access and edit, making tasks such as brainstorming content before a conference a collaborative process. MPI created a knowledge and event wiki on its Meet Different website for people to add and edit information about the conference before it starts. During the conference, information about sessions will be sent directly to people’s inboxes, and a message board will be set up on which people can post questions and answers about topics discussed. After the conference, MPI will upload podcasts, video interviews, and blogs to the website in order to keep the dialogue active.

Alana Hirtle, the director of MPI’s Atlantic chapter, says some large corporations are already holding meetings on the 3-D virtual world, Second Life, and MPI is creating an island there to hold virtual conferences. Given that companies are cutting down on travel costs, Hirtle says it makes sense for MPI to take advantage of the technology that enables virtual meetings and programs, but agrees with Bode that it’s not a replacement for face time. “They have value,” she admits, “but nothing can replace the synergy that happens when like-minded people come together.”

Face-to-face meetings are especially important for entrepreneurs, who are often extroverts who thrive off human interactions. “These are people who want to shake hands and pump flesh,” says Hirtle. “From a networking perspective, your chances of making connections increase drastically when 1,000 people are in front of you at a conference.”

MPI may be using technology this year to make the Meet Different conference more accessible, but it’s the actual attendees who will leave with a mind full of inspiration and a wallet stuffed with business cards.

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