Online Meetings
Business in a Global Setting Estimated travel spending by American businesses in 2012 $260 billion Estimated travel spending by American businesses in 2011 $251 billion Estimated travel spending by American businesses in 2010 $234 billion Trapped in the Middle Seat, JAD Mouawad, New York Times May 2, 2012 Interesting to note that the cost of business travel continues to go up.
How Many People Have Traveled for work in the past Year? Have Not Traveled
Problems EXPENSIVE Lost time due to travel. Lost productivity due to travel. Companies are paying for employees while traveling, lost resources. Barrier to entry of markets, especially for start ups.
Alternatives Meet less. Conference calls. Consolidate corporate offices and locations. Use IT to drive down the cost.
IT: the Online Meeting Creates an alternative to travel that still allows face to face meeting.
How Many People have met online (outside of this class) in the past 3 months? Have not met?
Options for Online Meetings WebEx $19-$49/month GoToMeeting $49/month Join.me $19/month TeamViewer Free Google+ Hangouts Free http://lifehacker.com/5878067/five-best-online-meeting-services Don’t have to be in on the first mover technology.
Advantages of Google + Hangouts Free. Widely known. Easy access, only need gmail address, google + account, and youtube account (optional). Up to 10 terminals at a time. Ability to record meetings.
Sources http://www.articlesbase.com/communication-articles/the-effective-online- meeting-is-attracting-the-attention-of-the-entrepreneurs-6721984.html http://accounting.smartpros.com/x38670.xml http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/03/business/business-travel-is-rising-but-not- necessarily-the-travel-budget.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0 http://lifehacker.com/5878067/five-best-online-meeting-services