Death of the business meeting

09 September 2009, Ole

Is face-to-face time a thing of the past? Latest survey results from conference call provider Powwownow (www.powwownow.co.uk) reveal that the traditional face-to-face business meeting may soon be a thing of the past.

Their recent poll has revealed that during the recession external meetings have dropped by almost 30%. It seems cost of travel, time out of the office and meeting durations are the main factors that have lead to a fall in face to face meetings.
"Some PAs even claimed that companies had banned refreshments in meetings in order to cut costs, it lead to a few of them being too embarrassed to hold meetings," said CEO Andy Pearce.

The poll of over 2,000 people also found that 31% of respondents were being encouraged to make use of teleconferencing and web conferencing facilities, leading to a 20% increase in usage across the sector in 2009.

Over the last year Powwownow has conducted various surveys to reveal the working habits of small- and medium-sized enterprise employees. The Dirty Habits Survey conducted in 2008 found that a whopping one in three men in SMEs had had a sexual thought about their work colleagues whilst in a meeting!