If you missed “Part 1: New Tools, Old Mindset,” feel free to go back and read the anecdote I posted there. Our meetings have become bad over time because the world has changed significantly, but I’d argue that our meetings haven’t. You may be thinking, “Well Mark, you’re wrong because today we have new tools […]

When I was 18 years old, I went to visit my grandpa. We sat in his living room and talked about his favorite subject, his grandkids. He took pride in updating me, the family, his waitress at the local Greek restaurant — and anyone else who would listen for that matter — on their accomplishments. […]

We’ve all heard the phrase “a meeting that could have been an email.” Add in today’s additional methods of communication and you’ll get “a meeting that could have been a Zoom call, that could have been an email, that could have been a phone call, that could have been a text.” I put this idea […]

So, unless you’ve been under a rock, you’ve seen hundreds of posts about remote work, video conferencing and collaboration in the last few days. The craziness of today’s events has forced companies to adopt video conferencing and remote collaboration solutions on a scale that we haven’t seen. Some think that this bodes well for the […]

Collaboration had to be one of the most-used buzzwords of the last half decade. It’s been used to describe everything from wireless screen sharing to interactive flat panels to teleconferencing to cloud-based file sharing apps. Marketers LOVE to slap “collaboration” on their boxes and press releases. I even heard a story about a sales rep slapping […]

If you are one of my readers (thank you) or if you are one of the many people in the rental industry that I am constantly calling for advice, you know that I have spent most of the last 18 months designing and implementing an “experience center” for a global manufacturer. The experience center type […]

The science of meetings is fascinating. How do we best communicate with one another when we find ourselves sitting across from each other in a conference room? How do we solve problems, build confidence in one another, share? It’s an interesting area of our lives to explore — particularly because the workday is composed of […]

So after about 17 years working as an integrator, as a rental staging guy, and as a manufacturer, I got my first job working as an end user. I figured that based on my background and experience that this would be a no-brainer. I mean how hard can it be? I know all this stuff. […]

I was fortunate enough to cross paths with the senior editor of a well-respected technology magazine while I was over in London last week.  It was a far-ranging discussion, but on the flight back, I continued to think about the question he’d put to me regarding software that enables collaboration when we are together and […]

Last month, we discussed the Oculus Connect Developers Convention, a meeting I had recently attended in virtual reality. This month, I thought we would address the effectiveness of meeting in virtual reality. First, let’s discuss the event itself, which was the annual conference for Oculus virtual reality developers. For those of you who have been […]

Collaboration is so far past being a buzzword that it’s almost become kitschy. Nearly every booth at this past summer’s InfoComm show figured out a way to entwine the word collaboration in their messaging somewhere. But collaboration is truly important. It’s at the core of how the workplace is changing to accommodate modern work styles. […]

Clevertouch just announced the launch of Stage, a lightweight quick to launch collaboration and meeting tool available on the Pro Series E-CAP panels. Stage is a real-time collaborative workspace meeting solution that gives any organization the opportunity to collaborate and annotate on shared documents seamlessly within a live video conferencing environment. Designed for both on-site and distributed […]

ClearOne today unveiled COLLABORATE Space, a new video collaboration app that connects hundreds of users joining from any device at anytime. It includes messaging, calling and meeting functions. COLLABORATE Space provides persistent space to store all sorts of media such as messages, documents, whiteboards, recordings, meeting minutes or anything else exchanged on a specific topic […]

By David Danto and Andrew W. Davis The year was 2006.  Videoconferencing had been used in the corporate world for more than ten years — and everyone hated it. It failed to meet the promises of reducing travel costs and providing easy, “just like being there” experiences. Enterprise AV was really no better. Huge boardrooms […]

Zoom Video Communications today announced a variety of new features and enhancements to its core Meetings platform and its Zoom Rooms software-based conference rooms. Altogether, these enhancements streamline administrator and user experiences and increase productivity as part of Zoom’s ongoing effort to create frictionless experiences for buying, deploying, using and managing enterprise video communications. Zoom also announced the general availability of […]

Last month, we talked about the market’s trend toward collaborative meetings and how that will presumably affect the rental and staging company and its employees. I thought then, and I still do, that the most important aspect of this change was one of familiarizing our employees with the concepts and techniques of collaborative meetings. This […]

Over the last couple of months, a lot of the articles here on rAVePubs have had to do with new technology adoption, and the costs involved with being either too early or too late with any new technology. I am a long-suffering “Innovator” (for those of you who have read Crossing the Chasm, something I […]

We all talk about collaboration in the industry, in fact numerous manufacturers as well as integrators have put grand focus to it and that’s all well and good – collaboration is certainly an important element of every day progress in the business world. It may involve certain industry solutions, it may just focus on communication and […]

With today’s audio and video technology advancements for PCs, laptops and mobile devices, businesses may be more tempted than ever to outfit their conference rooms using a DIY approach. While this sounds like a great idea in theory, there are a few considerations to keep in mind… DIY rooms often lack the proper equipment to […]

I’ve started the New Year with a near constant tour of conference rooms, war rooms, classrooms, huddle spaces and other places where meetings of any kind are held. In the first three weeks of the year, I’ve visited four major cities and countless business and university campuses. I’ve been trying to gain a deeper understanding […]

I want to preface this by stating an important point. Nothing will ever replace the value of face-to-face meetings. A firm handshake to close a deal or the ability to spend time with people building strong relationships is incredibly important. The emphasis of this article is on the building and adding to the personal nature […]

(An earlier version of this post appeared in SMART’s Next Level Collaboration blog.) Who would think there’d be such a fuss about brainstorming? Sitting in a room, coming up with ideas, writing them down — the seemingly harmless activity is practically fraught with controversy. For some, it’s not seen as harmless at all. First, the Basics Find […]

Well, fall is upon us, and along with it comes the fall meeting season. For those of you in the rental and staging portion of the industry, this is a time of year when clients who have been away for the summer suddenly call in a panic to book a meeting for tomorrow (if you […]

Over the last few decades, boardrooms have undergone major changes. Chances are the boardroom you sit in today is a far cry from those of yesteryear. Businesses have wised up to the fact that polished tables and plush leather chairs are no longer enough to furnish a boardroom – various tech tools and programs are […]

Sometimes, in my role as the general manager of a small AV company dealing with large clients, and being part of planning both their permanent installations and their events, I stand at a crossroads that can give me some perspective. Or get me hit by a car. The key for me, and for all of […]