Virtual meetings

By: Glenn Withiam*

If your hotel hosts corporate meetings, perhaps you've learned what happened to the meetings business in Europe, when last April a volcano erupted in Iceland. As you may recall, the volcano engulfed the sky with ash and anchored travelers on land. Planes could not fly until it was cleared. The impossibility of traveling by air led people to use technology to fulfill the meetings they had planned.

They used virtual technology and for a while all online meeting rooms were reserved. That situation was just one indicator that virtual meeting technology has become robust enough to replace some types of face-to-face meetings.
 
The equipment required for these virtual meetings can be set up virtually anywhere, which could cause hotels to lose business from meetings. The authors of a recent Industry Perspectives report from the Cornell Center for Hospitality Industry Research (CHR) say hotels can be part of the virtual meeting business and not necessarily be left out.
 
In this report, Howard Lock and James Macaulay discuss the current state of virtual meetings, explain Cisco's TelePresence service, and examine how this technology can harm or benefit the hospitality industry. Their report, called "Hospitality Business Models Confront the Future of Meetings," can be downloaded at no cost on the CHR website. Lock is director of Cisco's Internet Business Solutions Group, and Macaulay is an Internet software designer, also for Cisco.

We know that corporations are trying to save money in all areas, including per diems. These cost-cutting efforts have coincided with the development of virtual meeting technology and large companies are willing to invest in installing a Cisco TelePresence room or other technology for virtual meetings in their own facilities.

Lock and Macaulay say that face-to-face meetings are unlikely to go out of style, but it is also true that virtual technology can handle an increasing number of participants and nodes.  One way hotels can become part of the virtual meeting network is by including this service in their portfolio. Marriott, Taj, Starwood and Rendezvous are some of the hotels that have already entered the virtual meetings business by installing meeting technology on their premises.

Right now the technology enables real-time voice and video communication that simulates personal contact and allows for more support from online applications. In their report, Lock and Macaulay explain how Cisco has conducted 74,000 virtual management meetings that made travel unnecessary and saved the company more than $400 million in direct expenses. These figures represented a benefit for Cisco, but perhaps not for hotels that were not part of the corporate meetings business.

Lock and Macaulay recognize the costs involved in entering this business segment and suggest the steps to be taken by those hotels that are considering becoming part of the virtual technology business.
 
First, examine whether your company has the necessary competencies to offer this service including an adequate physical plant and other complementary services that are required. Second, create competencies for this new business, which can dismantle some existing services. Then, identify new potential needs, some of which may demand additional investment. Finally, focus on making this service financially viable. Determine how much you will charge for it. In particular, your hotel could offer added value including a package of services that accompanies that of virtual meetings.
 
In conclusion, although the technology of virtual and video meetings seems to be another invasion of existing business models, it is also true that they offer an opportunity (in the same way that at the time the Internet created alterations and opportunities). The key is to be aware of the technology and what it can do, and then determine what role the technology component will play in the business plan of your hotel or conference center.

*Glenn Withiam is director of publications for the Cornell Center for Hospitality Research.