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| More productive meetings are the order of the day: working people in Europe back modern workplace design [08-27-2007] Working people in Europe would like to communicate more creatively with one another. This was the result of a representative survey conducted on behalf of office and conference furniture manufacturer Wilkhahn. 76 per cent of all those surveyed thought meetings would be more productive if participants were able to view and process important digital documents jointly. 69 per cent would like to be able to access their own network or the internet in parallel. 1,584 men and women from Germany, France and Great Britain took part in the survey. Unclear objectives, inadequately prepared participants and missing documents generate more frustration than results at meetings. Europe’s working people already spend a large portion of their working time in meetings: while in Germany more than half get together for meetings at least once a week, the figures are 43 per cent in Great Britain and 41 per cent in France. Yet, only very few are satisfied with this result. Over 80 per cent would like to see more productive meetings. Approximately four-fifths thought that consultation could be more productive if all participants were better prepared and had a complete set of relevant documents with them. Follow-up and assessment work is also a decisive factor: 82 per cent would like to see proposals and ideas being documented in full and made available to everyone who participated. Digital projectors and laptops are popular For a project meeting, editorial conference or a presentation: technology plays a key role whatever the setting. 64 per cent of respondents frequently or occasionally switch on a digital projector for meetings; 73 per cent use their laptop for this purpose. Men incorporate such technology more than women do. While 70 per cent of men use a digital projector, only 51 per cent of women do so. The same applies to a laptop: more than three-quarters of the men frequently or occasionally use a laptop in meetings, while the figure for women is only two-thirds. In the case of videoconferences, German men and women both tend to be rather reticent. While 28 per cent of respondents in Great Britain and 27 per cent in France frequently or occasionally have videoconferences, the figure for Germany is only 14 per cent. Technology has some pitfalls too: over two-thirds of those surveyed thought conferences would be more productive if technical equipment functioned properly and were easier to operate.  Dynamic Multimedia Conferencing from Wilkhahn Interaction makes meetings more productive Data from the internet, spontaneous visual presentation and shared processing of documents: in meetings today it is important for participants to be able to contribute their proposals and ideas immediately and discuss and evaluate the same jointly. And yet this kind of interaction is neglected in many meetings. At any rate, three-quarters of all respondents believed conferences would be more productive if participants were able to view and process digital documents jointly. And over two-thirds felt meetings would be more fruitful if those attending could spontaneously access information from their own network or from the internet. The workplace environment plays a key role here: 63 per cent of those surveyed thought it would be helpful if tables, chairs and workplace design could be adjusted to the requirements of a meeting more flexibly. At the moment, just under a quarter of respondents frequently or occasionally use partitions, folding tables or lecterns. Wilkhahn transforms conference rooms into communication interiors Press contact: > Download press release in english (PDF, 159 KB) > Download Infographic in english (jpg, 570 KB) > Download press release in french (PDF, 159 KB) > Download Infographic in french (jpg, 570 KB) back |
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