In 2015, Mersive conducted a meeting culture survey to better understand the statistics and sentiments around meeting culture in the business world. After all, professionals spend enormous amounts of time in meetings, and companies invest a great deal in meeting room technology and infrastructure. So, what is the result of all that time, money, and effort?
The results were both surprising and enlightening. At a high level, people are spending quite a bit of time in meetings that could be more efficient. Of the 499 respondents, over 80% find themselves in more than 3 meetings a week and on average these meetings involve 5 or more people, but only 1/4 of those surveyed say that more than half of their meetings are productive or effective.
The survey covers several topics related to meeting culture, including time spent in meetings, types of meetings held, technology involved in meetings, and challenges with existing technology. Survey participants represent industries from banking to construction and a diverse set of job functions within their organizations.
Perhaps the most startling statistic was that even though 98% of respondents find it valuable when content is shared via a display, 41% experience problems or delays connecting to a display in the majority (more than half) of their meetings. This indicates that legacy meeting room technology is not keeping pace with rapidly evolving meeting culture. Gone are the days when sharing a single computer’s desktop via VGA cable met the needs of every meeting – modern meetings are most efficient when participants are able to use a collaborative platform like Solstice to simultaneously share a wide range of content types from devices like laptops, tablets, and smartphones. For most survey participants, less than half of their meetings are scheduled ahead of time, so startup time and ad-hoc collaboration capabilities are critical.
