Office of Information Technology

Travel Free Meetings

There is no substitute to meeting with someone in person.  But with budgets being squeezed and travel costs rising, more organizations are turning to alternative forms of engagement. Suppose we could conduct some or all of our meetings with no associated travel cost and loss of productivity. Meeting online may be the answer.

According to the U.S. National Business Travel Association, the average cost of a round-trip domestic business flight is $354, hotel rates average $130 per night, and the average car rental costs $44. Bringing the numbers closer to home, consider a CAES meeting that requires five attendees to travel to Athens.  Let’s assume each person travels an average of 200 miles roundtrip and are able to claim lunch on their expense statement.  The total cost of that meeting would equate to $630.  Suppose the meeting needs to occur once per month.  The total annual cost for travel expense alone would be $7,560. This does not include the expense of productivity losses accumulated by each employee being on the road an average of four hours for each meeting.

There are other reasons for meeting online above and beyond saving travel dollars. Web conferencing solutions are not all created equal, but are likely to include most of these features: interactive presentations, application sharing, shared desktop, remote control capability, voice over IP, and the ability to schedule meetings or establish a meeting on the spot. These features allow the meeting organizer and participants to realize advantages such as the ability to meet at any time of the day; location independence; avoidance of physical room and equipment scheduling; the ability to collaborate on documents; the opportunity to stay in sync with project teams, students, or employees; and a reduction of environmental impact.   

To pick the best solution for your organization first determine your exact business needs and expectations.  Next evaluate the various web conferencing solutions against your needs list.  There are scores of reputable online meeting solutions on the market.   CAES OIT has been using GotoMeeting for about two years with great results.  You can find out more by linking to: www.gotomeeting.com  If you would like to get some hands-on experience with this tool send an email request to oithelp@uga.edu and we will schedule a demonstration.

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