Over the last number of years we've visited a number of Fortune 500 companies. We've been in lots of meeting rooms, and I'd describe those meeting rooms as technology wastelands. Yet you walk through their cubicles and their offices and you'll see the latest and greatest computer technology on their desks. The answer lies in corporate organization and culture. In many places, no one is assigned the task of supplying meeting places, and everyone thinks someone else is responsible for meeting-room technology.
Facility managers deal with tables and chairs, maybe a phone line or two.
IT people are responsible for workstations. Neither is normally involved in the selection of the productivity tools. As a result, people are left without their tools when they hit the meeting room, and the enhancements and added productivity that meeting-room technology can bring to an organization are lost. While there is practically no limit to how boardrooms or meeting places can be equipped with the latest meeting technology, just how far one should go is based purely on the group's needs. If your entire staff resides in one office, it's a safe bet that your money will be more wisely spent on a conference-room projector than a videoconferencing system.