Friday, July 29, 2011

Blog

What, no WiFi at a conference?

By Paul Gillin, advisor and social media consultant

Have you ever been at a conference at which the speakers were speaking and the audience was doing something else? It happens all the time these days.

Thanks to WiFi, tablets and smart phones, people can go to meetings and immerse themselves in e-mail, Facebook and whatever else strikes their online fancy. Conference organizers and speakers hate this, but how far should they be permitted to go to stop it?

One of my clients recently decided to fight back. Organizers expressly prohibited attendees at an internal meeting of marketers from around the world from using laptops, tablets and smart phones during the proceedings. It then went one step further, shutting off wireless Internet access in the meeting area.

I posted a comment about this action on Facebook that set off a surprisingly vigorous discussion. “I’m at a conference where Wi-Fi access has been turned off for attendees so that they’ll pay attention,” I wrote. “Not a bad concept, really.”

It turns out some people thought it was a very bad concept, indeed. My short post sparked more than 30 comments, with several of my friends characterizing the company’s action as patronizing and arrogant. “Seriously? We’re all grownups,” wrote one marketing pro.

“Compelling content makes people pay attention, not Wi-Fi blockers,” wrote another. “Next thing is cracking down on doodlers.”

But some people felt the company’s actions were justified. They pointed out that meetings run more efficiently and productively when people are forced to pay attention. They also said answering e-mail while a speaker is trying to make a point is just plain rude.

I can see both sides of the issue, but as the meeting went on I found myself increasingly siding with management. This was a company meeting, after all, and the employer is entitled to set the rules. More importantly, though, I found this to be one of the best meetings I had attended in years. Deprived of the distractions of everyday work, people listened, conversed, cited points made by other speakers and contributed insightful comments.

Nevertheless, the same result might have been achieved with less heavy-handed tactics. And had the meeting been a public event, I probably would have been more annoyed at being treated like a disobedient child.

What do you think? Should conference organizers be entitled to deny Internet access as a way of stimulating attendee focus? Or are we all too grown-up for that?

Paul Gillin is an author and advisor focused on B2B social media strategies (http://gillin.com). Follow him on Twitter at @pgillin.