Dawn of the digital away day

Natural England pioneers carbon-light conferencing

Is the vast conference hall on track to become an endangered species? Possibly, if other organisations follow the lead of nature conservation quango Natural England (NE), which set out to halve the carbon footprint of its annual staff meeting by going decisively multimedia.

Rather than opting for a single event at one location, NE decided to gather its 2,500 staff in seven locations from Preston to Peterborough. It worked with event specialist The Live Group to design a day that used video conferencing to link all seven venues. Delegates were able to feed in questions, comments and preferences via laptops.

The one downside was the loss of an opportunity to meet up with colleagues from far away. “Staff did feedback that they would have preferred more time for networking,” said   Alex Adams, NE’s communications manager. “That’s something we will have to think about for the future.”

The multi-centre conference cost Natural England a little less than the 2007 single-centre event – but the savings in carbon were much more dramatic. The 2007 event’s carbon cost was 15.3kg per head, the 2008 conference just 9.9kg, says Adam.

He insists that “the event had a real buzz”. But futurologist Ian Pearson, of Futurizon, doubts if communications technology will ever put an end to ‘warm bodies in a room’. Pearson regularly turns down invitations to travel to speak at conferences, preferring to appear by video link. But he believes that “people want to get together and networking is important to them”. – Julian Rollins

9 January 2009

Julian Rollins