As much as they are joked about, griped over, and sometimes dreaded, business meetings are essential. And while technology has by no means eliminated the need for meetings it has given participants many ways to ease the process--with more innovations coming. Creighton and Adams guide their readers through the present and future benefits and challenges of electronic, or electronically aided, meetings. They also examine what's required to make corporate cybermeetings work. The authors examine possibilities such as gathering people from different time zones and with varied schedules to meet simultaneously or establishing electronically enhanced meeting centers, where teammates will physically gather and use new technology designed to make the meeting process more efficient. Creighton and Adams avoid talking about specific hardware and software since anything on the market at publication time will soon be out of date. Instead they focus on the issues and the choices managers will have to make: how to select the best technological approach for a particular corporate culture, what technologies are most likely to enhance true cooperation and collaboration, how innovative technology can best be introduced into large organizations, and more. While nobody expects business meetings to be exciting, Creighton and Adams prove the future of business meetings will be far from dull.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

CyberMeeting is a breakthrough book that will help you head off money-wasting scenarios and take full advantage of new technologies. It provides a first-of-its-kind look at the new "collaborative technology," and tells you how to manage the transition to cybercollaboration smoothly and effectively - so that your organization reaps all the rewards from its investment and gains a competitive edge. CyberMeeting takes readers beyond the initial fascination and "oh wow" aspect of new technologies, and gives you practical guidance on the many concerns to be considered before leaping into this new world. Specifically, it will help you determine people's needs accurately (if they don't need it, they won't use it!), develop a winning business rationale to persuade your company of the advantages of collaborative technology, negotiate constraints of corporate culture for smoother integration of new systems, and ultimately give you a greater understanding of the dynamics of working in groups.

FROM THE CRITICS

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