Planners Weigh in on the State of Meetings Technology Today

Remember when VCRs continuously blinked 12:00? There was this fantastic piece of new technology, but most people couldn't figure out how to complete its most basic function: setting the clock. That's how a lot of meeting planners feel about the technological tools they use every day: What good is it if can't deliver what it promised? And that concern is just the tip of the iceberg. There's a virtual cornucopia of forward-thinking technology available to turn a ho-hum meeting into a truly spectacular interactive event, but when Skift asked meeting planners for their biggest complaints or pet peeves about technology, too much choice and not enough good information about the array of tools available were at the top of the list. "It's like drinking out of a fire hose," said Corbin Ball, a meetings technology expert and owner of Corbin Ball & Co. "There's a lot thrown at planners and some decisions about tech are mission critical. If you make the wrong registration choice and it blows up, or you have an app that doesn't work, and you're relying on it as a key component, then that can mean people's jobs on the line. One challenge for meeting planners is how