Green IT Summit

April 24th, 2010 @ admin // 3 Comments

The week nobody could fly in or out of Northern Europe hopefully showed businesses that online meetings should not just be a business backup but a viable, affordable and essential method of conducting day to day face to face meetings around the globe. Saving time and money are the most obvious reasons for companies to conduct online meetings but what about business continuity ?

If companies learned anything from the Icelandic  Eyjafjallajokull Volcano they should start planning for possible further interruptions or (eruptions) to business.

Online meeting rooms were approached by the organisers of the Inaugural Green IT Summit. Minister Eamon Ryan responsible for Communications Energy and Natural Resources spoke at the event.

in conjunction with ICT Ireland and the Irish Software Association, the inaugural Green IT Summit is a major conference focusing on how and where you can make green IT deliver business value. This gathering of experts and peers aims to provide Irish businesses with an improved understanding of how they can go green and save money along the way.

Guest speakers and keynotes including Tom Raftery,  the lead analyst of GreenMonk and Energy & Sustainability analyst from RedMonk (Spain)  Jonathan Steel, Founder & CEO, Bathwick Group UK and Sonny Masero, VP, ecoSoftware EMEA, CA (UK) were unable to attend the event in Dublin due to the flight ban. Online meeting rooms were able to work cross platform and cross browsers to deliver the guest speakers directly into Croke park by way of video link. Presentations were delivered along with Q & A sessions after the presentations. All remote speakers were also able to see those that attended the venue as Tom Raftery indicated when he asked venue participants to raise their hands while assessing the roles of those assembled.

fantastic help from Joe at Green IT Summit yesterday in dublin. Well done, you saved our skins.

The question now is, what happens if this Iceland Volcano goes off again ? What will it take for companies to embrace “Green” Technologies like for instance video conferencing ? For one thing, this volcanic activity has shown the fragile nature of our dependence on air travel, hopefully it has also shown companies that business meetings can be conducted online. Online meeting rooms were given 36 hours to co-ordinate with the venue, the speakers, the av people and the event organisers. But, everyday companies still send their people on flights to some broadband available nation…  why ? Work practices and efficiencies must be found. To stay competitive as every well run business knows, no matter where in the world they are located, environmental and human impact in terms of stress on our planet and us is also a massive factor when you consider keeping your employees. Teleworking is now regarded by many as a major “benefit”.

Think about it! and  If you need additional convincing please watch this video on FORA.TV

 

 

 

Tags: Business, Civilization, conferences, continuity, cross browsers, cross continents, events, Iceland, streaming, Volcano, workpractice