(Lap) Topless Meetings: No Gadgets Allowed

4 comments

March 26, 2008

Several companies in Silicon Valley are banning laptops, Blackberries, iphones and other connected gadgets from meetings. Complaints of people connecting more with their devices than each other have spurred this action. These “old fashioned” meetings are reported to go faster and have increased communication between attendees.

Mercury News reports:

“In this age of wireless Internet and mobile e-mail devices, having an effective meeting or working session is becoming more and more difficult. Laptops, Blackberries, Sidekicks, iPhones, and the like keep people from being fully present,” he wrote in November 2007. “Aside from just being rude, partial attention generally leads to partial results.” His San Francisco design firm, Adaptive Path, now strongly encourages everyone to leave their laptops at their desks. His colleague, Dan Saffer, coined the term “topless” as in “laptop-less.” Also booted are mobile and smart-phones, which must be stowed on a counter or in a box during meetings. It took some convincing, but soon people began connecting with one another rather than with their computers, Wilkens said.

By Dan Gould

in Electronics & Gadgets, Work & Business
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Comments (4)

  1. Good idea.

    It amazes me how many people fiddle with blackberry in business meetings, drives me crazy.

    Next time it happens, I’m busting out my DS and cracking on with a couple of Advance Wars Days of Ruin campaigns which are vexing me.

    Floyd Hayes
    March 26th, 2008 at 2:57 pm

  2. Screw that. I need my lappy, by God. Texting I can imagine, but being able to get links and take notes is pretty key in the meetings I attend.

    Steve Isaacs
    March 26th, 2008 at 5:03 pm

  3. we banned bberry’s and cells in meetings last year and it has made a world of difference. like many places i image, we have machine wired to a monitor in every room when the Internet needs accessing…but only accessing for the group or for the meeting…no personal crap.

    it really is amazing what you can get done…and sometimes makes me wonder if i’d get more done in my personal life if i toss the gadgets aside.

    Scott
    March 27th, 2008 at 9:35 am

  4. Thanks for the sharing this article. I wrote about this also on my blog. I think this is an increasing and important problem / trend. Especially in the classroom and at meetings and conferences.
    Multi-Tasking Addiction A Turnoff
    http://www.dr4ward.com/dr4ward/2008/03/multi-tasking-h.html

    Keep Digging For Worms!

    Bill a.k.a. DR4WARD

    Bill
    March 27th, 2008 at 5:14 pm