August 1997, The Business Journal
Small Business Insights
From the August 15, 1997 print edition

Get the most out of meetings
Wireless networks make communication faster and easier
Victor Vurpillat Special To The Business Journal

Millions of professionals attend presentations and exchange ideas during brainstorming sessions in conference rooms every business day across America.

But when these people leave such meetings, they take with them only fragments of what they were told or of the ideas they talked about.

This is a waste of time and makes for ineffective meetings, two negative aspects that small business especially cannot afford.

However, there is a means of capturing these vaporizing ideas--wireless network communication.

The technology that makes this possible is only now emerging in the marketplace, but many believe it will catch on and create a new segment of the computer industry with explosive growth potential.

This technology will conquer the last frontier of information processing.
Until now, computers have been used successfully for every imaginable task but one: analytical thought processing.

Now we're on the verge of being able to process ideas and solutions to problems proposed by humans in collaborative efforts.

The technology enables conference participants to create wireless networks automatically and communicate their ideas to each person participating in the meeting.

This capability will allow each participant to make a permanent record of what was said and done, vastly improving the productivity of conferences.

Connectivity of computers using this technology will be either through radio frequency signals or infrared communication.

The most economical and efficient means will be infrared communication through an advanced system that will be available within a year to businesses.

This will enable all computers within a radius of 60 feet to communicate with each other wirelessly.

Of the 30 million laptop computers in use throughout the United States, most are used in situations where spontaneous wireless networks would be beneficial.

This number will increase sharply in the next few years as the use of laptops becomes even more widespread and the value of spontaneous wireless network creation becomes widely known and appreciated.

The technology to develop wireless conference tables is being developed by Japan's Toshiba Corp. and Connexus Licensing Inc. of San Ramon.

The goal is to create the wireless conference table automation market with the spontaneous area network, or SPAN, technology developed by Toshiba's Kansai Research Laboratories in Kobe, Japan.

This technology, business officials said, will likely change the way presentations and meetings are conducted.

There are at least three different situations where this technology will come in handy: presentations, collaborative efforts and brainstorming.

Presentations

The person or persons making the presentation will be able to transmit information orally and via a laptop computer to the computers of those in attendance.

Simultaneously, attendees will be able to write down notes on what they see and hear, recording these notes in their databases along with the basic information from the presenter.

Collaborative efforts

A good example of how this will work is the finalizing of a prospectus for an offering of securities.

At the meeting or meetings at which this is done, there are usually at least four participants: the company that will be offering the securities, the company's legal counsel, the underwriter of the securities and its lawyers.

Anyone who has ever taken part in this process knows how tedious and laborious this can be. When a change is suggested, which can be often, the text of the prospectus is altered and a revised version is printed and reviewed by those concerned.

Using wireless connectivity, the process can be drastically shortened. When a change is proposed, there will no longer be a need to print and distribute revised versions of the whole document; the change can be entered immediately and viewed by everyone.

Brainstorming

There are at least two problems with the way brainstorming sessions are typically conducted today.

First, the ideas discussed are recorded only in fragments, sometimes incorrectly.

Second, brainstorming sessions are too often dominated by one person who intimidates the other participants, making them hesitant to propose ideas and solutions for fear of being criticized.

With wireless technology a person on one side of a conference table will be able to propose an idea privately to a colleague on the other side, getting his or her support before suggesting it to all members of the group. This capability will stimulate participants to generate more ideas, greatly increasing the productivity of brainstorming sessions.
There will be many other benefits of the new technology, including providing solutions to a common problem involving visitors to manufacturing plants or offices with "firewalls" securing company data.

There are times when a company wants to grant visitors access to certain data, but can't do so because of the firewalls. With wireless technology, a spontaneous network can be created and the data the company wants the visitor to see can be "pushed" into it.

Still another ancillary benefit of the new technology will not only create wireless networks in the conference room, it also will eventually enable others in remote locations to participate in conferences via wide-area networks and local-area networks.

Victor V. Vurpillat is president of SpanWorks Inc. in San Ramon.

Copyright 1997 American City Business Journals Inc.