Video Conferencing Facility Can Bring In Business

Lobby View

P S Sundar

P S Sundar

When I got into the taxi at Düsseldorf airport in Germany to go to my hotel, seeing the wet, relatively people-less atmosphere, I wondered how my three-day stay there would be, given the reality that I would be away from useful interaction with global business leaders. But, the stay in the hotel was among the best business sessions I could ever remember thanks to the expertise the hoteliers had developed in holding business conventions. The principal reason was the video conferencing facility in the hotel.

Düsseldorf is not a big city, nor does it have many tourist attractions. Nevertheless, it has its own business importance with excellent facilities for exhibitions. So, the hoteliers have made it a useful destination for conventions. "The very fact that we do not have other attractions is the reason for our developing convention facilities. With video conferencing facilities, all our meetings are a great success for, even when the chiefs of companies don't have to fly down here, they can interact with the select group of their employees and business associates staying in our hotel", Executive Marc Schumacher, told me.

I also learnt that it costs less for the meetings to be held in Düsseldorf than in Frankfurt, Hamburg or Bonn. Besides, it does give an outing for many business leaders who are familiar with big cities to extent of contempt! Although video conferencing is not the only requirement to hold business conventions, it is certainly a major factor of attraction. I realised this in another German town, Aachen, off Frankfurt, where Information Technology was put to the best use at the hotel for the convention. It was an IT convention any way and it gave one of the best presentations possible on the use of this technology. "Our chief is now in Paris attending a meeting but, he will interact with us here as also with our dealers in London an hour after this" an official told me. When properly employed, it would leave an impression of the people who matter being physically present even as there would be gain in travel cost and time.

This is a lesson hotels in small cities or towns can learn to augment their income. Forget the big hotel chains in big cities, which say "Sorry" when requests come in, as they are fully booked, but for the same chains in smaller towns this business means a lot. Conventions are a definite source of round-the-year income for the hotels which specialise in providing the best possible business facilities. When distances don't matter and variety spices up life, it is natural that business conventions are sought to be held in other centres. Hotels can grab this business with a calculated mix of infrastructure, promotion and pricing. There are hotels in towns, not cities, which contend that around 60 per cent of their annual income comes from conventions. Since conventions help to foster rooms and restaurants simultaneously, the business spread is, indeed, large.

This happened recently at Taj Garden Retreat in Coonoor. When a Mumbai-based company decided to hold its business convention at the hotel, it asked for video conferencing facilities - something the hotels in the Nilgiris don't have. "Our General Manager, Sanjeev Sharma, took up the challenge, held internal meetings with F&B, Systems and maintenance officers. We flew in our IT Regional Manager from Chennai. We got three ISDN lines temporarily fixed. The video conferencing with their chief was such a great success that the company is prepared to come back. Today, we have video conferencing facilities in Coonoor", K. Unnikrishnan, F & B Manager, told me.