At a time when environmental issues are becoming more important, business meetings and conferences still generate several tonnes of waste paper each month. There presently exists the potential to have a paperless meeting or conference, but the concept still hasnt been fully embraced. As more and more phones are being manufactured with the capability for Bluetooth communication so this concept becomes more accessible. The concept could help to greatly reduce the amount of paper that is used in the office or conference venue overall.

Businesses and conference venues who take steps to reduce or eliminate paper usage from meetings can gain prestige for environmentally sound practices. The reduction in paper use also demonstrates to attendees of the meeting or conference that the hosts are up to speed with better technological practices. Making use of the different aspects of Bluetooth functionality can help to save paper as well as money since making use of the connections between different Bluetooth phones does not cost the users anything.

Bluetooth devices provide their users with a variety of different functions which can be utilized to provide them with enhanced conference experience. One function that can be used at a business meeting or conference is the file sharing capability of Bluetooth which can be used to download lecture or speech notes from the speaker during the meeting. Another of the uses can be the business cards that can be sent from a Bluetooth phone. Those cards could be used with labels regarding the users profession and their company so that business meetings can be set up after the meeting.

A Bluetooth transmitter can be set up at the reception desk that provides people with a detailed program of events or meeting agenda on their phone. This can reduce the number of paper programs that need to be printed. To ensure that the correct number of copies is printed people can choose, prior to the event, whether they would prefer to have an electronic copy or a paper copy. If multiple transmitters can be used then you can use the one at the entrance to provide a detailed program for each day as well, as people enter. This can then be backed up by transmitters being stationed near the entrance of each of the different meeting venues so that when a person walks past they can be notified about which events are currently occurring there and which events will be taking place there after that.

Another possibility is to allow advertisers to send messages to attendees on their departure from a venue. This can reduce the amount of advertising that needs to be displayed throughout the venue while potentially making attendees more aware of the advertisers. Attendees can then decide whether they wish to receive additional promotional material from the sponsor and send it to their laptop or another storage device. This can prevent people who are not interested in the promotion from being bombarded with information they dont want while allowing those who are interested to access additional material.

Dial-a-Phone has supplied
mobile phones on monthly contract to 2.9 million customers, and since it launched in 2000 over 550,000 customers have connected from the website. Further information can be found in the Dialaphone Blog at: http://www.dialaphone.co.uk/blog/