Volcano cloud disruption drives UK video conferencing use up more than 100 per cent

Paul Milligan, 21 April 2010

Regus has seen a rise of more than 100 per cent in video conferencing usage in the last week caused by the suspension of air travel in the wake of the volcanic eruption in Iceland. Polycom's customer Regus, which operates a global network of 2,500 publicly available video conferencing rooms, has seen facilities in Aberdeen, Manchester, Edinburgh as well as Gatwick and Heathrow received the highest demand as stranded travellers sought methods to maintain 'business as usual'.

'The truth is that too many organisations still lack the correct business continuity planning for times when communication becomes more challenging, meaning customers and overall competitiveness suffers,' said Mike Swade, VP EMEA at Polycom. 'The volcano and other recent incidents like H1N1 have been an eye opener to many organisations about the potential business impact that can be caused by external influences.'

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Theresa Baird - 22 April 2010

We agree. Clients have been forced to look at alternative ways of continuing their meetings during the disruption and have discovered that our live webcasting solution is more simple, effective and secure than they previously thought,

We are currently using our solution \(which offers live, on-line, high quality presentations, along with a unique delegate management system) to rescue critical meetings in Berlin.

The clinical manager who presented remotely from the UK said "I was a little apprehensive about the webcast but, as usual, QAV made the whole process simple and I actually felt as if I was at the live event".

- 22 April 2010

Why does it take a natural phenomenon like this to get people to wake up to what is an ecologically and economically sensible use of the available technology?

No one is expecting people to stop travelling altogether but surely a sensible use of resources like this can only be of benefit?

Jemma Kale - 14 July 2010

I agree that it shouldn't take such a hugely disruptive environmental event to trigger awareness into the great benefit that video conferencing can bring to a company that adopts it. However it's hardly surprising that the ash cloud caused such a huge rise in interest. The event lent video conferencing a sense of real benefit and abolished the gimmicky, exhibitionist vibe that previously overshadowed the potential savings in travel costs, time and CO2 emmisions.