From Bloomberg’s Sarah Carmichael Green (skgreen), this article points to the theoretical advantages of remote meetings. She interviewed John Hollenbeck, a professor from the Broad College of Business at Michigan State University, who cited, without evidence, that during the Covid-19 pandemic the total number of meetings has declined across organizations, that virtual meetings purportedly have fewer attendees, and that they are more likely to start on time.

Unfortunately, our empirical evidence suggests otherwise:

• the average number of meetings has increased per person by 15% of more during this stage of the pandemic
• the average number of people per meeting has increased by 8 – 14% (likely owing to the ‘inclusiveness’ effect of over-inviting people precisely because they are remote)
• remote meetings don’t start any more on time than in-person meetings because there are multiple work-from-home obligations at home (the dog, the kids, the family, etc.)

To learn more about how to run remote meetings the right way, please visit this interview we did with Dr. Joseph Allen, the director of the Center for Meeting Effectiveness and the world’s leading expert on meeting science. You’ll learn the top 5 things to do and things to avoid to optimize your remote meeting experience. And to sign-up for a free trial of MeetingScience, click here – we’ll show you the right way to understand the time, cost, and impact of your meetings, and how to improve them.