The phrase "digital native" has become a well-established term describing the generation born during or after the introduction of digital technologies. A lesser known descriptor, “digital immigrant”, is, perhaps, self-explanatory, defining those who were born in the analogue age and have been thrust into the digital world, willingly or otherwise.
Regardless of which segment people fall into, it is inevitable that both will have to work together in the modern workplace. The digital natives have embraced trends such as bring your own device (BYOD) making it worthwhile for companies to integrate mobile technologies into the office environment in a more structured way.
Of course it makes good business sense to support technologies that will make employees more engaged and also streamline working practices. After all, if more smartphones and tablets are being taken into the office anyway, then why not take advantage of these increasingly powerful devices, particularly in collaborative spaces such as meeting rooms?
Using these devices in meetings allows employees to share information quickly and effectively. However, connecting mobile handsets to a common screen to display content is not always straightforward, or even possible, a fixed PC or laptop is more often the standard technology used for this scenario.
Businesses are now able to create a future-proofed meeting room by taking advantage of specialised wireless collaboration technologies. These allow multiple users to share content from different devices on a shared screen at the same time, and without having the bother of having to rely on wires and adaptors. These solutions significantly save time during setting up and greatly improve collaboration.
Barco’s own ClickShare wireless presentation system enables participants to share content on the common screen. It has been developed to ensure the most popular mobile devices can be used alongside laptops in meetings. By offering a free app that can be downloaded from the Apple Store or Google Play, anyone is able to present content, including jpeg images and pdf documents, stored on their iOS or Android handset.
Support for additional mobile devices and content formats is continuously being added. Barco launches the new MirrorOp Sender app for Samsung’s Galaxy devices in mid- January. The app offers full device mirroring on the big screen for those using these handsets, which have proved popular with business users.
Mobility is changing the business world for the better, offering greater flexibility and efficiencies and there’s no reason why these benefits shouldn’t extend to the meeting room. By integrating enabling technologies into collaborative training spaces to support handsets any number of internal or external users can quickly and easily be supported through the use of apps. This alleviates security concerns of having to bring content from third parties onto a network. Also, because we typically take our mobile handsets with us wherever we go, any piece of collateral is just an email away. Forgetting your laptop need never be an issue again. Whether you are an enthusiastic digital native or a technophobe digital immigrant, the advantages are undeniable.
By Guy Coen, general manager collaboration, Barco
