With 80-85% of business travelers carrying smartphones (Leposa 2013), there’s no question that digital technology, namely mobile technology, is changing the way we communicate and get around. Meetings and conferences already look and feel completely different than they did 10 years ago.
Printed signage is being swapped out in favor of digital, printed guides are being replaced with pre-loaded information on tablets, and pen-and-paper notes are giving way to smart-phone apps that record and annotate for you. GPS will also begin to play a big part as navigating through meeting and conference spaces has often been a hassle for attendees.
While this paperless trend is supported its “green” qualities, it does come with a foreseeable problem: already overwhelmed networks are not going to get a break. Constant connectivity (of both planners and attendees) uses massive amounts of bandwidth – add in GPS usage and you’ve probably clogged your network.
According to this Hotel Management article, updating network infrastructure is going to cost hotels quite a bit; nonetheless, hotels need to prioritize the expense over the next few years, in order to stay relevant.