MOBILE COMMUNICATION devices are having a detrimental effect on delegates' concentration at conferences.
A survey carried out by Wyboston Lakes, the conference and training complex located on the Bedfordshire-Cambridgeshire border, revealed that three quarters of the 875 respondents said they ignored requests to switch off their mobile devices during sessions. Of these, 40 per cent admitted to checking PDAs, BlackBerrys, iPhones and mobile phones at least every 30 minutes, and 10 per cent said that they checked their phones every 10 minutes.
Says Clive Bache, sales and marketing director of Wyboston Lakes: "We try to discourage the use of PDAs and mobiles during conferences and events as they can be very disruptive. As companies want to secure a return on investment from their events, conference speakers need to find the most effective ways to get audiences focused and more involved in the messages they are trying to get across."