Meetings in 2020

This white paper is provided to the members of the Club of Amsterdam and the members of the Community of Interest by the AMI Consortium as part of an ongoing initiative to increase global study and understanding of the human-to-human communications and the future of technology-assisted meetings using automation and intelligent agents in an environment of virtually unlimited processing and bandwidth resources.

This white paper is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information in regard of the future of meetings. It is made available by the AMI Consortium, with the permission of ParkWood Advisors LLC, with the understanding that the intent is not to render legal, investment, accounting or other professional advisory services.

If investment advice or other expert assistance is required, the services of a competent professional person should be sought. Requests for permission to reuse the contents of this document or for further information about its contents should be addressed to John Parkinson at ParkWood Advisors LLC.


Preface
Speaking and digitally publishing about a subject are two very, very different things. In the case of predicting the future, however, the tangible results may be the same.

When speaking about meetings in 2020, a presenter has a lot of liberty because chances are relatively high that no one in the audience will remember what he or she said about the subject by 2020. And, in contrast with what you might expect, a digitally published/stored archive of the same concepts will probably also be “lost” for all intents and purposes. For John Parkinson, Chairman and Managing Partner of ParkWood Advisors LLC, the risk of his words fading and disappearing long before the accuracy of his predictions are tested just comes with the territory.

Parkinson introduced his talk, a keynote address at the Wainhouse Research European Forum 2006 in Berlin entitled “Meetings in 2020,” with a touching reminder that predictions of the future — even the future of technology over the past 50 years — have more frequently been wrong than right.

All predictions/forecasts and recommendations made in this paper are the rights and responsibilities of ParkWood Advisors LLC.

Only time will tell how well the words of 2006 will fit the future.

Christine Perey, AMI Consortium Technology Transfer


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