Beyond boardrooms: From breakfast clubs to videoconference centers; gone are the overhead projectors. Today's boardrooms are high-tech.

• Author: Williams, Colleen M.

Today's businesses are using rooms equipped with high-tech tools for all types of activities. Today's board, employee, training and conference rooms may have features as simple as walls that can be removed for increased seating or as complicated as theatre-like screens that display 3-D visualization technology used by geologists and geophysicists to drill better oil and gas wells. Videoconference suites allow Alaskan users to see and speak with business associates in the Lower 48 in real-time conferences. It's safe to say that today's Alaska businesses have grown well beyond the boring overhead-projector-enhanced boardroom meetings of the past.

At ACS, quite naturally, teleconferencing is still used quite often and very effectively. Mary Ann Pease, vice president of investor relations, also noted that having a room that provided presenters with the ability to present a power-point presentation that incorporated wireless lap tops and a multimedia projector was quite an effective tool. "You're really hitting most of your audience's senses with this type of presentation. You're educating or informing in an easy-to-remember format. For example, instead of showing a black-and-white balance sheet to your investors, you can provide graphics like pie charts and bar graphs that enhance your presentation, making information easier to understand and remember," explained Pease.

ACS currently uses its videoconferencing rooms primarily for employee training sessions and new vendor product demonstrations. The advantages of doing so? ACS saves money that would be spent on airline tickets, flying employees from one part of the state to another. Also, a great deal of time is saved, and anyone in business knows: Time is money.

The state of Alaska is expected to save $12.9 million through its use of ACS's services in its offices, boardrooms and employee training rooms. Videoconferencing is just one of the tools that they will be using to save money. The state signed a contract with ACS, which was effective starting April 1. This means that ACS will be providing the state's offices, conference and training rooms with state-of-the-art technology.

A BETTER BOARDROOM

First National Bank Alaska has a state-of-the-art conference center that has become a breakfast club and much more. The bank's conference center in Anchorage has been used by the bank's Anchorage Employee Club for events such as the spring breakfast and holiday breakfast. During those events, First...