Even with an ongoing rise in the use of email, video conferencing, and other technology, face-to-face meetings are still the primary way business is done. A study commissioned by Verizon Conferencing found there are 11 million business meetings each day. Here are three apps for meetings—two focused on the management of meeting content, and one to streamline the hosting of meetings at a national hotel chain.
Retrace is a free app that launched at TechCrunch Disrupt Startup Battlefield in late April. The app integrates with Google Calendar for seamless scheduling and also records the meeting’s GPS location. Hosts add attendees via email and the app pulls in contact information that can include data from their LinkedIn and Facebook profiles. The app is a hub for all the information generated at a meeting, including notes, tasks, summaries, and photos. In addition to being accessible through the app, the information can be shared via email and is saved for reference before future meetings.
The Meeting App from Action Day is an iOS app that offers a variety of options to save content from meetings. Users can handwrite or type notes, create diagrams, import pictures, or record audio. The app is integrated with the user’s contacts and calendar for easy sharing and scheduling of notes and tasks. Meetings can be organized by category and all work is automatically saved. An update in March added support for an external keyboard and the ability to search to set meeting location. The app is available for $9.99.
Marriott Hotels is rolling out the free Red Coat Direct app in all of its properties during the next several months. The hotel sends a personalized version of the app to planners three days before their meetings. They can use it to edit their meeting requests and preferences just before the event or while on site, for example to request an adjustment in room temperature or to change a meal time. The app remains available for several months after the meeting so planners can also use it to reconcile their bills. The app will be available in all hotels in the United States and Canada by the end of this year and in international properties in 2014.
