Delegates to The 2012 Canadian Telecom Summit have received their conference materials electronically, less than 2 days after the conference ended thanks to our move to electronic distribution.
It has been about 8 years since we stopped felling forests to produce conference binders with presentation that were weeks old by the time the speaker delivered the talk. The next phase in our evolution was production and mailing of CDs after the event, but this took a month or more because of logistics required and the number of hands that got involved between preparing a master, producing it, design and approval of the label and packaging, stuffing and mailing bubble envelops.
Last year was the first time we tried electronic distribution of the materials and this year, we seem to have improved dramatically on the process, shaving 80% off the post-conference delivery time.
Speakers were able to change their presentations right up to the time they went on stage; delegates have speedy access to the files and can move the materials onto whichever platform they prefer.
This year was also the first time that we did not prepare a print version of the conference brochure. I’m sold on the benefits of e-commerce.