Please Leave Your Mobile Phones Turned On ...

There is a phrase you don't hear very often. In fact when we board a plane, enter a meeting or listen to the opening messages at a conference we usually hear just the opposite. Lately we hear with increasing frequency that mobile phones and the apps that we run on them will dramatically change the way we work, live and manage travel. So why are we always asked to turn them off? [more]

At the upcoming ACTE Global Education Conference in Chicago (15-17 May) you will not hear this at all. We want you to keep connected and communicating throughout the event. In the always-on world that we live in, it just doesn't make sense anymore to ask people who attend industry events to turn off their linkage to the world that is going on all around us. Rather, let's invite it in and make it welcome.

Attendees at the conference will have free Wi-Fi available throughout the meeting areas--including in the general sessions--so you can stay connected. And we encourage you to use it. Look up the stats referenced by a speaker, check out the company being talked about in a keynote, download the app someone just told you about, and update your social media with news and views throughout the event.

Use of mobile devices on the rise--78 percent of respondents to the latest edition of the The Wire...from AirPlus survey on mobile technology say that more than half of their travelers are already actively using smart phones of some sort.

Just one request. Please be respectful of those that are with you at the event and silence your ringer or set it to vibrate during the meetings!