GTC Council stages a virtual meeting

The GTC Council yesterday made a breakthrough in the way it conducts meetings. A Council meeting was called at short notice to discuss the GTC Awards event and, as usual, some Council members had prior commitments. For the first time, a way was found for these to attend all or part of the meeting 'virtually'. A Skype link was set up and Zerb/website editor (seen on the screen in the image) was able to hear and contribute to the meeting from her own office 70 miles away.

Like many other bodies, the GTC is aware of its responsibility around environmental issues and the importance of not thoughtlessly undertaking unnecessary travel (see the latest issue of Zerb which looked at ways in which cameramen can improve their energy usage and help to promote sustainable environmental practices). While you can never quite beat the effectiveness of gathering together relevant people in a room to meet and discuss important topics, with Council members leading busy lives with both work and domestic commitments, this can be hard to achieve. The idea of teleconferencing and 'virtual meetings' is certainly something worth exploring as this early experiment worked well.