Ok, most meetings are a total waste of time. However, the majority of meetings that I run I require people to bring their laptop because they are WORKING meetings where we are actively creating something that needs contribution from each person where it will take much less time for the person in charge of that to look up the information than for me to switch back and forth.

Of course, my meetings all run between 15 and 30 minutes. No one complains about having to be at my meeetings - which is not true of any other meetings that I know of, because they get their work done.

My rule is simple. I don't care what you are doing on your laptop as long as you are able to answer the questions I need you to answer during the meeting - and if you can't, you are obligated to have the answers to everyone ASAP.

I have both a very low absenteeism rate and high success rate.

Honestly, management likes useless meetings and process. This is a universal constant. And it is the main reason that productivity tends to be downward in some industries.

Pax,

MLO