Cloud-based collaboration takes the travel out of meetings

Grazed from GCN.  Author: William Jackson.

Faced with steep budget cuts, Oregon’s Department of Land Conservation and Development needed to find a way to cut the cost of meetings with staff and stakeholders around the state without giving up the benefits of face-to-face communication.

The Department of Land Conservation and Development is a regulatory agency with about 60 staffers scattered across offices at department headquarters in Salem, at the state office building in Portland and at regional offices at Newport, La Grande, Tillamook, Eugene, Medford and Bend. Staff members also must work with local governments, industry officials, land owners and developers across the state…


But budget pressures put a crimp on meetings with these stakeholders. The department’s biennial budget for 2011 to 2013 was cut by nearly 27 percent from the previous budget, from $28.5 million to $18.7 million. Places had to be found to cut costs. “Travel was one of the areas,” said Casaria Taylor, the department’s rules, records and policy coordinator…

Read more from the source @ http://gcn.com/articles/2014/08/25/videoconferencing.aspx