According to an iVOX survey of 1,000 Belgians for Comet Meetings, 78.6% prefer to hold important meetings in person and only 11.6% opt for video calls.
When they want to hold important meetings, 78.6% of Belgians prefer to do so in person, either at an external meeting venue or on company premises. A majority also prefer not to hold their brainstorms, team building sessions, decision-making committees, project meetings and training courses online. These are the findings of a survey carried out by Comet Meetings through iVOX among 1,000 Belgians.
The government will almost certainly tighten its remote-working recommendations at the next Consultative Committee. Although virtual meetings certainly proved their worth during the lockdowns, many employees still favour in-person meetings. That is what emerges from the study by Comet Meetings, a specialist in urban co-meeting venues in Europe. 78.6% of working Belgians prefer to meet in person for an important meeting. 60.8% of them prefer to do so internally, while almost one in five would rather hold it externally in a suitable meeting venue. Only 11.6% opt for online video meetings.
Team building and brainstorming
Preferences vary somewhat depending on the type and purpose of the meeting. For brainstorming, more than 2 in 3 prefer a face-to-face meeting; for team building, it is even more than 8 in 10. For project meetings and training courses, 6 in 10 opt for a physical meeting. About half of them also want decision-making committees to meet in person, while 30.6% have no clear preference on the matter.
When an informative meeting (internal communication, top-down information) or a presentation (financial results or a marketing plan) is on the agenda, opinions are divided. Around four in ten are happy to do it virtually, while an almost equal number prefer a physical meeting.
“In some cases, virtual meetings turn out to be more efficient,” says Victor Carreau, CEO of Comet Meetings. “Face-to-face meetings retain enormous added value. They allow an exchange that can never be reproduced online. What the crisis has taught us is that the more remote work there is, the more in-person time is needed to maintain the bond. A company culture can survive and adapt to fragmented workplaces, but to hold firm and stay strong it has to go through group moments, in one shared place. Tellingly, it is the most digitalised companies that hold the most off-sites. There seems to be a direct trade-off between cutting a company’s office space and increasing its events spending. On the eve of new announcements from the Belgian government, it is essential that employees increase remote work and gather only in situations where their safety is assured, so that meeting together can continue in everyone’s interest.”
Interacting and exchanging ideas
Physical meetings allow us to understand each other better and to find solutions. For three quarters of Belgian employees, interaction between colleagues and the exchange of ideas and opinions is one of the most enjoyable aspects of meetings. Reaching a decision is also one of the priorities of such a meeting for almost 55% of them.
Sylvie Digard, Events Manager at Proximus, agrees: “Comet Bruxelles is, for us, a new way of organising meetings in an unusual, original venue, with the rooftop as the icing on the cake! The variety of rooms and a different theme on each floor offer an interesting range. Events at Proximus are mostly organised in hybrid format and we tried out that format at Comet. The equipment is state of the art and the staff are very pleasant and attentive. The commercial follow-up is meticulously efficient.”
The research agency iVOX conducted this study on behalf of Comet Meetings. In August 2021, 1,000 working Belgians (representative in terms of language, gender, age and qualifications) were asked a series of questions about meetings, both physical and online. The maximum margin of error is 3.02%.
