INSIGHTS / News

Thoughtified Wins Award to Develop Web-Based Traditional Meeting Killer

We have all experienced the dread of sitting through yet another boring meeting, where we listen to endless reports and opinion – only some of which are marginally useful – while gradually working ourselves into a stressed state thinking (at best) of the ever increasing volume of work we will have to face upon the return to our desks. A collaboration of young companies based in Guildford have had enough and have won funding from the Technology Strategy Board, the UK’s innovation agency, to continue development of a new software platform that will ‘reinvent the meeting’.

Led by web-based software development company Thoughtified, in partnership with the creative team at Monkey Mischief, the project will see the development of a unique platform that allows for colleagues to collaborate easily, quickly, and with a minimal impact on their working lives. The idea for the platform came about after a particularly disastrous meeting, which took a staggering 16 man-hours across all project members to effectively come to the conclusion that there was no conclusion.

“Although a valuable lesson was learned by our client, it was immediately apparent to us that physical meetings, although they will always be vital to a successful project, are far too valuable in terms of time and resources to be used as they are currently, and that there must be a better tool to facilitate ongoing collaboration. Physical meetings can cause particular problems for mobile or remote workers, which now constitute approximately 15% of the EU workforce, and the same can be said for small business owners and freelancers: If group decisions can be made efficiently without the need to be in the same physical space, then that can surely only contribute to the growth of the UK’s economy?” said Rich Clayton, Creative Director of Monkey Mischief Ltd.

“Thoughtifiedbelieves that conventional meetings can be an unnecessary and expensive evil. Meetings are complicated: organising people to meet at the same time, at the same place, to achieve a structured outcome can often be a challenging feat.

What if there was a way to collaborate without having to be somewhere at the same time, without having to be in the same place, while still ensuring that your contribution is recognised? I would certainly be interested.

How valuable would it be if you could digest meeting notes and references at a time that was suitable to you, such as when you are on the train? What if you could guarantee that the opinion of every participant is considered and evaluated? What if you didn’t have to respond immediately to a suggestion, but could take the time to do a little research, or even sleep on an idea before contributing to an ongoing discussion?

Well that’s exactly what we propose to facilitate.” added Aaron Mason, Director of Thoughtified. The team has even produced a formula to calculate the usually unseen price that meetings cost companies:

((Meeting Duration + Travel Time) x Average Hourly Wage) x Number of Meeting Participants x Number of meetings = Meeting Cost

Assuming 2 Meetings per month, each lasting 2 Hours, with 8 Attendees, earning an average of £45,000 pa, traveling 30 mins, The cost of meetings for that project alone is £24,883 This cost does not include:

Time taken to coordinate schedules and fix a meeting time, Travel Expenses, Meeting Overruns, Facility costs, Lost productivity.

Both Thoughtified and Monkey Mischief are members of the highly successful SETsquared Incubation Program which is based at the Surrey Technology Centre on the Surrey Research Park.

Sarah De’Lacy,Centre Director for The Surrey SETsquared Incubation Centre commented: “SETsquared Surrey has supported over 150 technology businesses and ideas over the past 5 years, however never has one been so relevant for today’s world. We all live extremely fast paced lives and an incredible amount of time can be wasted at meetings, not to mention the amount of individuals travelling to a meeting each day that add to congestion and carbon emissions. It’s fantastic news and a merit to their innovation and hard work that Thoughtified and Monkey Mischief have won this award to develop a platform that will transform the way meetings are held in the future”

If you would like more information on this topic, or to schedule an interview with Aaron Mason or Rich Clayton, please email [email protected] or call 01483 688404

About Thoughtified – www.thoughtified.com
Thoughtified Limited is a SETsquared start-up company that was formed in 2009 by Aaron Mason and Georgios Michalakidis, graduates of the University of Surrey. The team focus on developing intelligent software for internet-based systems within the geographic, enterprise and mobile environments. Thoughtified has gathered numerous awards as it develops location-aware and data processing technologies. Thoughtified makes it easy to commission custom built, technically advanced software systems and Web platforms.

About Monkey Mischief – www.monkeymischief.net
Monkey Mischief Limited, a SETsquared companyis a multidisciplinary creative studio that provides Brand, User Interface and Digital Design solutions, working across multiple, and specialising in the development of new brands in the technology sector. Their work has been published in the industry leading magazine Computer Arts, and have received recognition for
his work in both Superbrands (UK), Inc Magazine (USA) and Signature Magazine (USA).

Most recently, we have created user unique, innovative user interfaces for revolutionary products such as Travel Time (www.traveltimeapp.com), and the FISH Digital Forensics Suite (www.fishtouch.co), in our spare time,they also publish our own digital fashion magazine, The Collective.

About the Technology Strategy Board – www.innovateuk.org
The Technology Strategy Board is the UK’s innovation agency. Its goal is to accelerate economic growth by stimulating and supporting business-led innovation. Sponsored by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS), the Technology Strategy Board brings together business, research and the public sector, supporting and accelerating the development of innovative products and services to meet market needs, tackle major societal challenges and help build the future economy. For more information please visit www.innovateuk.org.