In business, one must learn to project

Some of the latest gadgets are making it easier for business professionals in workplace meetings. Here's how.

New technology is making it easier for business professionals with hectic meeting schedules.

Workplace meetings are stressful enough but there are times when those large, loud office projectors fail to link to a laptop before a presentation or simply do not work properly.

IT support staff who work in British businesses handle an average of 34 problems involving presentation equipment every month. Each incident takes more than 20 minutes to solve.

Even worse, nearly 70 per cent of the presentation teams say they have experienced equipment failure, according to a study released last July and commissioned by the technology company Casio.

But some of the latest projectors are much more portable and do not always need a laptop to display projects created in formats such as PDF or JPG, or those made with Microsoft Office programmes such as Word and Excel.

Instead, employees can simply save their work to a memory card, slip it into a mini projector and play the presentation on a screen or conference room wall.

Merlin offers a trio of Pocket Projectors that cost between Dh845 (US$230) and Dh2,350, and display images spanning up to 100 inches.

One model, the WinCE, has Windows software built in so business professionals do not need to lug around a laptop.

There are also so-called smartpens, some of which can record boardroom conversations thanks to a built-in microphone.

Some models also include a tiny camera that can record notes as someone writes them down on special paper. The pen can be connected to a computer so the notes can be downloaded or e-mailed to colleagues.

Livescribe, one of the best-known makers in this niche market, produces some models that start at Dh849 and can be found in shops at Abu Dhabi Mall or the Mall of Emirates in Dubai, its local distributor says.