The invention relates generally to scheduling meetings, and, more particularly, to a system and method for meeting resource scheduling based upon attendee participation types.
In the past, excessive resources may be used (and some resources wasted) when meetings are scheduled. For instance,
Part of the problem is that hosts, when scheduling a meeting, do not have information about the type of attendance to expect (in person, remote, phone only, etc). Another part of the problem—even if the information was available, it may change over time, but adjusting booked resources is a very manual and time consuming process that only a few can afford. The invention described below addresses both problems.
There have been attempts to solve these problems. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,324,517, entitled “Meeting site selection based on all-inclusive meeting cost” describes meeting or conference facilities are evaluated based on an all-inclusive meeting cost. The all-inclusive meeting cost is used to rank the facilities based on the lowest all-inclusive meeting cost or on highest quality below a maximum cost. Meeting planners can then compare total meeting cost at facilities with different characteristics, and find the facilities that offer the most value. An application server is used to calculate all-inclusive meeting cost from a comprehensive database of cost factors. The list of generated meeting facilities and their costs can be generated quickly for a large number of potential meeting facilities.
Another U.S. Pat. No. 5,124,912, entitled “Meeting management device”, describes a meeting management device of a computer system which determines the optimal meeting date and time for a specified group of invitees within a set of specified time parameters. A subset of the invitees are designated as critical along with any specified pieces of equipment and desired meeting sites. Remote from personal calendars of the invitees, the device compares available dates and times of each critical invitee with each other and that of any critical pieces of equipment and meeting sites. The comparison determines common available dates and times in which to schedule the meeting. Available or unavailable dates and times of each invitee are defined in part by the invitee and in part by other scheduled meetings to which the invitee has been invited. The invitee may define available or unavailable dates and times automatically through his personal calendar or manually to mirror as much of his calendar as desired.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,324,517, describes a system which meeting or conference facilities are evaluated based on an all-inclusive meeting cost. The all-inclusive meeting cost is used to rank the facilities based on the lowest all-inclusive meeting cost or on highest quality below a maximum cost. Meeting planners can then compare total meeting cost at facilities with different characteristics, and find the facilities that offer the most value. An application server is used to calculate all-inclusive meeting cost from a comprehensive database of cost factors. The list of generated meeting facilities and their costs can be generated quickly for a large number of potential meeting facilities.
European Patent EP1306735, entitled “Control of a meeting room”, describes a control device and method for a meeting room for providing a common control interface technical devices such as audio-visual devices and systems for heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC). According to the invention, not only technical subsystems but also service subsystems for catering, providing and servicing equipment, and travel related services such as taxi and hotel reservations are accessed through a single common user interface device. The user interface is configured to display user interface elements for controlling technical devices as well as user interface elements for communicating with service related computer applications.
United States Application 20020184063, entitled “Dynamic resource scheduling to optimize location of meeting participants”, describes a global positioning system (GPS) which is used to detect locations (dynamic locations) associated with meeting participants and the proximity between participants is used to create one or more location clusters. Next, the availability of suitable meeting locations (static locations) are identified and an optimum meeting location, given the participant clusters and their proximity to the available meeting locations, is determined. Additionally, the center of mass associated with each of the clusters is also used to determine optimal meeting locations. Lastly, participants are notified regarding the optimized location for the meeting.
In view of the foregoing, a need exists to overcome these problems by providing a system and method for meeting resource scheduling based upon attendee participation types.
Innovation described here provides automatic tools and visual hints to a user that is scheduling a meeting to book meeting related resources more efficiently by utilizing pre provided profile information and additional meta data from meeting confirmations.
An extension to the meeting scheduling systems allows collection of the following information:
When host schedules a meeting, he selects the location information and checks the “visual” flag if needed. Any point in time, each attendee fills in user profile information. Upon accepting invitation, each attendee fills in the type of attendance field. Each attendee, after accepting invite, can change the type of participation by going to the calendar system and changing his settings. The change will be sent to the server to update the scheduled meeting object.
A reservation system that is connected to the scheduling system would then collect information about the meeting type and required resource allocated and make the necessary bookings accordingly. The auto assigned resources can include (but are not limited to):
The illustrative aspects of the present invention are designed to solve one or more of the problems herein described and/or one or more other problems not discussed.
These and other features of the invention will be more readily understood from the following detailed description of the various aspects of the invention taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings that depict various embodiments of the invention, in which:
It is noted that the drawings are not to scale. The drawings are intended to depict only typical aspects of the invention, and therefore should not be considered as limiting the scope of the invention. In the drawings, like numbering represents like elements between the drawings.
As used herein, unless otherwise noted, the term “set” means one or more (i.e., at least one) and the phrase “any solution” means any now known or later developed solution. Additionally, the term “data store” means any type of memory, storage device, storage system, and/or the like, which can temporarily or permanently store electronic data, and which can be included in a storage and/or memory hierarchy (collectively referred to herein as a “memory hierarchy”) for a computer system.
At
At step 112, the user (meeting requester or host) checks the “visual” flag on the meeting invitation to determine whether there are any visual materials to be presented. For instance, a projector or possibly some other visual device may be necessary at the meeting. At step 114, meeting requestor fills in the remaining details and submits the meeting request to a meeting service.
This is also shown in
Meeting Host 100A has an I/F 120A for interfacing with the Network 108A and Server 102A. Likewise, Attendees 104A, 106A have interface components for interfacing with the Network 108A and Server 102A. Meeting Host 100A has a Calendaring System Component 110 for allowing the Meeting Host 100A to request meetings, to keep an electronic calendar, and for receiving meeting requests from others. Likewise, Attendees Clients 104A, 106A each has a Calendaring System Component 113A, 111A for same purpose.
As shown in
As shown in
This is shown in
As shown in
As shown in
As shown in
If there are no attendees attending remotely, the meeting scheduling system, at 518, cancels the conference call-in information and online meeting reservation if initially requested. At 542, the meeting scheduling system sends a meeting update event to all of the meeting attendees and at 544 the process is complete.
If, at 512, the meeting scheduling system determines that there are participants attending the meeting in person, the process 500 moves to the next step 532 where the meeting scheduling system books a room of appropriate size based upon the number of physical attending invitees.
At 534, the meeting scheduling system determines whether there is a visual flag set on the meeting object and, if not, the meeting scheduling system books a room with a phone at 538 and sends a meeting update event to all meeting attendees at 542. If, at 534, the meeting scheduling system determines that there is a visual flag set on the meeting object, the meeting scheduling system books a room with visual tools at 536 and then moves to 540 to determine whether any participants are attending remotely. If not, sends a meeting update event to all meeting attendees at 526. If so, the meeting scheduling system books a room with a phone and Internet connectivity at 546 sends a meeting update event to all meeting attendees at 526.