Nov 2006: case study. Find out how we helped Anglo American to create a simultaneous discussion in three global locations
Project
Extended Sustainable Development Forum
Brief
To help Anglo American to improve the level of interaction at their Extended Sustainable Development Forum. The event helped Anglo American's Sustainable Development (SD) team to address SD challenges across the company's global activities. Our solution required the real time exchange of workshop outputs across three sites in Johannesburg, London and Wolverhampton.
Process
Our involvement was requested late in the planning cycle and we needed to show how an unfamiliar technology would enhance the forum discussions. Teaming up with Crystal Interactive, we made a live interactive demonstration from the UK via satellite to the clients in Johannesburg. This brought to life the potential of the approach.
We followed it up by face-to-face content meetings with the event facilitators, Cambridge Programme for Industry.
At the forum Anglo American SD professionals and line mangers at each location divided into a total of 18 table groups for facilitated discussions. Lucid Connections worked with Cambridge Programme for Industry to devise a consistent set of questions across a diverse range of SD topics, ranging from climate change to global job creation.
Responses from the working groups were inputted into the wireless laptop technology at each site, compiled on a central computer and transmitted via the internet from London and Wolverhampton to Johannesburg where the data from all workshops was compiled and analysed by Lucid Connections.
A summary was then presented back by the facilitator via satellite to each of the audiences and commented on by Dorian Emmett, Head of Sustainable Development for Anglo American plc and Karen Ireton from Anglo American South Africa.
Results
Lucid Connections produced a report, compiling all of the outputs from the working groups which will be used by Anglo American for their SD planning. Anglo American received very positive feedback from participants about the enhanced levels of involvement.
Dorian Emmett, Head of Sustainable Development for Anglo American plc said, "I was impressed by the process which allowed simultaneous real time feedback from a number of groups in different locations. It added substantial value to our process on the day."