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Raindance Challenges Corporate America to 'Make the Road Less Traveled' This Earth Day; Offers Free Web Conferencing on April 22
Raindance Challenges Corporate America to 'Make the Road Less Traveled' This Earth Day; Offers Free Web Conferencing on April 22
Published 04-19-04
Submitted by Raindance Communications
The Harris Interactive poll conducted for Raindance revealed that the American workforce spends an average of 250 million hours on the road each month traveling to and from off-site meetings. When asked about environmentally-friendly alternatives to business related travel, 79% of respondents indicated they would likely utilize conferencing technology while only 48% and 32% responded they would be likely to carpool or utilize public transportation, respectively.
Raindance's 'Make the Road Less Traveled' Earth Day Challenge is a direct call to action for businesses to curtail the adverse environmental effects of everyday business travel by using conferencing technology as an alternative. As part of the challenge, Raindance will give away free use of Raindance Meeting Edition, the industry's only fully integrated web, audio and multipoint desktop video conferencing platform, to the first 1000 users that register for the challenge at www.raindance.com.
"Corporate America recognizes that web conferencing helps save businesses time and money, but the fact that web conferencing is also good for our environment is often overlooked," said Don Detampel, President and CEO at Raindance. "We hope our challenge will rally the American workforce to modify their daily business practices with innovative green alternatives, such as web conferencing, and positively impact our environment."
When asked to identify the primary benefits of web conferencing solutions, 83% of the survey respondents identified time saved by eliminating the commute to off-site meetings. Seventy-nine percent of respondents agreed that web conferencing saves money related to travel expenses, and 66% noted the ability to increase the frequency of meetings with remote groups. Only 46% identified making a positive impact on the environment as a key benefit. Through its Earth Day challenge, Raindance hopes to promote greater awareness for technologies that contribute to broader environmental initiatives.
"With the number of automobiles in the US increasing twice as fast as our population growth, EPA's Best Workplaces for Commuters program and other employer initiatives that encourage alternatives to the traditional single car commute can make a huge difference. Employer policies such as web conferencing, encouraging employees to carpool or use public transportation go a long way in protecting the environment and maintaining a high quality of life," said Suzanne Rudzinski, Director of Transportation and Regional Programs at the Environmental Protection Agency's Office of Transportation and Air Quality.
¹The national survey was conducted by Harris Interactive on behalf of Raindance Communications. The survey, which was conducted online from March 29-31, 2004, interviewed 2,275 adults aged 18 or over and has a margin of error of +/- 2.1 percentage points. This online sample is not a probability sample. Most data were weighted to be representative of the total U.S. adult population (with a few questions weighted to the online adult population) on the basis of region, age within gender, education, household income, and race/ethnicity; some propensity weighting was done to adjust for respondents' propensity to be online.
About Raindance's 'Make The Road Less Traveled' Challenge
Raindance's 'Make the Road Less Traveled' Challenge is open to the first 1000 qualified entrants interested in making a positive impact on the environment through the use of conferencing technologies. Participants can enter the challenge by completing the registration form located at www.raindance.com with their name, company name, e-mail address, phone number and mailing address. Registered users will receive an e-mail outlining how to access and use the service
