The Independent
LONDON: Long gone, too, are the days when business meetings meant languorous, gin-soaked lunches in hotel bars, when hands were shaken, decisions taken and morals forsaken.
The hyper-connected, start-up-crazy millennial generation has brought a democratising influence to the ceremony, reducing it to a chronically informal chat over a flat white, while all parties involved spend most of the time click-clacking on their phones or tablets.
Because of the “casual” and “fun” working culture endemic to these media and techy start-ups, the more relaxed the “meeting”, the better. After all, who needs a boardroom and a tea urn when you can brainstorm on bean bags with a Corona?
Why bother drafting a business plan in a stuffy office when you can do it on an iPad in the pub?
The problem? Things have become so laid-back that, when attending one of these meetings, it can be hard to remember it’s not just a drink with a mate.
And the problem for the rest of us? It’s now particularly difficult to secure a table at a coffee shop not already crammed with hipsters forming a collective or brain-dumping ideas.
Maybe meetings need to be rationed, so they regain a sense of occasion and consequence.
Put down the Sharpies and Doritos, and bring back business-meeting decadence with all the trimmings: the pre-recession patisserie, the sandwich platter, even the liquid lunch.
See you at the bar Thursday…