Virtual Edge Institute and the Lattanze Center at Loyola University Enter into Agreement to Cooperat

Online, October 12, 2009 (Newswire.com) - PLEASANTON, CA and BALTIMORE, MD, October 12, 2009 - The Virtual Edge Institute (VEI), a leading organization serving the needs of marketing, event and meeting professionals and the Lattanze Center at Loyola University today announced a new partnership to collaborate on research to increase the understanding of the effectiveness and efficiency of virtual events and virtual meetings for marketing and collaboration.

The agreement supports a variety of activities though which the Lattanze Center will provide a range of research services to VEI including data collection and data analysis as well as presenting the data in a variety of formats to different stakeholders.

"The meeting and event sectors of industry have much to gain from virtual events and meeting technologies and practices," said Michael Doyle executive director of the Virtual Edge Institute." Event and meeting producers are directly affected by the cost of producing physical events as are the attendees. Of the approximately $300 billion per year the U.S. spends on the event and meeting industry, approximately half goes into travel, lodging and related expenses. In addition to cost savings, there are significant carbon savings associated with virtual meetings and events. We want to go beyond these obvious benefits to adding more virtual elements into meeting and events, and understand the best practices and document the effectiveness and return on investment from the standpoint of the event producer as well as the participant."

"Our new relationship with VEI will enable us to contribute to the exploration of new information technologies and methods for improving the quality of meetings and events," said Paul Tallon, director, Lattanze Center, Sellinger School of Business and Management at Loyola University. "We are excited to be able to participate in research that will shed light on the effectiveness and efficiency of virtual meetings."

Through joint outreach efforts, Lattanze and VEI will seek to gain research data and support from industry suppliers and event producers, to help them achieve greater understanding of the virtual event and meeting experience and ways that it might be improved for all stakeholders. The research will be made available so that suppliers, producers, attendees and other stakeholders can gain a deeper understanding of the potential and pitfalls associated with this emerging technology.

About the Virtual Edge Institute
The Virtual Edge Institute (http://www.VirtualEdge.org) is an organization dedicated to advancing the development and adoption of virtual event and meeting technology and best practices for collaboration and marketing. They do this by supporting and contributing research, education, thought leadership, promotion, and professional networking. VEI members are helping set the direction for the virtual events and meeting industry and are creating significant business opportunities, solutions and advantages for all. Members have access to various services and deliverables based on their membership level.

About the Lattanze Center
The Lattanze Center at Loyola University Maryland (http://www.loyola.edu/lattanze) is recognized nationally as a center of excellence for academic and practitioner collaboration on issues related to information technology.
A unit of the Sellinger School of Business and Management, the Lattanze Center serves business professionals on issues relating to excellence in information technology.

Contact:
Michael Doyle
Virtual Edge Institute
(925) 600-1001
Email: [email protected]