Technology

Daily Buzz: Happy 15th Birthday, Gmail!

For its anniversary, Google announced Gmail is getting some upgrades. Also: how to choose the right meeting venue.

It’s no April Fool’s joke: Today Gmail turns 15. And in celebration, Google announced new improvements to the platform, namely the long-awaited scheduling feature.

Gmail’s send button will now include a drop-down menu that allows users to schedule an email for a future time, which Google is positioning as a digital wellness tool.

“We understand that work can often carry over to non-business hours, but it’s important to be considerate of everyone’s downtime,” Jacob Bank, director of Product Management, G Suite, said in Google’s announcement. “We want to make it easier to respect everyone’s digital well-being, so we’re adding a new feature to Gmail that allows you to choose when an email should be sent.”

Smart Compose, which autocompletes messages as you type them, is also getting an upgrade. The feature will now be able to adapt to the way you write your emails.

“If you prefer ‘Hey’ over ‘Hi,’ then Smart Compose will learn that,” says Frederic Lardinois on TechCrunch. “If you often fret over which subject to use for your emails, then there’s some relief here for you, too, because Smart Compose can now suggest a subject line based on the content of your email.”

Smart Compose will also now be available in French, Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese. So, joyeux anniversaire, Gmail, if you will.

Visualizing the Perfect Event Space

How do you want attendees to feel when they walk into your meeting space? That’s the first question you should ask when it comes to selecting a venue, writes Crystal Grave on SocialTables.

“A great way to start your venue selection process is to fully imagine the event in your mind,” she says. “Vision boarding can be a worthwhile exercise to prevent wasting precious dollars and hours to find the right venue, decor, rentals, entertainment or other event aspects that may not be aligned.”

Once you better understand your meeting vision, logistical needs such as capacity, accessibility, and room function should then come to focus and help you hone in on the right venue.

Other Links of Note

Time to revise your mission statement? The Bloomerang Blog offers tips on how to brainstorm and evolve your mission.

Meeting design should include intentional ways to promote active learning, says Jeffrey Cufaude from Idea Architects.

Hosting a business-to-business networking event? EventMarketer outlines ways to generate meaningful connections.

(LICreate/iStock Unreleased/Getty Images Plus)

Jeff Hsin

By Jeff Hsin

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