Meetings on the go: Feeting to counter Zoom fatigue

According to a study by TimeInvest, a company with 100 employees wastes an average of around 570,000 euros a year on unproductive meetings. During the pandemic, meeting formats changed with Video meetings becoming predominant leading to mental fatigue and exhaustion caused by video conferencing – also known as Zoom fatigue. Similarly, the number of shorter meetings increased by 22 per cent as more coordination is needed virtually, as a Microsoft Insights study from April 2020 shows.

With Feeting, St. Gallen-based startup Talent Maps is introducing a new meeting format that allows shifting from the video to audio-only meetings for more productive meetings – Fleeting. Unlike telephone calls, the integrated voice isolation and noise suppression in the Fleeting app ensure the best sound and intelligibility and interference-free conversations. Moreover, the App features a pedometer to track participants’ steps and a CO2 emissions calculator to show users’ contributions to climate change. Participants can also use the app for meetings while at their desk and use the browser version.

The "Feeting Gems" are particularly practical: all important topics ("hot topics") and questions of the meeting and agreed follow-ups are recognised in text notes in the app including a mood smiley and speaking times, summarised and saved for all participants. Feeting Gems is currently available for English-speaking meetings. The startup will thus first launch in the UK, followed by the US and the DACH region targeting international organisations with English as their corporate language. The Gems will soon be available in other languages.

For companies, "Feeting" also offers a business license enabling dedicated Feeting rooms for teams or certain occasions as well as information on company-wide use.

According to Lucia Burtscher, co-founder of Talent Maps, “Feetings are particularly well suited for professional exchanges, creative team brainstorming sessions, mutual updates, and informal conversations. Thanks to artificial intelligence, the app ensures that no important information is lost.”

The beta version is now available in the Google Play Store and the iOS App Store with more than 1200 downloads. The basic version is free and some users have subscribed to the Pro version.

TalentMaps employs five people in the core team comprising Tom Suter as the CEO and product owner, developers Oliver Leumann, Julian Querido and Remo Bärlocher and Lucia Burtscher responsible for the market, investors, and partnerships. The startup is funded by a handful of investors who additionally provide expertise to support the company’s development.

(Press release/ RAN)