Menin is a Belgian city close to the French border and has about 33,000 inhabitants. The city has an IT department of 6 people, of which Jeroen Lannoo is the department head. Responsible for equipping the city council members and the entire municipality workforce with the appropriate IT tools, the IT team was unexpectedly confronted in March 2020 with the need for remote communication, presentation and collaboration tools.
“To support a hybrid way of working, we wanted to enable our city council members to meet and make decisions while working from home, or in a mixed group of people working from home and at the office,” says Jeroen. “At the same time, we wanted tools that were extremely easy to use for our diverse group of employees and council members.”
Digital city council meetings
The team installed a ClickShare Conference set-up with a large screen and audiovisual peripherals from Logitech in the main council hall. The set-up allows council members to have their monthly city council meeting at the city hall and collaborate with colleagues working remotely. In practice, the mayor and a limited municipal council are present in the city hall and call with the remaining members working remotely.
The council uses ClickShare Conference to share presentations and voting results with the mixed team of remote and home council members. Users in the council hall can clearly see the content and remote participants, while remote workers can also see the content and the entire team in the council hall. This creates a more engaging meeting experience for all involved.
Ease of use is a must
“ClickShare Conference is super easy to use. It’s as simple as ‘plug and play’, anyone can use it,” says Jeroen. “Meeting participants don’t have to work with cables to start the meeting, nor do they have to struggle to capture every meeting participant with their laptop camera. In the meeting area, ClickShare Conference immediately connects with the Logitech peripherals and remote users can see everyone in the council hall.”
As an IT responsible, installing ClickShare Conference is a breeze too: “It’s really easy to set up and my team does not have to spend time explaining our workforce how to use the tool, because it’s so straightforward.”
Looking forward to safer, pandemic-free times, Jeroen can imagine using ClickShare Conference in the city’s smaller meeting rooms as well: “We could invite external people in our ClickShare Conference meeting rooms as well. With external people, you never know which devices or videoconferencing apps will be brought into the meeting, but with ClickShare Conference, that doesn’t matter, because it’s compatible with any device or software.”
Highlights:
Easy to use for all members of the city council and municipal services
Enables any laptop to be connected with the meeting room peripherals
Seamless collaboration between in-house city council and remote participants
A graduate of DeVry Institute of Technology, Doug has been in the Technology industry since 1976 and actively oversees Fearing’s daily operations. Along with his wife, Lois, and three others, Doug started Fearing’s in a 600 square-foot facility in Portage, Wisconsin. In the 25 years since, the company has grown to over 30 employees with offices in Madison and Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Doug likes to say he’s a “TV Technician with a dream� going back to his history with the family’s original business-Fearing’s TV and Appliance.
Doug values time with family, watersports, hiking, snowshoeing and skiing. In addition to being a devoted member of his church, Doug serves as Board President for Kinship Mentoring of Columbia County, Board member of Schools for Haiti and Scripture Chair of the Gideons-Portage camp.
A graduate of MATC, Lois oversees Fearing’s daily book keeping along with various HR responsibilities.
Along with Doug, Lois is deeply connected to community outreach, serving as a Board member and Fundraising Committee Chairperson for Kinship Mentoring of Columbia County. She also serves on the Schools for Haiti Fundraising committee. In addition, Lois’ ongoing passion and commitment to provide care for the elderly comes from her 10-year history of working in a Reedsburg, Wisconsin Nursing home.
Lois enjoys singing, hiking, sunny days on the pontoon, and spending time with her 4 grandchildren.
Ehren drives Fearing’s technology by continually seeking out trends to enhance capabilities while supporting Sales, Engineering and Installation teams. Throughout his years with Fearing’s, Ehren’s talent and vision have joined forces to create a wide variety of projects and strategic solutions that exceed expectation.
Ehren loves music, family time, movies, nature, sustainability efforts and electric vehicles.
With 10 years with Fearing’s and over twice that long in the industry, Ben continues to lead, coordinate, and develop the Commercial AV team.
By consistently delivering an outstanding experience and outcome, Ben contributes to the Fearing’s legacy of long-lasting partnerships that truly make a difference. Whatever the Commercial AV need may be, Ben and team deliver at the highest level.
Ben is an avid fisherman and photographer. He enjoys coaching his sons and other youth.
Chris has been with Fearing’s for 20 years and in the industry for over 2 decades. As a Certified leader in Sales Acceleration and trained in EOS (Entrepreneurial Operating Systems), Chris successfully utilizes his skills to lead the Fearing’s Salesforce. Chris and team are motivated and driven to develop new client partnerships while continuing to reinforce loyal long-term relationships with ongoing Service excellence.
Married for 19 years with 3 children, Chris enjoys skiing, hiking, fishing, boating, hunting, camping and golf. He’s also been actively involved as a Youth Football and Softball coach for his family and others.
