In the ultra near future, January 2019 to be exact, Joan is traveling to Abu Dhabi to take part in the World Future Energy Summit. For hundreds of companies worldwide, the summit represents a precious opportunity to present their products that have been entrusted with the incredibly important task of helping make the economy, and with it our lives, greener.
Joan is one such product. Yet what makes this booking and room management solution stand out in the WFES crowd is its exceptionally versatile and of course sustainable palette of both potential and actual uses.
For a clearer understanding of what these uses and sustainable properties are we have to delve into the story behind the solution. And the best way to do so is to explore its origins by visiting its source, Joan’s creator – Visionect.
Based in Ljubljana, the capital of a subalpine country called Slovenia, Visionect is an innovative IT company that has dedicated over a decade’s worth of intense and meticulous research to the field of digital displays. Thus far, the company has successfully broken new ground in the design and implementation of digital signage in a number of private and public industry sectors. From digital bus stops and traffic signs to public information boards, from smart museum labels and e-paper traffic signs, to four versions of Joan, the room management and scheduling system we’ve all come to know and love.
There is, however, one main ingredient that gives the aforementioned technologies, including Joan, an unfathomable advantage in the world of digital signage, and that is electronic paper. Due to their energy-efficiency, slick design and the possibility of placing them virtually anywhere, e-paper screens are revolutionizing the way we communicate. Moreover, when the very person who invented the stuff, Barrett Comiskey, gives you a thumbs-up by saying: “The simple beauty of electronic paper lies in how quietly it integrates with the environment. Visionect has realized this simplicity with grace, elegance, and style,” you know you’re doing something right.
By harnessing the power of e-paper in combination with thin client technology, Visionect’s team have unlocked the secret to creating a truly flexible, secure and sustainable office ecosystem. And this is where Joan’s story begins.
It was the desire to develop a tool which could not only tackle today’s business meeting mayhem but could do so in a user- and environmentally-friendly way that birthed the idea of Joan. The paperless and cordless system of scheduling meetings and monitoring room availability is indeed cutting costs and man-hours, but what Joan will present to the WFES communities in terms of sustainability is that it can do so in the cleanest and most durable manner imaginable.
As an enviable list of organizations has already discovered in practice, Joan’s most apparent green feature is its battery autonomy. Closely linked to its reflective e-paper screen is Joan’s ability to use 99% less energy than similarly sized LCD solutions. This will undoubtedly spark many an interest at the WFES Energy Community.
Running for months on a single charge isn’t the only sustainable property this gadget has to offer. Organizing spaces and people in any office building or institution demands worrying quantities of resources and materials. Paper, printing, ink cartridges, etc. produce tons upon tons of waste. Joan cuts that down to a fraction.
Abolishing the need to clutter walls with post-it notes and consuming vast amounts of electricity with LCD displays and other outdated forms of communication is undeniably a greener step forward.
As Visionect’s mission to transform the corporate and public domain by means of smart e-paper devices is reflected in the way its number one scheduling solution is paving the way for a tight-knit, digitalized office ecosystem, Joan will fit right in at the WFES Green Buildings and Mobility Communities.
Seamless installation, flexible functionality and a mobile app option aside, the integration of Joan-style e-paper based solutions is merely scratching the surface of a vast ocean of future possibilities.
So, if you happen to be in the neighborhood this coming January, you’re most cordially invited to drop by our Visionect booth no. 5009 and see first-hand what we’re up to.
Stay tuned for more on Joan and WFES 2019 in the New Year.