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Is SOX Act making communications folks schizophrenic?
I’m a former AV guy at a large pharmaceutical co.
Not sure if it was directly related to the SOX Act (Sarbanes Oxley) but I recall the communications people becoming very weird about videotaping meetings. Before the meeting they would warn us strictly to not record the meeting. Then immediately afterwards, they would ask us if we did record the meeting. This happened several times and led us to regularly and “accidentally” push the record button, but never offer them the recording. If they asked us for it, then we would turn it over. Otherwise, we wouldn’t mention it and it would be taped over at the next meeting.
Since my job was editing the recorded meetings, this schizophrenia really reduced the amount of work I got.
I’m curious if anyone else had this experience – of communications people both warning us not to record meetings and asking us for the tape afterwards.
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3 Replies
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The corporate communications folks will likely TRY to do this to the extent that they can.
But I think it’s already largely a lost cause.
If companies were smart, they’d increase video use for EVERY meeting. And make it good. Why? Because just like the Romney “banquet cam” thing out there now, there’s simply no way to preclude video capture in the modern world. Today it’s a camcorder on the banquet table at the back of the room. Tomorrow it’s going to be fifteen attendees using their iPhones to snag the meeting for later review.
Public or even private meeting privacy is nearly a thing of the past already. So expect it.
Your best defense is not to say anything to any group that you can’t stand behind in public, because chances are better and better that it WILL become public – on video.
Having your own copy of the presentation in high quality means you can come back and add context and/or refutation to someone elses “push edit” of an event.
Like it or not, that’s where we are today.
“Before speaking out ask yourself whether your words are true, whether they are respectful and whether they are needed in our civil discussions.”-Justice O’Connor
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Add to that the fact that it will become public faster than anyone even two year ago ever thought possible.
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Don’t say anything you don’t want recorded? What a novel idea… But completely undoable !
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