Meeting I Never Miss

Videoconferencing From a Sauna??
Last Updated: January 04, 2002 11:19 AM ET

HELSINKI (Reuters) - Boardroom meetings could get steamy if a Finnish company's idea of fitting its new sauna with a Web camera for videoconferencing catches on.

"I thought a firm like ours should be able to get in touch with the outside world from the sauna when there is something important to discuss," Jarkko Lumio, head of digital media development group Media Tampere, told Reuters Friday.

The sauna has played a key role in Finnish business and politics over the decades, with much wheeling and dealing done in the heat of the steamy room.

Four bathers will fit into Media Tampere's sauna, which will have a window onto a computer screen outside. A portable web camera and microphone will be installed so bathers can interact with discussion partners online. "The sauna goers can decide for themselves what to wear for the Web casts," Lumio
said.

Finns traditionally enjoy the sauna in their birthday suits.