If Wetherspoons can ban noisy phones, should events do the same?
Wetherspoons has had enough of people playing music and taking calls on speakerphone. Paul Harvey asks whether the business events industry should be thinking about phone etiquette too.
Wetherspoons has had enough.
The pub chain has announced that customers are no longer welcome to play music or videos out loud from their phones or take calls on speakerphone, asking them instead to use headphones or switch their devices to silent.
Staff have been told to use “common sense” when enforcing the rule, although managers can ask customers to leave if they refuse to comply.
And while the idea of a pub chain introducing a policy on how you use your phone might sound faintly ridiculous, it raises a question for the events industry: should business events be doing the same?
People scrolling through social media with the sound on, someone taking a call on speaker, someone with a piercingly loud ringtone – these things are all perfectly common, whether you’re in the pub, on the train, or indeed, at a conference or event.
Phones themselves are not the problem – it’s the way people use them. Despite my previous form on phone use, I am aware that for most people, phones are an essential part of modern business events.
The issue is not whether people use their phones. It's whether the way they use them affects everyone around them. Your phone is your business. The noise coming from it is everybody's business.
That's essentially the principle behind the Wetherspoons decision. The company says complaints about noise from phones and tablets were becoming an increasing problem, while the British Beer and Pub Association argues that having a clear policy helps staff enforce rules and customers understand what they can and can't do.
And there is evidence that many people agree. A Transport for London survey of 1,000 people last year found that 70 per cent considered loud music and phone calls without headphones a nuisance.
Unsurprisingly, there is a generational element.
An Ofcom survey from 2022 found that younger respondents – the event delegates of the future, remember - were considerably more accepting of phone audio in public spaces. Among 13-to-17-year-olds, 69 per cent thought video calls without headphones were acceptable, while 73 per cent said the same about listening to music and 83 per cent about watching videos.
However, I think it would be wrong to point the finger at the younger generation and wail about a decline in manners. The fact is we're watching the social rules around technology evolve. And business events are going to have to navigate that.
What happens in the keynote?
Imagine 800 people sitting quietly listening to a keynote speaker. Someone's phone starts blasting out TikTok. Do you really need an event policy telling them to turn it off? Probably not.
But what happens when somebody takes a speakerphone call at the back of the room? Or starts watching a video with the sound on during a panel discussion?
At some point, someone's perfectly legitimate use of their personal device becomes an intrusion on everybody else's experience.
This is where Wetherspoons' approach of asking staff to use “common sense” comes into play.
Event planners don't need a 14-page policy covering every conceivable phone-related offence. They simply need permission to step in when someone's behaviour is affecting everyone else.
The bigger question
I've recently written about AI-powered smart glasses and the potential implications of delegates wearing devices capable of discreetly recording what they see and hear. Something else Wetherspoons has just banned.
The connection is obvious. Technology is evolving faster than our social rules around it.
Just because our devices allow us to do something doesn't necessarily mean it's appropriate to do it in a room full of other people.
The answer isn't to ban every new piece of technology. Nor is it to write increasingly elaborate policies governing every aspect of delegate behaviour.
Perhaps it's simply to establish some basic principles of technology etiquette.
Use your phone. Take your calls, take your photographs, use the event app, access the information you need. Just remember that there are other people in the room.
Wetherspoons has decided its customers can no longer be trusted to work that out for themselves. I'm not convinced the events industry needs to go quite that far.
But if your next conference is interrupted by someone taking a call on speakerphone during the keynote, don't say you weren't warned.