The best-selling authors of The Hamster Revolution(more than 100,000 copies in print in 11 languages) are at it again, this time with a book that tackles the most wearisome and wasteful practice in business: meetings.

Productivity gurus Mike Song, Tim Burress, and Vicki Halsey, have penned a new book called The Hamster Revolution for Meetings (Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 2009). Through engaging, lively, and witty dialogue featuring the harried “businesshamster” Iris and a productivity coach she meets on a delayed flight, this fast-paced book packs tips, tools, and tricks into a 90-minute read that’s guaranteed to give readers a new outlook on time—and help them stop spinning their wheels in meetings.

The authors promise you'll save 15 days a year by using their tips and techniques, and have used their Hamster Meeting Productivity tools to train Fortune 500 clients from GE to Pfizer. The book includes a compelling case study of Capital One, showing how their productivity training saved the company significant time and money, and yielded measurable improvements in productivity and morale.

From making "5-minutes early" the new "on time," to holding short meetings standing up, to getting shy people to opine online, readers will walk away with novel ideas and solutions--along with free downloadable tools and templates--they can apply right away.

One of the ways this book is wildly different from other productivity guides is that it presents brand-new tips for using web 2.0 technology such as wikis, videochat, e-calendars, and instant surveys; web conferencing software; and tech gadgets such as smart phones to communicate, connect, and work more efficiently with others. Let's face it: We all love our tech toys and computers, but most of us have barely skimmed the surface when it comes to using all their functions and knowing what they can do. This very cool book teaches you new tricks that will wow your teammates, bosses, clients, and colleagues, and make you look and work smarter.

Readers also learn how to:

• Reform the "bad apple" who ruins meetings—e.g., the time hog, the wallflower, the texting addict, the know-it all, and the late comer;
  
  
• Go green and cut costs by holding virtual meetings and webinars with home-sourced and far-flung participants;
  
  
• Turn your people into tech-savvy efficiency experts using smart phones, email gadgets, and Web 2.0 tools;
  
  
• Make every meeting fun, high-impact, and super productive;
  
  
• Start a productive-meeting revolution at your organization.

Who thought a book on meeting productivity could be fun? This one is, and it promises to do for meetings what the last Hamster book did for email and information management.