Frustrated by distracted workers so plugged in that they tune out at meetings, a growing number of companies are banning laptops and electronic gadgets from the conference room.

AS THE birthplace of technology, Silicon Valley may have more gadgets per capita than any other place on the planet. Yet, even there, "always on" can be a turn off.

Frustrated by distracted workers so plugged in that they tune out in the middle of business meetings, a growing number of companies are going "topless", as in no laptops allowed.

Also banned from some conference rooms are BlackBerries, iPhones and other personal devices on which so many have come to depend.

Meetings have never been popular in Silicon Valley. Engineers would rather write code than talk about it.

Over the years, companies have come up with innovative ways to keep meetings from sucking up time.

Some remove chairs to force everyone to talk fast on their feet. Others get staff to drink a glass of water beforehand.

But as laptops have become lighter and smart phones even smarter, people have discovered a handy diversion.

The practice became so pervasive that Todd Wilkens turned to his company blog to wage his "personal war against CrackBerry".

"Having an effective meeting or working session is becoming more and more difficult.

"Laptops, BlackBerries, Sidekicks, iPhones and the like keep people from being fully present. Aside from just being rude, partial attention generally leads to partial results."

His San Francisco design firm, Adaptive Path, now encourages everyone to leave their laptops at their desks. Also booted out are mobile phones.

It took some convincing, but soon people began connecting with each other rather than with their computers, according to Wilkens. "All of our meetings got a lot more productive."

Linda Stone, a software executive who worked for Apple and Microsoft, calls the phenomenon "continuous partial attention". It stems from an intense desire to be connected all the time.

The ever-increasing speed and power of technology allows employees to effortlessly toggle back and forth between tasks.

The wireless revolution has accelerated this trend, turning every laptop into a mobile communications hub.

"It's increasingly difficult to get people's undivided attention," says Stanford University professor Pamela Hinds, who studies the effects of technology on groups.

Etiquette has not kept up with technology, according to Sue Fox, author of Business Etiquette for Dummies. "Today, people seem to be more focused on their fancy gadgets than on other people."

After attending a few "no laptops" meetings, Jeremy Zawodny, who works with outside software developers at Yahoo, wrote on his blog that, while he finds meetings useless if people divide their attention, it is "ridiculous that we have to mandate common courtesy and force people off their laptops".

Former Google engineer Nelson Minar commented on Zawodny's blog that supervisors can be the worst offenders.

"One of my biggest frustrations when I was an engineer at Google was being summoned to an executive meeting only to find three-quarters of the executives too busy with their laptops."

But Ruckus Wireless chief executive Selina Lo doesn't mind if her employees multitask in meetings.

"People are going to get distracted," she says. "It's okay as long as it is not for an extended period of time. I get distracted myself. That's just how meetings are nowadays."

That makes some people wonder if, by focusing on gadgets, everyone is missing the real problem. "People hate most meetings," Zawodny writes.

Some start-ups now cut meetings short or do away with them altogether.

Joe Lazarus, Yahoo's former director of marketing, weighed in on Zawodny's blog: "No laptop meetings make sense. No meetings make even more sense."