"The future is here. It’s just not widely distributed yet."
— William Gibson
No kidding.
Just go online and look for virtual meeting providers. There are a massive number of providers who are ready and willing to help you set up your next virtual meeting.
And, on top of it, once you request information, you can expect an immediate response. A sales person will email and call you. And they’ll happily offer you a 30-day trial so your company can try out the virtual meeting technology today. No need to wait for the future.
But this article is not a pitch for a specific web-conference provider. In fact, it’s more a moment to pause and reflect. What does the future really hold for virtual meetings?
Can you expect this phenomenon to only grow?
Last week, I asked three sales training managers and talent development managers from Fortune 500 companies. Their answers may surprise you. I’ll paraphrase:
PL: "We have a corporate initiative to increase virtual meetings and grow this aggressively. Our vision is to reduce our carbon footprint and meet our clients needs without the costs of traveling to their location."
TH: "With the increase in gas prices and economic pressures, we will definitely be looking for blended solutions. For sales, for training and for team meetings, we are planning to utilize virtual meetings to reduce costs."
KT: "I know it’s coming. But so far, both our clients and sales folks are resisting it. They are so used to face-to-face meetings, so they really rely on that personal connection. I think it’s going to be something people have to start using whether they like it or not."
So there you have it. I know it’s not a huge study but rather a completely informal investigation. Yet, bottom line, everyone knows virtual meetings are the future. It’s just a matter of when, how, and how soon. And whether you will embrace the trend or resist the tide.
Now, I’m not suggesting that virtual meetings as we know them will completely replace face-to-face meetings. If I look into a crystal ball, I’d say people still like to see the person they are talking to. But this could be solved by new technology rather than relying exclusively on traditional meetings.
I expect the future will be full of new advances in technology. Advances to solve the problems still plaguing some web-conference providers and users. Problems such as:
• Lag time for media transfer
• Unreliable reception at the client end
• Slow or unreliable translation for whiteboard interaction
• Reliance on animation
• Dominance of over-used clipart
These are predicaments that reflect both the current technology as well as the state of acceptance/reluctance on the part of users. But it won’t stay that way.
The technology will only improve. And become more, as I like to say, ‘no-brainer.’ Running a virtual meeting is already remarkably easy. But it will only get more so. And more and more people will come to accept it as the best way to do business. It’s only a matter of time.
Here’s a brief tour of how technology will transform how you do business. Go with me on this one. Take look around your workspace. Your office doesn’t look like what it would have 25 or 50 years ago. Many of the items you see in your office were invented in the last 25 years.
Today, it’s hard to imagine living without these inventions. Cell phones. The Internet. E-mail. Portable computers. Voice mail. Personal computers. All in the last quarter of a century. And much, much more.
The future is here now. It’s time to open up the distribution.
Plus, I have to let you in on the tough news. If you are resisting, you and your business could be left in the dust. Why? Because even if you hold back, your competition will jump on the virtual meeting bandwagon.
Don’t let that sorry fate happen to you. Take the time now to make friends with virtual meetings and you’ll grab the lead. Get comfortable with facilitating virtual meetings. With your open attitude and easy-to-learn tools, you’ll embrace the future right now. Not in five years. Not in five months. Right now.
The future is here. Don’t you want to be in the picture?
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