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Are Web Meetings Passé?
Power Trip · February 15, 2004

Business travel is back, with an improving economy and spending on the rise. But is it time to let your Web conferencing schedule go slack?

Not for businesses who have seen how reducing extended time on the road can increase their employees' productivity.

The use of "virtual meeting" technologies surged after 9/11, as Web and videoconferencing usage jumped 61% in the year following the attacks. Meanwhile, the number of in-person meetings dropped by about 16%, according to a study by Wainhouse Research. But now that corporate travel is returning to its pre-9/11 levels, it's worth asking whether online meetings should continue at the same pace.

The short answer is: yes. They should.

But before you fire up your Web browser (or fire your travel agent, for that matter), let's review what online meetings will probably mean during these times of normalized business travel, in general — and how it could affect your business, in particular. Now that the 9/11 travel downturn has subsided, how should Web meetings fit into your overall business strategy?

When business travel went bust during the first few years of the 21st century, many companies preferred online meetings because they cut back on risky travel and saved money. But an improving economic and political outlook, plus healthier travel and entertainment budgets, make those less important considerations. Today we can apply a new set of criteria to virtual meetings:

Does the technology meet my needs? Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't, according to Joyce Gioia, a futurist and president of The Herman Group, based in Greensboro, N.C. "The technology is not perfected yet and attending meetings electronically is far inferior to being there in person," she says. However, the technology for Web meetings has made great strides and continues to improve. Of course there's no substitute for a face-to-face, so the question really is: When do the limits of technology, such as bandwidth and software, make an online meeting impractical — or unprofitable?

What's the real cost of an online meeting? It's easier to quantify the upfront costs — the expense of the application and infrastructure — than the price to your business of not having the personal touch of an in-person meeting. Did you lose the deal because you met through a computer monitor? "Web conferencing allows me to focus my expenditures to where the returns are the greatest," says Ted Kramer, president of TMK Consulting. But when are the costs of not meeting in person too high?

Is Web conferencing appropriate for the get-together? Even if the technology works and the cost-benefit favors a Web conference, think about the kind of meeting you're having. An in-person meeting may be called for "if it's a highly emotional debate, where determining and analyzing body language and non-verbal cues is needed," says Stephen Seavecki, a marketing manager for Scottsdale, Ariz.-based Viack, an executive Web meeting software developer. And, although it is possible to read someone's body language on a screen, it takes some training to do so successfully.

These may sound like excellent reasons to get back on the road and travel. And in some instances, they certainly are. But virtual meetings now have an established place in corporate America — perhaps not the same place they had after 9/11, but they're here to stay, without question.

So how do you make the most of an online meeting? Here are three tips.

Use online meetings to justify offline ones. That's what Greg Bailey, a vice president of sales for a portfolio management company in Centennial, Colo., does. He makes a decision to travel based on the outcome of a virtual meeting. "It really cuts down on travel and unqualified meetings," he says. That wouldn't work for every business, of course — in fact, in some cases you would want the in-person meeting to precede an online meeting. The trick is to know when to do what. If you're selling software and want to conduct a quick demo, a Web conference might be ideal. But not if you're proposing a merger.

Don't forget culture — corporate and otherwise. For Carol Walker Loomis, a director at the Loomis Group, a San Francisco-based marketing agency, Web meetings are ideal for interoffice communications. Among marketing professionals, whose expertise is communicating, meeting in front of a Web monitor is perfectly acceptable. But clients don't always share that level of comfort. "We do a lot of business in Asia, and it's interesting, because in Japan customers insist on seeing their suppliers and business partners in person most of the time," Loomis says.

Make sure you're using the right Web conferencing platform. Shop around. That's the advice of Lisa Neal, editor-in-chief of eLearn magazine. "Sample the technologies using free trials," she recommends. You'll find out which products are best suited to the kinds of meetings and clients you have, and get an opportunity to see how user-friendly each technology is. As an end-user of several online meeting products, my general experience is that they're intuitive, from a participant's point of view. How about as an administrator? How responsive is the support for the product you've chosen?

Talk with rank-and-file business travelers, as I do every day, and they'll likely tell you how much they prefer having Web meetings available to them. With the proper training, and under the right circumstances, your employees can be far more productive using virtual meetings than they were in the old days, when they spent weeks at a time on the road.

Numerous surveys suggest that there are short-term productivity gains that can be achieved through the use of Web and teleconferencing technologies. However, the long-term de-personalization of a business relationship if partners don't shake hands and break bread together at least occasionally, is just as huge a consideration. It should remind business owners of this unavoidable fact: To succeed in today's business climate, you need a blend of both. You need a travel budget and you need to make use of the right meeting technology.

Christopher Elliott is a travel commentator based in Key Largo, Fla. All e-mailed questions may be edited, condensed or republished at the site's discretion.

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