Living as I do in a remote group of islands and having work commitments outside the islands I am continually disappointed that the development and to a certain extent acceptance of remote/video conferencing has not got to the stage where clients will ‘allow’ it or people will forgo the need to travel many unnecessary miles to attend one business meeting, networking event or seminar. It is just not very environmentally responsible in my opinion.

At present the technology is certainly satisfactory for one-to-one meetings, however I do acknowledge that what is really required is the technology or model to develop in such a way that interaction for people in remote locations matches the interaction of people at the ‘physical’ location. I get the impression at some events that there is still a ‘them and us’ mentality; the ‘them’ being those who have not ‘made the effort’ to attend the event. Technological barriers and facilities can also restrict ‘input’ from those based remotely.

One such solution as I see it is to have no one at the event! A totally virtual event. Radical? Would/does it work? This way there is no one advantaged or disadvantaged (assuming your broadband infrastructure is in place). You can listen to a presentation remotely and press a button to raise your hand/make a point, everyone else can do likewise, and everyone can hear every point raised. Following the event you can network virtually through direct approaches – red light by your name = busy and no one can listen in to your conversation with others; amber = chatting to someone; green = feel free to approach. Simple biographies can also be used to quickly find out who people are, what they do, would it be beneficial to speak to them, etc. Virtual business cards/contact details can be passed out.

Obviously a method like this has a major environmental benefit in terms of reduced requirement for traffic and associated carbon emissions; it can also for those in more remote areas result in much greater time efficiencies – no longer do you have to travel for 4 hours to make a 2 hour event. A two hour event is just that it is no longer a whole day event.

Is this workable? Do you have experience of these types of events to share? Or will face-to-face contact still prevail? I would be interested to hear people’s thoughts on this.