Video conferencing is rapidly gaining in popularity and it’s no wonder. Basically, video conferencing allows people to communicate in real time, no matter where they are. They can be as few as two people, or they can be thousands. Participants can hold a meeting or conference, compare charts, and generally do anything they could if they were all in the same room together. All of this is done through the transmission of audio and video through the wonders of the Internet.
The list of advantages obtained from the use of video conferencing is long, but these are some of the main advantages. The most obvious advantage is the enormous savings that are involved when people do not need to travel. An average business trip typically involves at least one night elsewhere, and the costs incurred include flights, transportation, meals, lodging, entertainment, and the list goes on. If you need ten people in a meeting and add up all the costs involved, the total is staggering.
Remember, too, that travel is not only expensive, it takes time. So those ten executives have to take two days out of their busy schedule, for example, to attend a mid-day meeting at the head office. With video conferencing, they can spend half a day and spend the other day and a half doing productive work in their office. The use of video conferencing provides great savings in both money and time.
If the video conference involves a person or team giving a presentation, they are in your home environment. So they can’t accidentally leave the most important chart on their desk at the office – they have everything available. It also means that questions can be fully answered, rather than the presenter having to return to their office before the required information can be accessed.
Video conferencing also makes it easier for companies to access external experts. In a medical setting, for example, researchers from around the world can meet regularly and compare notes, making it easier to share their findings and speeding up the process of finding answers. This kind of collaboration would never happen if experts had to constantly travel to stay up to date, because they would never have time to do their research. Cooperation at this level is not only beneficial to the medical profession; it can be used in just about any profession you can think of.
A slightly less direct benefit, but an equal benefit, is that employees will need to learn the basics of presentation and research skills in order to participate productively in video conferences. This encourages the employee to stay up-to-date with information related to their field, so they feel confident that they can answer questions during a video conference if needed.
Video conferencing is also much more personal than a conference call. A high percentage of our communication is done through non-verbal cues, so seeing the person making a presentation can give us much more information. It also means that visual aids can be used, which speeds up the process of explaining certain types of information. No need to wait while a set of charts is posted, faxed, or even emailed and printed—you can view them instantly. And if additional information is required, it can be pulled from the file and displayed, without any delay. If you’re using video conferencing to deal with a potential client, it becomes much easier to develop a personal relationship, which is an important element in any business relationship.
Video conferencing also means that all the required people can be present at the meeting. Previously, expense considerations may have meant that only one employee could attend a certain meeting, and on their return, they would inform everyone else about what happened. This inevitably left gaps in feedback, as no one person would catch everything that was going on, or even know that a particular piece of information was of special importance to another member of staff. Video conferencing means that everyone hears and sees everything, and can extract the information that is most relevant to them. They also get a personal feel for the other people involved in the conference.
There is no doubt that companies will quickly use video conferencing, once the many benefits become clearer. The potential for business is huge, and as technology improves and prices drop, video conferencing will become as standard in business as the fax machine or personal computer.