Online collaboration ran up against the traditional new technology obstacles….

What do you do when you need to present to a group of people in different locations? While face-to-face meetings are undoubtedly the best for ensuring clear communication, travel time doesn’t mesh easily with Internet time.The promise of online get-togethers has been touted from the very first days of the Internet going main stream. The truth is the technology never took off. Old habits die hard. The initial attempts at web conferencing and online collaboration ran up against the traditional new technology obstacles–not particularly user friendly and a royal pain for the busy executive who had neither the patience nor the skill to deal with a play toy of the techno geeks. Since 9/11, however, things have changed. Audio conferences eliminate the time and expense of travel, but you lose the ability to use visuals. Web conferencing which allows you to hold an audio conference while sending and viewing visuals via the Internet. Although the technology is not yet perfect, Web conferencing can help companies communicate key messages, both internally and to customers and shareholders, while saving on the time and expense of travel.

The difficulty and rising cost inherent in today’s business travel coupled with the need to constrain expense as a result of an ever lingering recession, has forced a second look at web conferencing, not just as a means of bypassing the traditional face-to-face meeting, but also as an opportunity to train, demonstrate and inform without the loss of time and dollars associated with gathering bodies in a hotel room or meeting facility.