Almost 10 years ago the world was still bothered by the Icelandic ash cloud and that provided a huge boost for video conferencing at the time. With the current situation, many companies, small and large, are encouraged in the hectic pace of current news to give virtual meetings a more powerful position within the organization.
Collaboration
In addition to the main driver for reducing the impact on the environment, the “circumstances” are now a better motivation. Many employees of companies now work at home more often. They use the available collaboration tools to get the work going. Appointments with customers and partners are also more often virtual. In addition, organizations are preparing for scenarios where business operations can continue without coming to the office. Well-known collaboration tools are Cisco WebEx, Google Meet (available as standard in G Suite), Microsoft Teams (available as standard in Office 365) and Zoom. Currently, suppliers offer active free use of their collaboration tools.
Live events versus virtual
At the global level, the IMF and World Bank have just decided to cancel their spring meeting in the US capital Washington. An average of 10,000 people from all over the world come together for this meeting. Instead, this group will meet online. In addition to limiting the risk, this has a serious positive impact on the environment. But participants who were always used to meet each other live and who are not familiar with virtual meetings are also introduced to it more quickly.
A dairy brand has moved all meetings with dairy farmers from a live event to a webcast. All members are invited to participate in an “online webinar” from home via the internet.
Side effects
Are virtual meetings really becoming the norm within organizations due to the circumstances?
The outbreak of the corona virus unexpectedly has a number of side effects. Such as a better adoption of existing and new technological developments and the use of collaboration tools.
Live encounters will certainly continue to exist in the near future. But people are now becoming more aware of the alternatives and their benefits
It is certain that we will meet more often online to work together!
