The irony of my presentation last Friday was not lost on some of those present. I had travelled several hours in stormy weather to present to a group of business people on the subject of Webinars. "If this technology is so great why are you here" asked one attendee, "Why didn’t you just beam in over the Internet" he continued. From my perspective this was great dialogue because he had got the point of what made webinars so useful.
Yes, I could have done just that, sent a link and been there at the appropriate time to display images and make my pitch over the speaker system. Having said that, and to use the comparison of the telephone, if there is no-one at the other end to pick up I’m not going to have a very productive phone conversation. My purpose of being there was to represent the value of webinars and our organisations services. The other reason I made the effort to be there so willingly in person was to re-establish some old relationships and cement some new ones.
Over the ages new forms of communication have emerged to keep pace with technology and the needs of the few. Cave painting would have been a real conversation piece to several clans of cave people in 10,000BC; the pony express connected the elite in new frontiers, the telegraph made it possible to unite the affluent in expanding empires covering several continents. Commercial reality means modern technology is servicing the needs of not just the few but the many. Telephones, mobiles, skype and email are mainstream communication methods, yet have not, and should not replace the face to face meeting.
Human interaction and relationships are built on more than just information exchange. There is a lot to be gained from looking into someone’s eye and shaking their hand. More evolved individuals will be able to sum you up quite accurately in that moment and know if they will do business with you into the future.
Having said that there is a great case for increased use of new technology, some, like the pony express are made redundant by newer more efficient information delivery. This is usually because its replacement is faster and safer, today’s highway robbers are called hackers and pirates are called, well pirates. Webinars will be replaced one day soon with 3D interactive holographic images simulating more efficiently the face to face experience, the technology exists today so don’t hold your breathe. Webinars or teleconferencing is affordable and relevant to our businesses now. Implementable without huge infrastructural costs they save time, money and reduce our environmental footprint.
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