Using Conferencing for the One on One Meeting

Conferencing, sometimes called online conferencing or web conferencing, is the latest trend in business communications. The prevalence of Internet-connected devices in offices around the world has transformed the old-fashioned one on one meeting into a dynamic experience that breaks down barriers and removes obstacles in the business process. Academic research studies have shown that more business leaders are in favor of holding a business meeting in cyberspace versus a one on one meeting.

Primitive video conferencing systems have been around since before World War II. Early manned space missions had expensive video conferencing systems that allowed live images from space to be broadcast on television around the world. Advances in telephony and the implementation of the Internet Protocol (IP) made video conferencing affordable and efficient in the 1990s. Early adopters of Internet technology were regularly conducting online conferences with full audio and video in the mid-1990s. As personal computing technology and broadband Internet connections have become more affordable, millions of people around the world casually engage in online conferencing each day.

The business world was surprisingly a bit slow to adopt online conferencing. While Internet users were using online messenger applications and cheap web cams for conferencing, companies that conducted video conferencing were still using expensive and outdated equipment. Some old-hat business enterprises initially scoffed at the idea of the traditional one on one meeting being replaced by computer equipment.

As globalization and outsourcing began to reshape the landscape of the business world, online conferencing became less of a fad and more of a necessity. Traditional operating costs and increasing overhead expenses have transformed the workplace, and businesses began recruiting more telecommuters; employees who do not come to the office on a regular basis and who communicate with the rest of the staff via online conferences. Sales representatives and account executives spent more time on the road and working from home, and thus they also turned to conferencing as a means to keeping in touch with the home office. Outsourcing has also been boosted by the inexpensive and convenient availability of online conferencing. Many business enterprises were initially leery about outsourcing due to the lack of warmth of conference calls and the high cost of long distance service.

Today's increased processing power, cheap broadband access and sophisticated Internet-connected devices have made conferencing an expedient alternative to the one on one meeting. Conferencing not only transcends physical locations, it allows members of business teams to get more work done during meetings thanks to the advanced functions of conferencing software. File sharing, presentations, whiteboard collaborations, real-time recording, and automated note-taking are just some of the benefits that modern conferencing has brought to the business world.

Aside from having replaced the one on one meeting, conferencing conducted over the web makes it possible to conduct training sessions, lectures, impromptu gatherings, workshops, and even seminars -often referred to as "webinars." And thanks to the marvels of cloud computing, companies no longer have to invest in expensive hardware acquisitions or keep an army of IT personnel on their payrolls. An Internet-connected device with a modern web browser is often all that is required to join an online conference.

Business people can achieve more with an online conference session than with an orthodox one one one meeting. Let us help you get FREE price quotes from industry leading service providers, just complete our simple form above. It takes less than 1 minute to complete.