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Cyber Meetings

Online solutions are making up for lost expenses when business people go on the road, but can they replace face-to-face time?

By Tony LoPinto | Updated on November 10, 2011

Cyber Meetings Last week I wrote about the expanding practice of office “hotelling” by companies that are focused on reducing their occupancy costs. Another rapidly emerging trend is the use of online media and video conferencing to reduce travel expenses and to recapture the downtime – and wasted time – of executives “on the road.” Even more telling is the online approach instituted by public companies. Broadridge Financial Solutions, a provider of online solutions, recently reported that since December 2009, 25 public companies have conducted at least one annual meeting online only. Closer to home, last week my firm, Korn/Ferry International, organized a meeting that involved a large group of executives based in New York and London. Instead of flying the London team to NYC, we arranged for a live video feed to connect us across the pond. The meeting came off without a hitch, and we saved tens of thousands of dollars on travel expenses and hundreds of wasted man hours. Some critics of this trend cite the value of face-to-face time, and lament the loss of personal interaction among executives and with directors at shareholder meetings. I can’t argue with the efficiency and cost savings, but I myself prefer to “press the flesh.”

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