Like it or Not, Video Conferencing is Here to Stay
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When I was a teenager, I marveled at the future. According to most futurists, scientists, and—more importantly—movies, by now I’d be getting to my job in a flying car, using a “hover board” for fun, and taking weekend trips to Mars. That did not quite pan out as expected.



However, one prediction for the future—that video phone calls would be mainstream by now—came true. Sort of.



Not many people have a telephone with a monitor sitting in their kitchens. However, they do exist. The Cisco Unified IP Phone is a great example, and such items no longer come with a ridiculously high price tag. People everywhere also utilize “video chat” on their cell phones. What has become more mainstream? Business Web and video conferencing.



Web and video conferencing is a booming industry with software products selling like hotcakes. Adobe Connect, Cisco’s WebEx, and Skype are all staples of U.S. businesses, and Microsoft bought the latter for a whopping $8.5 billion in 2011. And Microsoft knows a thing or two. According to Infonetics Research inc., the telepresence and video conferencing equipment market will top $5.4 billion by 2015. It’s all reminiscent of the explosion of TV sales in the 1950s and 1960s. However, how do employees feel about video conferencing? They report pros…and cons.



We’ve all been there: Working from home when an email arrives stating that your boss wants you to join a video conference call with eight other colleagues—five minutes from now. All good, except you’re wearing pajamas, your hair looks like a hurricane styled it, and you’re sitting on a bean bag with your prized collection of ‘beer bottles from around the world” directly behind you.



After four minutes and 50 seconds of changing clothes, running a brush through your hair, and relocating to your study—you dial into the web conference looking all calm, collected and ready to emote confidence and professionalism.



Bottom line is that you either love or hate the technology. Personally, I embrace the concept because of its convenience, but I’d love to see it improved. For instance, the next time you’re on a video conference call, take note of how many attendees actually look into the webcam (and therefore at you) when they speak. It’s close to zero. We look at colleagues’ faces or somewhere else, which makes us look like we’re looking down.



One day, I’m hoping that some kind of minuscule “nano-camera” will live directly in the middle of our computer screens. Or better still, the little goober of a camera might just follow our eyes around when we speak—so we are looking at the other attendees at all times. But that’s just me with my futuristic thoughts again.



For now, the benefits of video conferencing are enormous. Twenty years ago, if your colleague was halfway around the world and you needed a face-to-face chat or needed to show him or her some important photos or other visuals, you got on an airplane. That’s an expensive, time-consuming and environmentally-unfriendly endeavor. Nowadays, you go to a website and—within seconds—you’re chatting face-to-face while sharing your screen to show your colleague anything he or she might need to see.



So, looking to the future (again) we’ll probably not need to travel anywhere to see anyone, we’ll likely read our emails via a nano-screen on our contact lenses, and maybe I’ll merely think about my blog posts and they’ll show up on my website.



For now though, embrace the ever-encompassing video conferencing technology! It’s not going anywhere. But…look at the webcam when speaking and don’t be seen typing away on your keyboard or texting someone. And…if you were born after 1999, know that it will be the only way you’ll communicate during most of your career.