Ten or fifteen years ago, we talked about how computers would change everything. In the future, you wouldn’t need to go anywhere, you could just pop on your video conferencing tool, or your laptop camera and have a meeting. You could internet chat with friends instead of going out. But, that hasn’t really happened. It’s 2010. The internet has been around for 4 decades, chat functionality has been around for 15 years, Skype has been around for 7. And yet, we still go to conferences, and fly to nearby cities for meetings.
I have the technology, as does my company, to enable every meeting to be a virtual meeting. Yet, we still insist of gathering together. The phone just doesn’t cut it. VOIP isn’t adequate. Even my friends who work for mega-money multi-lateral organizations, which have the tools to do state of the art video conferencing, aren’t doing it all that often. Why? It costs millions of dollars, and anyone you talk to has to have invested in the same caliber of system. And face it…we like to get together with other humans, in person.
This simple realization emphasized what we’ve been talking about at this in-person workshop in Bellagio: the compulsion of presence. In a world where many people are spending more and more time fielding email and connecting via social networks, we still value being present with our fellow man. Real, lasting, and valuable connections made in person still trump those made virtually. Not groundbreaking really. But, refreshing.
I like this ! And refreshing indeed. another e.g. is how banks spent a decade figuring out ways how to minimize customer visits to branches... they are now realizing that they are losing a lot of business doing just that. So ATMs still hold a solid USP but banks aren't penalizing customers for visiting branches anymore. Rather, branches are being redesigned for customer comfort and convenience !
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