Face-to-Face Meetings

5 reasons why face-to-face meetings are still important

After a 2-day workshop in Bangkok, I wondered why, in this age of videoconferences and social networks, we still subject ourselves to the hassles of traveling including security checks, tourist traps and time away from our families.

At the end of those 2 days, I got my answer.

1. Benchmarking. Travel allows us to gauge our country’s (and our company’s) performance against others. We can see what they are doing right, what we can improve on and what we should avoid. These things are sometimes evident as soon as we arrive at our destination’s airport. If we’re truly serious about improving our situation then we can use travel as an additional opportunity for reflecting and as a springboard for action.

2. Personal connections. There’s nothing like being face to face with your friends and colleagues from other countries. Seeing the look of genuine delight on their faces upon seeing you again can make the trip worth it. You can’t fax a smile or email a handshake.

3. Best experienced live. There are some things which are best experienced live, like watching a cultural performance, seeing an artist work his magic right before your eyes or listening to a brilliant lecturer. One of our guest speakers, Dr. Anil Tendulkar from Mumbai, was simply a joy to listen to. His topic was cardiovascular surgery (tough topic) but throughout the presentation, he kept his audience’s interest and clarified a lot of things for me. As he was concluding his talk I was actually sorry to see him go.

4. Instant feedback. If you have questions, for example about your foreign counterparts’ key to success, now’s the time to ask them right there, right now.

5. Cultural enrichment. This is an opportunity to learn about other cultures. Our differences may be apparent from the beginning. But we may also be surprised to learn about our similarities. This will make you better equipped during your next visit. As Renato Echivarre of Educated Minds would say, “True freedom begins with an educated mind.”.

Technology may be a great enabler and we now use it in ways that we may not have imagined possible before but it still can’t replace good old personal time. Not yet anyway.