Today everyone is pinching pennies, and for good reason; the economic crisis has been frightening. Anyone who isn’t at least a little worried isn’t paying attention. That said, it seems that it is possible to be too careful. One of those ways most meeting planners have already seen–companies are canceling meetings by the score, and others are going to teleconferencing and web meetings. While VoIP technology has made it possible to hold meetings more cheaply overall, it also costs in the long run. The values of “face time” are numerous.

The Risk of Impersonal Contact

Although email and other automated communications can save time and money, it also creates a barrier to more humanistic contact. Everyone has known someone who was misunderstood because of an email and created tension and disagreements–what a waste of company time! Meeting the people you email with keeps the humanity in conversations, and helps keep civility in them as well. People are a little less quick on their hot button when they can put a face with an email handle.

Training Sessions

Although many people can handle online training, it’s still better done in groups whenever possible. People can share information, motivate each other (read: nudge others who are nodding off), and form a camaraderie that makes training more fun. Having a human class leader is much more motivational, too.

Efficiency

Large VoIP meetings often need a moderator, and if you don’t get someone who can stay on top of the events within the meeting the whole occasion can go down the proverbial loo. Take the variable out of it with a face-to-face meeting.

When speaking with your clients about the value of a “real” meeting, also remind them that technology is also not 100 percent reliable, either. The Internet can crash in any location for various reasons, telephone communications can also be less than stellar on any given day (not to mention some folks may be on cell phones), and unpredictable weather can play a huge role in both of those problems. However, people can meet face-to-face rain or shine, and should.