It was well past my kids' bedtime, nine years
ago. I
was at the
PC in my home office in a 'burb outside Boston,
watching a
group of about 300 trade show attendees in Sydney,
Australia,
where it was already past noon the next day.
That morning I had pitched a handful of technologists
from
home, while they sat in their conference room at a
major bank
in New York. In the afternoon I "met with" some of
our sales
people at a training session in their San Francisco
office. And
now tonight I was the luncheon speaker at a
trade
show
happening the "next day" in Sydney.
I had never left my home.
What a blast! This was several years before
broadband,
streaming video, web cams and web conferencing. I
was living
a future most people only dreamed of —
digitally
"jetting" around the world, but without the jetlag.
As I fielded the second question from the audience, I
noticed
the door to my office opening slowly. In shuffled
my
four-year-old red-headed daughter, dressed in her
PJs.
Quietly
climbing
into my lap, she murmured, "Daddy, I can't get to
sleep."
Then looking up at the screen, she pointed at the
window filled
with people, eyeing her from half-way around the
world, and
asked, "Who are they?"
I pointed down at the office floor. "They're way down
there.
And they're watching us. Isn't that neat?" Her timid
wave at the
screen brought a sigh from the audience. And then
applause.
Forget the slides. This is what it's all about.
Minutes later, we both waved good-bye. "Thanks for
the chance
to be with you," I said. "But now, it's time to tuck my
daughter
back into bed."
Fast forward
That George Jetson
scene
I lived nine years ago is now within nearly
everyone's
reach. Back then, I had to add a $5,000 card and fancy camera
to my PC
and plug it into an arcane switched-digital telephony
network
called ISDN.
Calls cost
about $1 a minute (up to $5/min or more overseas).
Anyone
connecting to me needed an equally pricey PC or
videoconferencing room system tied into ISDN.
Web conferencing technology, fast PCs and the
Internet have
changed all this. Today you and your guests just
need any
broadband-connected computer that's less than
about five
years old, a phone and (only if you care) a
webcam. A
variety of web conferencing
services are
available for as little as a few dollars per day.
The payback to your business can be immediate.
Here are my
top reasons why you should build web
conferencing
into your
business processes.
- Look bigger than you are. You've seen
the New
Yorker cartoon: "On the Internet, nobody
knows you're
a dog." With today's prices, even the
smallest
SOHO can
now host web conferences, just like the big boys.
- Multiply your number of sales demos & pitches
per
day. A bag-carrying direct sales person on the
road might
visit a few customers a day. But an inside sales
person doing
live web demos over the phone often can pitch that
many in
just an hour.
- Train your new customers. Host a live
weekly
mini-webinar for them, so they get a warm hug from
your staff
while learning how to make the best use of your
product or
service. Post archived versions as a complete "on line
training"
course they can review anytime.
- Improve your lifestyle. Just as I was "in
Sydney,"
yet tucked my daughter into bed that same night,
web
conferencing can mean fewer trips away from home,
family
and friends.
I can easily list ten more, because the payback is so
high.
Aside from the phone and email, I can't think of
another
technology that can deliver so much business
value
for so few
dollars.
How about you? What web conferencing reason do
you find most
compelling for your business and life?
Reply to
this email and let me know!
(My daughter appreciates #4 the most.)
— Rich
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