Video Conferencing : Small Businesses Should Use Video Conferencing  to Reduce Travelling Cost Significantly

Travelling to and from meetings and conferences, to me, was always a necessary evil. I need to be there as the ambassador for my company and I gain a lot of contacts and potential business into the bargain. The downside is the time lost and the expense of travel, especially when flying or staying in hotels.

High fuel prices, increasing network rail and domestic air fares mean that less conferences and business meetings are being attended by small and medium sized business owners than ever before, unless it is absolutely essential. This business is either now being conducted over the phone or by email. Both are excellent tools but lack personality when it comes to clinching the deal.

Modern video conferencing is helping businesses reduce travel costs significantly. High speed Internet connectivity is now more widely available at a reasonable cost. Video capture and display technology costs have decreased dramatically making video conferencing a desirable alternative to travel.

For a long time, futurists have imagined telecommunications would be conducted face to face visually as they have been conducted audibly since the television was invented. Telephone and television combined together to create a conferencing medium was even seen in comic books when I was young. Now it's here, and it's here to stay.

The increased use of VoIP in businesses makes video conferencing an excellent communications tool. Broadband technology makes video conferencing a workable solution to travel and at a significantly lower cost.

I would not use video conferencing all the time if an email or phone call would suffice. I would use video conferencing as an alternative to the phone or email if visual information were an important part of the conversation, if it were not possible for all parties to be at the same location or if there were time or travel constraints.

Sometimes, you may want to have a colleague or protégé attend a meeting with you. Perhaps you have a member of your technical staff whose input you value, with video conferencing; they can attend the meeting and be back in the lab immediately after. Having them in the same room for a video conference is a lot less expensive than paying their travel expenses.

Next time you need to attend a meeting with someone miles away, check to see if video conferencing is an option to travelling, you will reduce your travel costs significantly.