Although there are many online tools available to help with communication and collaboration, nothing replaces face to face communication. In this video, a leader of a virtual on-line company makes his case to employees at UPS that face to face contact can not be replaced.
I agree, there are things that can only be accomplished via face to face contact that not even Skype video chat can do. Recently, I went to a team meeting where we got to meet everyone face to face and have meetings that helped us move forward in vision and purpose. Not only did the direct communication between team members was valuable, we spent quality team building time doing fun activities that we can't do virtually (you can't arm wrestle over Google Chat).
This is a great case for conferences and off-site meetings and it can do wonders for a virtual team and communication with potential partners. And even though virtual tools can be used the majority of the time for communication within a team, face to face communication can not be replaced and be one of the team's channel of communication.
I did - but Derek Lo surprised us all on how long he held out. Had me thinking that he could have one but only for a bit...
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