Earshakes vs. handshakes

Hello, can you hear me? I’m currently flying back from LA after two days of meetings with partner companies and clients. Geek fascination: This iPad is online…while it’s magically floating over 30,000 feet above the western United States. Is the connection any good? Not particularly…no video and the streaming audio struggles. But, hey, Twitter and Facebook!

Of course, the travels got me thinking (oh no!). Much of our business is conducted over the phone and computer. It has proven an efficient and effective manner of communicating. We are able to include multiple participants spanning large geographic ranges in a single conversation. Often on short notice, something just not possible with face-to-face. Take a morning meeting with a partner in Texas, joined by others in California. Enjoy a break for lunch, then go to NYC for an operations update. Sure, since the advent of phones we could do such things, but adding the file and screen sharing really seals the deal. (Out of respect for all parties, we rarely ask for video-based meetings. If sweat pants are your thing, that’s quite alright.)

Simply put, we would be unable to build or support our client base without such technologies.

Yet there’s a value to being more than within earshot.

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