deniah

Maybe it's different in other industries. For us, VC is not a new thing. We haven't discovered some utility that was unknown or inaccessible before.

In person meetings are still extremely valuable for building new connections and rapport. Existing relationships, less important. Companies don't buy products blindly from a catalog. Sellers don't expect


Companies don't make new purchases blindly from a catalog. Likewise, even if we sold the Best Thing in the Universe, I wouldn't expect customers to rush in. There's establishing of trust, negotiations, gamesmanship, etc.

Meetings and conferences are valuable for the social and networking aspect, whether it's internal or external. VC is a small band aid, it doesn't replace that.

lhrsfo

As the owner of a business 5000 miles away and not permitted to visit that business, I'm experiencing first hand both the savings and the costs of not travelling. It's easy to quantify the savings, and I'm enjoying the cash still being in the bank account. However, it's painfully slow getting things done and, as for new projects, it's largely a case of forget about it. So what are the costs? Difficult to quantify as new projects tend to be an expense at first and lead to profit later. I'm currently not incurring the cost but I know I won't be enjoying the benefits in months and years to come. The business can stay static for a period but the long term prognosis is extremely bad if I can't travel to it.

So, what will change? I'm not really sure anything will change. As the travel was already effectively my money, I was already careful about the expenditure. I tried going for fewer, longer, trips but that never really worked. So I'm guessing that, when permitted, I'll be back to 8-10 visits a year.

Artpen100

Things I have learned so far in the pandemic:

In person > virtual meeting > conference call.

The telephone conference call is dying.

Existing relationships can translate to virtual conferencing easily.

New work relationships struggle virtually.

I miss the connection of in person dinners and meetings.

Cultural differences make virtual communication more difficult.

Culture does eat strategy for breakfast.

Virtual meetings can easily have broader geographic reach than in person meetings.

Different time zones are a problem.

I have no idea what things will be like months from now.

darthbimmer

I absolutely agree. It's unfortunate, though, that most of my virtual meetings with prospective clients (I'm in sales) devolve into conference calls. Very few want to use video! Visual contact-- even if it's virtual-- adds a lot of nonverbal communication crucial to assessing how a person is receiving, understanding, and responding to the discussion. That's lost when people routinely connect with video off. Among my clients fewer than 20% enable video. Predictably, it's been easier to establish intent to buy-- and thus close deals faster and more accurately-- with few who use video than the many who hide behind blank screens. I look forward to it being safe enough to travel again so my team can more effectively progress and close deals.

njxbean

Yea we were trying to do video for every meeting and realized that most people didnt want to do it. I agree, those non verbal cues are important. Little things like lunch meetings hurt not being able to do. I know once we are allowed to travel the flood gates with open but i do wonder how many companies will restrict visitors. I know of a few that plan to at least for some time.

It will definitely be interesting. But i do see business travel as a whole going down as companies realize certain roles do not need as much as they thought. But some jobs you cant do that(like sales). I will say im in no rush to fly until things are under control, the airlines have all the proper precautions in place and we have a vaccine.

darthbimmer

That's part of the landscape I'm considering when I ask when it will be safe enough to travel. It's not just a question of when I feel travel is safe enough for me but when enough companies feel offices & f2f meetings with visitors are safe enough for their employees to return to. My employer, a small software company, recently announced its offices will remain closed for at least 6 more months.

enviroian

I'm anxiously awaiting return to the road. In my industry we are using webex and Teams Meeting but not once since this started has anyone used their camera. It's just used as a conference call. Who uses the camera anyways and why??

GUWonder

I see some online meetings of lawyers/legal representatives and some judicial hearings taking place with cameras on sometimes; but I also see lots of times when the camera goes off or is covered up for part of the online meetings. Personally, I prefer to defaulting to audio conference calls as much as I can; but I have to assume a large part of that is me being a creature of habit and not one of those "look at me" types.

Not too many days ago, as part of substituting for an in-person cross-border professional association get-together for what should have been a conference closing, the group members decided to quite literally try to eat a closing meal together while in the video call meeting. Before that happened, I was thinking "who use this/the camera for that anyways and why?". And I still think it's bizarre.

Cory6188

When our company went WFH more or less globally back in March, they made a point to ask people to use their cameras given the impact of non-verbal communication, to help people not feel so isolated in front of their laptops, etc. I'd say probably >80% of people do it, and it's a norm by now. I honestly think it makes a huge difference for increasing interpersonal engagement.

Interestingly, we never used to bother with a camera for all of the conf calls we used to do with external vendors, and now everyone does it. Sitting on the client side and holding the budget, admitted sample size of n=1, I can't say it makes any difference in my spending decisions as to if a vendor visited our office in person versus talking through something via video.

darthbimmer

My company is globally distributed and has been majority-remote since its inception years ago. We've long recognized videoconferencing as crucial for forming and maintaining strong, connective relationships. Even before COVID-19 hit and made us 100% remote we had a Video-On policy for meetings.

Our Video-On policy is appropriately flexible. It includes understandable allowance for "quality of life" issues. Most people understand that to mean early/late hours when people are not at their camera-ready best, situations where family in the room is unavoidable, etc. Overall, compliance with the policy is at 90+%. There are only a few employees I interact with who routinely leave their cameras switched off.

Chris2013

The "Golden Age" of air travel is far behind us and now airline travel is just a means of transportation- nothing more, nothing less. Unless you're flying Emirates/Singapore/Etihad first class, anything business/first class from the domestic "Big 3" isn't worth the premium charged (that is unless someone else is footing the bill). When I travel for leisure, I'll book the cheapest, most direct, basic economy ticket that allows me to bring a carry on and personal item.

Airline lounges are generally lackluster with the exception being the Amex Centurion lounges. However pre-COVID, good luck finding any decent seat in one of those during the week regardless of airport. The product is great and because of that, huge numbers of travelers applied for Platinum cards to allow them access and then the overcrowding began. Now with the Centurion lounges being shuttered indefinitely, who knows what the future holds for that segment.

While COVID is devastating for the travel industry as a whole, perhaps when we get out of it, some of the "perks" of traveling will return for good. We've already seen it with change fees being eliminated and deep cleaning of planes taking priority (much needed in general), the industry might return to be a better standard than where it left off. One can hope at least..

Artpen100

If a video meeting is important to me, I am video on. If I am just one of many participants and perhaps only joining it out of obligation it is usually video on for a polite minute, then video off. I'm in a service industry, so I let the clients set the example.

Also, I did think we were in a golden age of travel for international business class until COVID. Sure, the F&B on UA was lame, but long-haul business class, let alone first, on BA, AF and LH, and with their lounges, was a very nice experience. The lie-flat seat and overall soft experience had evolved upwards over the prior years. I have flown domestic but not international in recent months, but when I do fly international again, I hope the experience has not been scaled back too much.

Chris2013

For TATP long-haul business/first class, many of the international carriers did have very good hard products however I mean the "golden age" when coach seats weren't crammed in like sardines, when they actually served hot MEALS, when you didn't have to pay to check a bag or have fees leveraged up the wazoo. I would much rather see airlines drop the excessive fees and start improving the domestic hard and soft product rather than just focusing on TATP flights.

rankourabu

Agree! OPM stay home! Airlines will be forced to reduce elite qualification without OPM, so those of us who dont have to fly for work will benefit like its 2009 all over again!

warakorn

Actually, most people turn off their video during conference calls, but that's largely due to the reason that colleagues are sitting at home - and are rightfully not required to tidy up their rooms. It's a privacy issue.