There has been much talk, too much IMHO, about video conferencing reducing the need to travel, eliminating millions of Airline seats in 2-3 years. And while the airline companies admit that “video conferencing is now a strong competitor“, it seems that they are not really doing anything about this future threat.
Nothing but this…
This is a genuine commercial for Air Tran, an American low-fare airline targeting business travelers. Their bottom line is that you should fly to visit the people who you would normally only meet through video conferencing. This is the first attempt I’ve seen of any travel organization to address the threat of video conferencing. Still the bottom line, their bottom line, is: we lost, we’re doomed, we might as well joke about it.
Sure, the fight isn’t over yet. True, video conferencing (and other technologies) will not replace all face-to-face meetings, but I think we all agree that air travel, as we used to know it, especially in the last decade, is going to radically change.
The Air Tran people are funny, I admit. But every joke hides a little bit of truth. Video conferencing does have some kinks to work out. The technology may not be totally mature, the initial investment may be high, and there are still many barriers that need to be broken, but the countdown has already begun. And Air Tran, like all other business travel related companies, are aware of that.
I think we can all agree that there is no logic – financial, environmental, or personal – in the excessive amount of business travel done today. I guess we just need a different state of mind, to make the change in the way we conduct our businesses, to learn a few new tricks.
That’s why I really like this funny-yet-semi-amateur video from LifeSize:
Meeting across physical borers should no longer be limited to futuristic sci-fi movies. The time has come for (business) travel to occur without moving.
“The spice extends life, the spice expands consciousness, the spice is vital to space travel… travel without moving”
(quote from David Lynch’s Dune, sampled in Astral Projection’s Dancing Galaxy)
Tags: air tran, airline, enterprise, face-to-face, face-to-face meeting, funny, RADVISION, technology, Telepresence, travel, Video Conferencing
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