Do you need video

An interesting discussion took place after yet another video demonstration yesterday. The conversation revolved around the need for video conferencing itself.

Back in the day where your whole company was on-site and you needed to meet with several people, you would book a conference room then all head to that room to meet face to face. If you needed to talk to one person, you picked up the phone - typically - to get a question answered or a problem resolved. Usually, the easiest means to an end are used to accomplish the task at hand.

Then the combination of video conferencing and remote workers/satellite offices became the norm. If you need a group meeting, you can either do a conference call or better yet all get together on video. If you need to talk to one person though - my guess is that you'll still pick up the phone and not opt to attempt a video call. There are cases of 'presence' enabled apps where you can see if someone is available and reach out via video. Good luck having that work as easily as a phone though.

At the end of the discussion we were all in agreement that one to one video is not important or necessary for business. To see your spouse, kids or grandkids via Facetime (etc) - now that is valuable.