Capping IT Off
Having to attend a lot of meetings can result in traveling a few hours per week to arrive at the meeting place. Especially when your colleagues are working at a different location (or even in another country) you can earn a lot of Airmiles. You can give yourself a nice present from your enormous amount of Airmiles, however I do think you prefer a less time consuming, less costly and even perhaps a greener solution.
As Cisco moves the last few years by buying Webex, Postpath, Pure Networks, Faive Across and acquiring Jabber it is clear that communication is a big thing for Cisco. Since Cisco is so thoroughly expanding its footprint on communication it is could be just a matter of time that Cisco will become the biggest challenger of the passenger transportation branch. Cisco is able to offer a platform on which you interact with each other without spending hours in airports or in your car, without spending hundreds of euros / dollars on gasoline or tickets and without increasing the CO2 exhaust more.
The new way of traveling to meetings will be gaining ground in 2009: you will have your meetings at the place you prefer and the other attendees will be at the place they prefer. You’ll travel less, saving you days or even weeks of time in which you can do useful things. You’ll save money on tickets and gasoline and you can even mention that you are a greener person who is not pushing extra CO2 in the atmosphere while driving your car to another meeting. You could even be one of those who is solving the traffic congestion issues by not being on the road during peak hours.
I’ll be looking forward to my meetings in 2009, are you?
About the author
Rick is on a day to day basis working on social media (strategy) cases for several (Fortune 500) clients. He lives and loves social media, helping people and enterprises in using social media in a way that adds value for them. He also gives guest lectures at several universities to make students aware of the impact social media will have on their life in general and on enterprises in particular in the near and not so near future. Is he a geek? Well… yes. A geek with a social life though. Even one with a wife and a young son, who’s first English words were ‘Social media’.
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Could be Cisco indeed. But don’t forget ‘HP Airways’: http://h20330.www2.hp.com/enterprise/cache/570006-0-0-0-121.html . I was in one of their Halo rooms last week and was yet again amazed by the ease of use and the effectiveness of the meeting. A true Business Class experience indeed.
Nice one, Rick. To make this really work, they should come up with an airmiles equivalent, wirewiles if you will. You would get 1 wiremile for each mile on the average distance to the exact geographical center between the meeting participants’ locations. As a positive side effect, people would then really work on their international activities which will further ease right shoring.
typo in my previous comment: I meant “wiremiles”
@Ron,
I wasn’t aware of HP having those Halo rooms. They sure will fit in the same segment as I said Cisco does above. HP, Cisco (and probably others I forget) are the challengers for the mobility market and probably the indirect solutionproviders for traffic congestion.
@Mark,
I really like the wiremiles variant. Besides saving costs on travelling, you will be able to provide yourself with a nice present too based on the number of wiremiles you collect. Or perhaps Cisco and HP will join the Airmiles reward program giving you Airmiles each time you use their services.
Technology Predictions 2009: the compilation
As we are entering the final stage of quite an interesting year, let’s see what the collective wisdom of the contributors to our CTO and Capping IT Off blogs has come up with. Here is our compiled list of 2009…