Video Conferencing vs Face to Face Meeting: How to choose them?

“Communication is not the main thing. It’s the only thing to collaborate with teams”.

Managing communication and collaboration via technology is the current trend. Either intra or inter-team collaboration, setting up meetings is mandatory. Presently, there is debate running on video conferencing vs face to face meeting and which one to choose. You might have heard that every coin has two sides. Likewise, both modes of communication channels have their benefits and pitfalls. As per the present COVID-19 scenario, we shouldn’t arrange physical meetings as the state is under social distancing. Courtesy of virtual meetings, distance can’t stop business operations and can’t stop communication among the remote teams anywhere in the world.

Let’s dive deep into the details of each before going to the final verdict.

Face to face meeting: All-time favorite

In this mode of communication, all participants get together in the same meeting room either it is at restaurants, board rooms, or offices. Many advanced technologies may come and go but face to face meeting remain tall. It’s the power of face-to-face meeting. It creates strong bonds between businesses and clients and between two businesses.

Face-to-face communication in business:

Face to face (F2F) is the best communication channel. The blend of tone and body language with the meeting agenda makes a difference. For businesses, the first and the final meetings should be F2F for greater starting and closing of deals, projects, etc.

Let us glance at some of the face to face communication statistics:

• 100% of people assured that F2F meetings are mandatory for long-term business relationships.
• Convenience rate is more in F2F than Virtual
• Most of the high-end projects and its plans are needed to be private within the walls. At that time, businesses prefer F2F
• meetings.
• If you want to inspire team members, F2F is mandatory.
• F2F meetings generate 13 ideas whereas virtual meetings can generate 10 on an average.
• For every dollar they invest in traveling, they reap 10 fold value.

Advantages of face to face meeting:

• The message is clearly interpreted before you speak through body language.
• Participants/team members can be more comfortable and there will be a greater concentration and attention to the topic.
• The body language help to know whether the participants are active or not.
• One-to-one meetings help in reducing misconceptions.

Cons:

On the flip side, these meetings are expensive as one needs to hire meeting venues and put facilitating costs. You need to choose the common timing of participants and arrange meetings. Besides, the late arrival of participants is another headache. It consumes both time and money.

Virtual meetings: Last-minute saviors

In a nutshell, virtual meetings include web conferencing, video conferencing, conference calls. In case of emergency, we can’t arrange the face to face meeting instantly especially when the participants are at different locations. Thanks to virtual meeting tools that help in arranging meetings in a fly at any time. Hence, they are regarded as the last-minute saviors. For arranging virtual meetings, all you need is a good internet connection, robust audio & video tools, and rigid software. Cattle Call, Zoom, GoToMeeting, Webex are now leading tools that are running the virtual meetings during the COVID-19 pandemic.

• Video conferencing: This time-saver online meeting changed the way of the modern workforce. In this, the team can b communicated face-to-face from their remote locations.
• Conference calls: It’s a telephonic call that allows you to communicate with many at a time over the phone either one-way or two-way.
• Web conferencing: It enables you to hold live meetings, presentations, seminars, training, etc.

Note: It is better to integrate a single tool like Cattle call that offers you all types of online meetings (Video conferencing,

Conference calls, Web conferencing).

Pros:

• It connects the participants globally and collaborates with experts from different regions.
• Exemption from accommodation and transport charges as there is no need to hire a physical venue.
• Businesses can deal with emergency issues within a short span.
• You can hold real-time polls, Q&A sessions, and perform live chat.
• Promote business globally with product demos
• You can arrange last-minute meetings on a fly and immediate decisions can be made.
• Reduces carbon footprint.

Cons:

On the flip side, distractions such as network issues, communication breakdown, noise from surroundings, etc. make the virtual meetings unclear and unsuccessful. And there is a chance of multitasking by the participants.

Let us glance at some of the virtual communication statistics revealed from the research on virtual meetings.

• 84% of people prefer virtual meetings
• The majority of the millennials love virtual meetings as they think going to the office is not necessary and they prefer remote work.
• Many companies placing virtual interviews to screen job seekers and some companies directly recruiting employees as well.

Don’t see virtual meetings as an aid to reduce time and money. Take the present situation where we are unable to meet physically. Virtual meetings are running the business now. Companies are best utilizing video conferencing tools and giving product demos and launching new services. We, recently, launched our 3 new services during this period. We have built trust and maintained transparency throughout the communication. Remote teams are giving productivity as it was before. What more to say?. Send out a single page of content with a meeting agenda in advance for successful collaboration.

To sum up, we can see more advantages from virtual meetings than F2F.

If so, are virtual meetings replace F2F meetings soon?

Not at all. Based on the current developments in the business arena, it is mandatory to carry out projects in a distributed environment. Hence, businesses need to arrange conference calls, video conferencing, etc. to save travel time and money. It doesn’t mean that the importance of face to face presentation will fade away with time. F2F allows you to arrange meetings in disciplined environments by keeping off distractions. Besides, maximum accountability for engagement is found in the nuance that’s only felt in face-to-face conversations. It’s the value of face to face meeting. In-person communication is mandatory to get to know the people more.

Moreover, in business terms, time is money. Some big giants earning crores for every single minute. If there is a one minute lag, they will lose a crore. That’s the power of time and in this scenario, virtual meetings are an aid for the growth of a business. According to Forbs’ insights survey of face to face meeting vs. conference calls with 750+ business professionals, the majority of them voted for F2F.

Then, Which one is more productive?

There is no clear cut verdict for this. We do business with people. Decide F2F or virtual based on the objective of the meeting.

• Go to F2F meetings:

• If you want to foster team spirit, to influence others, to make decisions, to solve problems, or to strengthen business relationships.
• To built trust and transparent communication.
• One-to-one meetings give clarity and help in productive discussions

• Go Virtual:

• If you want to go global, go virtual!
• To deal with emergency issues in short notice.
• To give directions to the team and get reports
• To give Product demos

Let us build amazing collaboration using both...

We know that

• Business is building relationships.
• Globalization requires virtual workplaces.

The modern workforce fosters great relationships. Tap the potential of both modes of communication to achieve both of the above. So, it’s better to have a face-to-face meeting at the first meeting of the project for the transparent and clear understanding of crucial details. After that, you can get follow-ups, reports, etc. via virtual communication. As both ends have already had a direct F2F session, going virtual is easy and effective. Based on the availability of the participants and purpose of the meeting, etc., decide F2F or virtual.

Final Verdict:

In a nutshell, the art of reaping greater productivity lies in using the right channel at the right time for the right occasion. Irrespective of both channels, the early stage of business relationships and how you get together leads to successful meetings.