ZOOM meetings

[Navara]

I've just completed my first ZOOM online meeting.It was a Blah,Blah,Blah course.I had a preconceived idea of ZOOM meetings but was actually pleasantly surprised!The last BBB course I had was a full day 9-4:40 but this ZOOM BBB was just 2:45mins and much better for it!

I can see why many people now prefer ZOOM/MSTeams meetings as opposed to physically sitting in a room together.There were 10 of us from all over the Country,various ages etc and we didn't have to leave home so from an environmental point of view a Blah,Blah,Blah that you don't need to drive to has to be a plus!!?

I can see no reason whatsoever why people will have to physically travel to other parts of the Country or even World to conduct meetings now.I'm not from an Office type work background but ZOOM makes perfect sense to me!

Will ZOOM/MSTeams etc be the end of employees traveling the World on "Jollies" with Company Expense accounts?

[[XAP]Bob]

It won’t.

Been using zoom (and Webex before that) for years. They’re good, but they are no substitute for getting to know your colleagues. Given that getting me to the office costs quite a bit we don’t do it often, but it is an important time in terms of having relationships with colleagues.

You work better with people you’ve been to the pub with (insert culturally appropriate alternative to a pub as required).

They’re great for regular meetings, but you need to see people occasionally.

[mjr]

Is being able to speed through a Driver Awareness Course in under 3 hours a good thing?

[[XAP]Bob]

9 - 4:30, take an hour for lunch, two 15 minute breaks - know that the first 15 minutes of each session will be wasted as will the last 5,,,

That's nearly three hours of the 7.5 gone without even thinking about it.

[Ben@Forest]

Zoom is no substitute for real meetings. The nuances of facial expressions or body language are difficult or sometimes impossible to read, it's difficult to interject with a good idea or a pertinent question at the right moment.

It can also be difficult to know if some people are actually listening to the meeting. You can say that even if people are actually at a meeting they may not be listening, but l get the distinct impression on Zoom some people are on Angry Birds or bidding on ebay at the same time.

[Syd]

The NHS has been fairly slow in the uptake of video conferencing but rolled out MS Teams ahead of schedule due to Covid.

I am certain that it will cause a number of permanent changes. For example meetings where people spend an other or more travelling to, then the same again travelling from, a two hour meeting will be vastly reduced.

[drossall]

I'm using Teams for most work meetings, with the odd other system, such as Google Meet, thrown in, and Zoom in the evenings and weekends. Works well, but builds, I think, on relationships previously established in the real world.

The upshot is that I've worked from home since the beginning of lockdown, with very little impact on what I do. Evening meetings would be better face to face but, while it's not possible to do that, Zoom is a decent substitute. Like other leaders, I've run a term of Scouts virtually now. We're just planning for a return to real meetings, at least outdoors.

[Navara]

Is being able to speed through a Driver Awareness Course in under 3 hours a good thing?

2:45(with a 15 mins break) is more than enough time to get through what they have to.I think the courses have generally gone to half-day now regardless of C-19.(if they ever return to actually attending in person).The full day course was strung out and TBH boring...but I thought that was part of the punishment!

9 - 4:30, take an hour for lunch, two 15 minute breaks - know that the first 15 minutes of each session will be wasted as will the last 5,,,
That's nearly three hours of the 7.5 gone without even thinking about it.

Not quite.
It was 30 mins lunch and 2x10 mins on the courses I was on.Might be different elsewhere.I get your point though.Without all the attendee interaction today could easily have been done in 90 mins.

My point is more to do with ZOOM meetings in general and not the content.
Maybe I should edit my OP and say it was about B*****,or Covid-19,or the price of fish!?

[Tangled Metal]

My partner used zoom through university a long time before lockdown. It allows for team meetings when people are not able to get into the same surpass workplace. Her current project she's working with a London based colleague who simply couldn't spare the time to make a physical meeting.

For their needs it works well. It isn't her experience that colleagues don't form relationships or struggle to detect facial expressions of non verbal communication. I've only used it for family birthday parties during lockdown. Facial expressions are easily seen IMHO if you're looking at the person when they make the expression. Just like when you're there in person, you aren't seeing everyone's face at the same time.

I remember a good few years ago when the head of a campaigning, environmental organisation was launching a campaign something about travelling less for work and pleasure. The truth of the organisation is that the head, and probably a lot of the top of people, were hypocrites because they'd been using a lot of transatlantic flights when others for the same conferences and similar were attending remotely I believe.

There's always going to be a mix of positives and negatives for every way of doing your business. However at what point do environmental positives of zoom meetings factor into this balancing of pros and cons. Should interpersonal and business benefits outweigh the environmental benefits of not travelling to distant meetings?

[[XAP]Bob]

Depends what you mean by “a meeting”

A not insignificant part of my carbon footprint is work travel - once or twice a year to the office, never for less than a week - once will be for the global user conference, which we did online those year, and it was very well received - but nothing beats actually having customers and employees having a chat over drinks (whether soft drinks during the day or otherwise in the evening).

Then again my daily commute hasn’t had a significant footprint for a decade (well, increased washing loads and a few extra calories to consume).

[Tangled Metal]

So you had a zoom conference that was well received? You're also saying, I think, that it's two trips a year and the rest of your year is lower carbon from travelling so it's still a low impact travelling year.

It's ok to keep one coal fired power station open because we've closed all the others, right? How about going the extra mile to close the last coal fired power station too?

Yours is just a smaller scale but it still all adds up. Besides ince had some very good business relationships with suppliers having never met them in real life. I'm not really a meet people at a pub kind of guy. All my employers stopped doing the pub meetings decades ago because they really weren't effective anyway. The years of giving a buyer a good night out before the meeting (and dancing on the table but that's another story) died decades ago I reckon.

My real point is about priorities. A balancing act of pros and cons. I reckon one day the scales will tilt for online meetings more than physical meetings for the majority of businesses.

[[XAP]Bob]

No, if I could get there in a more effective way then I would, but I can’t. I also don’t have the authority to pull the plug on those costs - financial or ecological.

So given that as a starting point I do much of what I can elsewhere.

No doubt someone will suggest that I get a job somewhere more local... well, I cycled to the UK office for years, though I now can’t for reasons that aren’t relevant here and work from home. And they need some people across various time zones - so whether it’s me or someone else, the job, and the flights, will still be done.

[Oldjohnw]

No, if I could get there in a more effective way then I would, but I can’t. I also don’t have the authority to pull the plug on those costs - financial or ecological.

So given that as a starting point I do much of what I can elsewhere.

No doubt someone will suggest that I get a job somewhere more local... well, I cycled to the UK office for years, though I now can’t for reasons that aren’t relevant here and work from home. And they need some people across various time zones - so whether it’s me or someone else, the job, and the flights, will still be done.

There will always be people who will tell you how you should travel and where you should live and work. Sounds like you are doing all you can.

[Tangled Metal]

No, if I could get there in a more effective way then I would, but I can’t. I also don’t have the authority to pull the plug on those costs - financial or ecological.

So given that as a starting point I do much of what I can elsewhere.

No doubt someone will suggest that I get a job somewhere more local... well, I cycled to the UK office for years, though I now can’t for reasons that aren’t relevant here and work from home. And they need some people across various time zones - so whether it’s me or someone else, the job, and the flights, will still be done.

I have no doubt that you are doing what you can. My point is that companies, at a higher up level than you perhaps, could do more. Things that went on during covid like remote events like your annual one this year worked so why go back to physical events? I certainly wasn't meaning to be critical or tell you what to do.

If you can't question then things might never change. People at different corporate levels will obviously have different potential impact levels.

Imagine if boss of apple said they'd not visit all the tech shows or have a physical launch event. Instead they lived and worked at their normal place and attended remotely. If that's at home great. That would have a big impact because of their position in the sector. My partner only working from home with zoom meetings isn't really going to be as big a change but it's a change that helps.

Bob is doing his bit I reckon but if his bosses or whoever has the power decides not to have that event remotely in future isn't, perhaps.

[[XAP]Bob]

I am under no illusions that I am doing *all* I can.

I am making reasonable adjustments - heating controls, double glazing, insulation, EV... but there is plenty more I *could* do if I really tried. But if I'm honest all my current adjustments are the easy ones...

Things that went on during covid like remote events like your annual one this year worked so why go back to physical events?

We are considering combining or alternating the formats...
The online conference worked ok, but there were significantly fewer opportunities for the in depth technical discussions which we normally have at these events... And those normally save us months of time with various issues and accounts.
Time zones are also an issue with an online event, as is the commitment to actually attend once registered.
On the other hand the online event has potentially a much wider reach amongst present and potential customers - with much lower cost (financial, temporal, and ecological) to attend.