Face-to-Face Meetings

I attend a fair number of meetings and mostly use video conference call software. My company prefers Microsoft Teams but my wife's company prefers Zoom. There are several other options as well. These technologies allows a single meeting to include people from all around the world without the need to get on a plane to meet in a central location. It is wonderful and allows me to work from home on most days.

Several weeks ago I had the chance to meet some of my colleagues in India. I had never been to India before and didn't know what to expect. While I wanted to add a new country stamp in my passport, I didn't want to spend that much time traveling unless necessary. Ultimately it took about 36 hours of travel each way thanks to both KLM and Air France having mechanical issues with their planes.

I arrived in Bangalore with enough time to get to the hotel, shower, and then head to the office. India is a beautiful country but Bangalore's population has grown faster than its infrastructure. While the airport is only about 40 miles from my office, traffic requires 3 hours to cover that distance. All that traffic means I couldn't walk from my hotel to the office even though the distance is just over a mile. Fortunately the office sent me a car every morning that also brought me back to the hotel in the evening. Another limit is that I knew I couldn't drink tap water and so I used the 6 liters of bottled water in my hotel room every day. When it came time to brush my teeth, I used that bottled water.

Now the reason for my trip centered around working with a team of guys I meet with regularly. I had met one or two in Tokyo but most of the team doesn't regularly get the chance to travel. The first thing I noticed is that my image of some team members didn't match reality. There is one guy that has such a soothing voice I imagined him to be about 5 inches shorter than me and just tiny. In reality he is 2 inches taller than me and regular build. He is still one of the nicest guys you will ever meet.

Another benefit of meeting in person is really getting to know the people I work with. When you are on a video call, you don't really have to interact with the other attendees. When you are all in the same room you get to find out what everyone is really like. That makes it easier to find common interests and get to know people.

I have been home from India for about 3 weeks and I have to say that my video conference calls are higher quality with the team in India. There is a lot more of that small talk before the meeting begins. While there never has been any disrespect, the respect for each other is higher after having met in person. I also find that the meetings seem to be shorter. Ultimately the people in the call are actually people and not just disembodied voices. I highly recommend getting together as often as time and distance allow. We had such a good meeting in India that I plan to go back next year. I figure that is often enough for such a long distance.