Last Night's Travel

I wrote post 2 years ago for friends and family after participating in my first multi-continent TelePresence meeting. It's also re-posted on My Cisco Community Blog.

Last night I traveled 5700 miles, participated in a 6 hour face to face meeting, and then returned 5700 miles home. It was a TelePresence meeting and I was in Boxborough MA, San Jose CA,  Galway Ireland, and New York NY all at once!

There were 11 people on TelePresence and two on the phone. Clearly we saved a bunch of money on travel, and eliminated a big carbon footprint, but the part of the experience that surprised me most was how productive we were.

• No one was jet-lagged from flying,
• No one was coming down with a cold they caught from the nice person at the airport coffee stand, and
  
• No one had to explain to their wife (I'm talking about me here) why they were away for three days for a 6 hour meeting.

There is no way we could have held that meeting in one location and had everyone as relaxed and comfortable as we did last night.  We were stunningly productive! Best of all, when our 6 hour meeting finished I drove home (5700 miles or 10 minutes by TelePresence/Car) and arrived just in time to tuck my kids into bed.




Some technologies are just cool. Others are cool and vastly improve your quality of life.