Several firsts at once for a keynote I gave last week for Cisco, topic, appropriately enough, "Virtual Leadership:"
1. A truly global audience--from California to London to Singapore and many spots in between, with about 90 people in all.
In this picture, London, Raleigh, North Carolina, and me, the invisible photographer in Massachusetts
2. Everyone attended virtually. Everyone.
3. We used Telepresence, Cisco's technology that provides hi-def, interactive videoconferencing.
I could mute the mike on my desk
4. Telepresence was then combined with Webex and transmitted via Cisco IPTV, which meant that people could see me, see my slides, send questions...and probably multitask all at once.
When I was on mute, there was a screen icon to remind me
According to the host, Cisco's VP of Worldwide Inside Sales, Jim Blum, it was only the second time Cisco tried anything like this, the first being in May of this year.
And, as per above, it was my first time.
When my time was nearly up, a stopwatch appeared on the screen, first at 10 minutes, then again at 2 minutes
It worked perfectly, with no glitches technically.
Going back and forth between me and Jim, while with a slight (perhaps a second or two) delay, was seamless.
So...what is Telepresence and how is it different from normal videoconferencing, the herky-jerky, irritating, low-resolution, out-of-synch, wish-it-were-always-better technology? It's really hi-res, the screen is huge (see picture), the audio is perfect, and it really does feel almost-sorta-like you're with the people. Very different from Skype, iSight, the built-in video on my Mac...really different from any video conf I've ever done.
It's not just that you're seeing a really clear picture, i.e. watching the news on TV, but the newscaster is talking back to you. Quite phenomenal.
And low impact in a number of ways. No one traveled except to their local laptop - and in the case of Jim, his direct reports, and me to a Telepresence room. Now do a back-of-the-envelope calculation of how much this meeting would have cost if 90 people had been convened. Instead of coming together for "three intense days," as Jim said they did last year, they came together over about a week with highly focused, highly interactive virtual meetings.
Good for reducing stress on people and on the planet.
If this is the future of virtual meetings, sign me up. Presenter evaluation, meaning how I'd rate the environment--and the preparation--provided by the client? A+
