Last night, we drove out to Boxborough, Mass, to meet with a group attending a conference sponsored by the National Association of Corporate Directors. Detail: they were in Phoenix, Arizona.
Despite the physical divide, we spent two hours in the same room, with Scott Greenburg presenting on "Digital Directorship," me chiming in and facilitating, fifteen people on their end, two on ours, the directors speaking up as we went along, make observations, asking questions, exchanging insights. (Scott and I had some practice together face-to-face at the NACD conference last fall when he, along with two others, was a panelist and I moderated.)
Yup, me here, them there, and it felt--to all of us--as if we were all together.
You have to experience it. I'm about to shill for Cisco Telepresence--and I know, it's expensive, a bandwidth hog, and blabbedy-blah--but, as per before, you've got to experience it. For anyone who's suffered through a video conference, Telepresence is your hard-won reward.
I'd done a Telepresence session last June (Cisco's Worldwide Inside Sales Group's annual meeting) in the same Cisco facility in Boxborough but in a different room where there was one screen and only me, with a few people each in other locations (London, Singapore, Miami). Last night's room had three 65-inch screens, meaning we were lifelike in size to each other. Perfect video. Wrap around desks that made it feel as if we could pass each other drinks. Same color on the walls. No delay in transmission. Perfect audio. And I could see Scott's slides (I didn't have any.)
Gene Papula, Senior Engineering Manager for Cisco in North America, was the host on my end; Dale Walker, Systems Engineer in the Phoenix Cisco office, was the host on the other end. Both, most gracious, and forgiving of a slip-up that had eluded our guests. While most of the US switched to daylight savings time last weekend, Arizona did not which meant that our 7:30 EDT start time was delayed until closer to 8:30, result being we kept Gene around longer than we had hoped AND, as we discovered driving home, we missed dinner as there is not a single open restaurant between Boxborough and Newton after 10 PM on a weekday (do we live in the sticks or what?).
Gene used the perfect expression when describing his daily Telepresence routine: "I meet in person with my folks all the time." Not face-to-face. In person. One other factoid: he made two trips in all of last year. Two. Telepresence replaced the airport.
So, these pictures, which I hope convey a bit of what it was like--but just a bit as I only had my phone. Judge for yourself.
Two of three screens
Scott and friends say hi (note cameras)
Slides were visible just below Scott
C'est moi
Jeff Stamps holding down table on our end
Gene Papula answering a few questions
Listening to Gene
Only takes push of button to connect
