Travel Down, Technology up. Welcome to the Age of Video & Conference Calls!

For many companies, travel and meeting budgets were the first discretionary expenses to get cut back when economic turbulence took its toll on corporate balance sheets. So, with travel budgets slashed, we are increasingly turning to technology as a substitute for in-person contact. Can web conferences, video calls and other virtual meetings really take the place of face-to-face contact?

The list of pros and cons of technology-enabled meetings can be extremely long. The most reasonable and significant ones to mention would probably be:

• Pros – save time & money, more flexibility in location and timing, enable archiving sessions for later viewing.
• Cons – unable to read body language and facial expressions, less social interaction, lack of bond with co-workers/clients, greater chances for unnecessary distraction.

Whether you accept it or not, you’d better face the necessity to get equipped for remote working through video and conference calls. You may also need to record your calls for archiving or taking minutes purposes, or to distribute to those who couldn’t attend the meeting. As a fun fact, many users of Skype, for instance, do not know how to record calls since this is not a native function.

Here’s a tutorial how to record video calls using SuperTinTin, which is among the most popular quality Skype recorders.

If you are hungry for more of tech advices, why not explore transcribing the records you have just made? In 100% of the cases the matters that are discussed in remote meetings are important. This is exactly why they needed to be recorded, right? In order to make analysis and eventually come to decisions crucial for the business, call transcription should be – beyond any question – on the table. It becomes more than valuable as soon as the call needs to be shared with a wider audience of concerned parties. You weren’t thinking about attaching a video file to your email, were you?