Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the world came to strict lockdown, which brought many new changes, including cultures. Everything turned online in the blink of an eye. And that transformation of technology is here to stay. For some, it is the future.
But why is online communication gaining so much importance even though the world has slowly returned to normalcy?
Online communication has made digital face-to-face communication possible when direct interpersonal contact was out of the question. The worldwide lockdown has confronted the globalized world with unimaginable challenges and has had a major impact. After turning the corporate culture online, companies have understood that they much rethink the entire meeting culture.
The epidemic has demonstrated the importance of interpersonal communication, especially in difficult circumstances. Those who took the digital revolution seriously and were ready to respond rapidly to new scenarios came out of crises stronger. As a result, the number of online meetings has exploded worldwide.
The number of Zoom Cloud Meetings downloads on the Apple App Store alone has increased from a staggering 2.35 million in February 2020 to uprising 35.95 million in April this year.
The understanding and acceptance of digital solutions have also risen amongst those who previously had little contact with online or preferred face-to-face meetings. It has shown us that modern problems require modern solutions and how communication tools are important for maintaining the economy and building healthier interpersonal relationships.
Millions of people worldwide were and can stay connected through online communication and stay creative and productive through remote work when it is no longer possible to meet in person. New habits of collaborative work have quickly developed in these times.
The crisis and its aftermath require many companies to cut costs consistently. The worldwide lockdown owing to the COVID-19 pandemic made business travel almost impossible. Similarly, the crisis also showed that many business trips are not mandatory. It holds little sense to travel hundreds of kilometres for a two-hour meeting if the participants can hold it online with excellent picture and sound quality instead.
In future, companies will still avoid business trips as far as possible to protect the health of their employees and save costs and time required to travel. Online meetings can replace business travels or important on-site meetings as a future-oriented, resource- and budget-saving alternative. The availability of a professional meeting room for an open meeting is a requirement.
But no matter what, ordinary online meetings are not enough. We need a real meeting culture. Of course, online meetings will never entirely replicate people’s communication in direct encounters because there is no immediate physical presence in the same place.
But the crisis has shown that the functioning alternatives are urgently needed when travel is impossible, as the home office has reached its limits. It applies especially to meetings of absolute importance, where the lack of on-site interaction and direct non-verbal communication need compensation professionally.
A meeting environment with adequate technology equivalent to a face-to-face meeting setting is required. Meetings of the highest relevance need to create an authentic meeting atmosphere. It means creating a conversation situation that comes as close as possible to a direct personal encounter at the same location.
Voice, facial expressions and gestures, and the movement of a person in the room must be perfectly transmitted. Even if people are not physically present in the same room, it generates a sense of mental and social connectivity through digital presence. It is the only way to ensure that professional online meetings are inferior to regular face-to-face meetings.
During the pandemic, managers also travel to their company to use the professional meeting room. Cause it is not only a strong digital presence and a professional impression important, but also a flawless connection, just as if you were meeting face to face.
Many people opted for professional meeting rooms in a co-working space during the pandemic, where nothing could go wrong, and the technology had to work reliably. For meetings like those, professionally equipped meeting rooms are an absolute must. Authentic meeting atmosphere such as furniture, lighting, tools and technology for cross-location collaborative work with full flexibility.
High-quality product solutions enable smooth communication. For example, the value of a meeting room solution underlines the professionalism and prestige of a company.
Many individuals value the ambience and unique feeling that occurs when people get together in one space to be creative, exchange ideas, encourage one another, and work productively on a shared vision.
It’s all about human interaction and the growth of the meeting participants’ various personalities and characters. Unfortunately, many individuals believe that such an atmosphere is unattainable with online meetings. However, holding an authentic virtual meeting requires only the interaction of a few aspects, such as appropriate furniture, lighting conditions, colour design, and the necessary technology.
The pandemic has brought about many changes. But the post-pandemic culture has its pros and cons. And somewhere on the other, we have accepted the culture’s new adaptations. Nevertheless, despite the cons and the physical meeting setups, the online arrangement of having professional conversations is here to stay. It has transformed the world into a global village in a more definite sense.
