For those of us that have only travelled by airplane once or twice, you may be lucky enough to never have had your flight delayed, let alone cancelled. However, for those of us that fly on a regular basis, delays and cancellations is nothing new – especially during the volcanic eruptions and British Airways strikes in 2010.
Business men and women would fly out to discuss business, planning on flying back within a couple of days, only to find out their flights would be cancelled for many days to come. These eruptions were said to have caused airlines approximately $250 million in lost revenue per day, but no real value can be placed on the losses it caused businesses due to delayed meetings and lost working hours.
Although the ash clouds did delay and cancel many flights, this seems to happen on a regular basis even without the help of a volcano or justified reason from the airline. Even trains, which have been notorious for being delayed, seem more reliable these days.
Of course there is certain business that can only be done face to face or onsite, but for companies that send staff out to attend meetings and conferences onsite, there are certainly other alternatives that are more reliable.
Some alternatives to having meetings and conferences are conference calls and web conferencing services.
Conference calling can be done from any location or phone, and can allow up to 50 people to join in for one session. There are other great features, such as call recording, available as well. If documents need to be shared, web conferencing is always a great alternative, allowing you to share and discuss documents live.
Again, there is business that needs to be handled face to face, but for a company that just can’t deal with delays or simply wants to be much more efficient, conference calling is certainly a solution that should be looked into.