Traveling to meetings just went digital: how some corporate travelers are telecommuting.

• Author: Anderson, Tom
• Position: SPECIAL SECTION: Conventions & Corporate Travel

There was a time when air travel was the cat's meow for business and professional connection. Envision flying commercially to the board of directors meeting in New York City to assess Alaska profits or sealing the deal in Seattle via private jet over a glass of pinot noir and filet in a company acquisition. There's the job interview in Fairbanks to meet with a prospective boss and the quick flight to the Kenai Peninsula for a sales pitch.

Well things have changed. Enter a new kind of business meeting and a different breed of cat.

"What you're seeing is a renaissance in meeting and interactive technology," says Scott McMurren, the author of the popular Alaska Travelgram eNewsletter and an Alaska corporate travel consultant for over three decades.

"The tools entrepreneurs and business professionals have at their fingertips for meetings today, as simple as Apple's FaceTime and smartphone apps and as complex as multi-million dollar meeting-management technology, have certainly made the world flat," adds McMurren.

McMurren delineates that "corporate" travel varies, and now--so does the less expensive manner of online and telephonic communication.

The most obvious kind of travel in the business world appropriately relates to sales, marketing, and executive responsibilities such as contract and accounting functions. However, in Alaska, it's not just about face-to-face negotiations and contract memorializing. The size and geographic constraints of the state, while often forcing an email or phone conference to suffice for communication, don't always trump physicality.

"There's still absolutely no substitute for in-person connections and interaction that can only be achieved by air, water, and road when it comes to travel in Alaska," McMurren adds.

Take for example low to high-end repair service in the resource development industry from the North Slope to the Aleutians. Air and marine travel are literally the lifelines to performance. McMurren references replacements, renovations, repairs, and upgrades.

Health examinations and medical procedures also fit in the need-to-be-there category, aside from radiologic imaging assessments and diagnoses based on emailed images. Physicians and medical practitioners are hesitant, both legally and ethically, to examine patients and make medical conclusions from written or purely visual observations on a computer screen. To avoid liability, medical providers often have to fly to rural parts of Alaska and remote locations to extract a tooth, capture an X-ray image, or perform a physical exam. "Pregnant mothers in Dutch...