Meeting on the Tube: Videoconferencing on the rise since Sept. 11.

• Author: Kronemyer, Bob
• Position: Communications - Brief Article

After the September 11 terrorist attacks, there's been an increased demand for videoconferencing.

Case in point, Pharmacia Corp. The New Jersey-based pharmaceutical giant had scheduled two regional sales meetings for later in September. However, immediately following the attacks, Pharmacia instituted a freeze on all corporate travel. "We then went into high gear as to how we could still hold the meetings. We decided on videoconferencing," says Kay ForbesSmith, president of KFS & Associates, an Evansville-based advertising, marketing, communications and corporate education/development firm. KFS provides sales and marketing resources for Pharmacia and has an office in Princeton, New Jersey.

For the two Pharmacia meetings, KFS & Associates arranged three broadcast sites, including one in Indianapolis, and more than a dozen receiving sites across the country. KFS & Associates itself often videoconferences between its two offices. "We have discovered this enhances our communication incredibly," ForbesSmith says.

Videoconferencing is especially appealing for businesses attempting to expand globally. "Busy schedules and tight budgets make videoconferencing a good option," claims Mark Cooper, director of the U.S. Export Assistance Center in Indianapolis, part of the U.S. Department of Commerce. For instance, "we can book a videoconferencing session to India for a few hundred dollars as opposed to making a trip to India for a few thousand dollars and staying in a hotel for a week," Cooper says.

Besides the economic benefits, videoconferencing is not as technically demanding as many are led to believe. "It is a very simple process," Cooper says. "In my office, we have a video camera. We use this equipment to establish dial-up connections around the world through a high-speed Internet access line."

Despite advances in Internet-based videoconferencing on individuals' own computers, "it is really not yet ready...