No substitute for flying.

Along with a "paper less office," IT improvements were supposed to eliminate (okay, reduce) the need for most business travel. Why suffer through airports, cattle-car seating, taxis and hotels to meet someone? In the new, broadband, Web 2.0 paradigm, business travel was to be passe; instead just fire up the video conferencing set up and wham, travel to the next floor rather than the next city or country to hold your meeting.

Heck, it is (supposedly) easier than that! No need to move from your desk or cubicle: just boot Skype or ooVoo or some other VOIP program and there, right there on your computer screen, was the one you wanted to meet with. So close you could almost swear you were in the same room.

Almost. Well, not almost, more like never. At least internationally--maybe New York to Cleveland VOIP offers crystal clear picture and sound, but in my experience Western city to Chinese/Indian city does not. When the connection works you get jerky, time-lapse video, and the sound, well, it's okay of you like talking to people at the bottom of a well, with echo, echo, echo.

Instead of a face-to-face conversation where you use both verbal and facial clues to make the back and forth flow smoothly, in VOIP you are constantly stepping on the other person's sentence. Or reverting back to a simpler time and archaic jargon: over.

Much as I like seeing the other person my choice is the regular telephone ... or flying. The moral is that if the meeting is critical, and getting all points aired and mutual understanding achieved, either get access (at both ends) to some professional, expensive video conference set up ... or fly.