Do you believe that with experience virtual teams and meetings can be as effective as or more effective than traditional face-to-face experiences? Why or why not?

One of the objections many people have to participating in online virtual meetings is the lack of the types of feedback they are used to receiving in face-to-face communications. Body language, facial expressions, and visual evidence of interest or boredom provide useful information to both leaders and participants.

People responsible for planning and managing virtual communications need to respond to those concerns to make team members and meeting participants comfortable. The use of web cams is a simple and inexpensive way for people to see and hear other participants rather than just viewing text and graphics. Older camera technology restricted participant views to only one person at a time or just the speaker’s face on the computer screen. Newer group meeting software and better placement of cameras make it possible for all team participants, local meeting groups, and full images of people to be seen on a computer screen. Participants can click around among people and locations on their own computers to get the visual image they want.