Your Sydney HQ is developing a new marketing team with team members located in New York, Beijing and Mumbai. This will necessitate the establishment of a virtual team spread over four different time zones to use both synchronous (real time) and asynchronous (not concurrent) communication. A number of the team have expressed concerns about how it will all work, and meetings might be scheduled when one part of the team is about to go to lunch, while the other part is asleep.

To help 'sell' the idea to the team, your boss, the Marketing Director, is planning a virtual meeting with all team members. She is aware of the concerns and knows how important the presentation will be in creating a favorable association with virtual teams, as well as a good opportunity to build engagement, trust and candor among the team members.

Prepare the virtual meeting she has asked you to: (i) evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of synchronous and asynchronous communication, and (ii) develop recommendations on how to use both synchronous and asynchronous communication tools, to not only be productive, but to maintain positive working relationships.