Sometimes the most illustrative stories happen in your own back yard.

One of our sales team members, Susan,  recently endured a crazy ordeal getting to a meeting in Philadelphia. The face-to-face meetings I often have with Susan take place with a simple touch of a button using our Sony video conferencing system. But the irony and reality of it all is that our sales team, while in the VC industry, spends a lot of time in the field and on the road explaining the benefits of video conferencing to those that don’t yet have the video conferencing technology in use at their organizations.  If nothing else, the following events that unfolded proved to the clients she met with why video conferencing is a much-needed investment.

The Bureau of Transportation Statistics claims “Americans make more than 405 million long-distance business trips per year.”  I’m sure you have a travel “horror story” that could have been avoided by holding the meeting from the convenience of your office video conferencing system.  Leave a note and share your story below!

Apple’s iPhone has been a game-changer in portable devices since its original smart phone shippedin 2007. The extremely loyal fanbase swears that the new iPhone 4 is so much more than” just another phone,” and they’re right. The communication and productivity tools have come quite a long way in such a short span of time.  It’s probably why thousands camp out annually at each new release. What is yet to be determined, however, is the integration of one of the iPhone’s newest features, video conferencing, and its ability to push video conferencing into prominence as the foremost communication tool in today’s marketplace.

In the June 7^th keynote that introduced the product, Apple chief Steve Jobs provided a quick demo and went into some depth about the capabilities of what he calls “Facetime” (watch after the jump)

I have a love-hate relationship with buffets – I love the multitude of options but I hate having to choose between them.  There's the main courses, the desserts, the fresh bread choices, a seemingly never-ending salad bar with dressing names don’t even recognize. Still, by the time I get back to the table, I notice others enjoying delicious foods that I didn't even see in the buffet.

It’s the same way with video conferencing systems. It's great that the configurations out there are flexible enough to meet individual goals, budgets, physical location specs, etc. – but it always seems there are more good options.

So which features are must-have main courses and which are empty calories? Main course decisions by most buyers start with HD vs. Standard Def systems, and Multi-point vs. Point-to-Point units.  The side dishes are numerous, but a couple I like the most are:

Recording: Some systems allow you to record a video call locally right onto a memory stick, which can playback later on a computer, allowing users to dissect  that "aha moment" from the meeting, archive the training for future attendees, or just to replay your bosses nervous tic over and over again