Why face-to-face meetings are still essential in the digital sector

If you have grown up in a world immersed in technology, such as the PCs of the 1980s and 1990s or the smartphones and social media of the Noughties, it's easy to dismiss the worth of face-to-face meetings for business purposes. This is especially true if you work in the digital industry. 

However, while there's nothing wrong with continuing to use the likes of Skype and Zoom, you could still be missing out if you rely too heavily on them. Here are just a few big reasons why...

You can read visual cues and body language

In 2008, the headline "Video killed the passenger numbers" appeared in The Scotsman newspaper, as airlines found themselves taking less and less income from business air travellers due to the rise of videoconferencing. However, this development probably inconvenienced more than just airlines...

That's because, as noted in an article on The Drum, the only part of a person you can usually visually see when videoconferencing is their talking head. Hence, visual cues can too easily be missed.

Communication is clearer when face-to-face

It's a point on which we have already started touching - but it bears emphasis that, if you can see little of the other person's appearance, you could fail to spot signs of humour, anger and irony. 

This situation would put you at risk of misinterpreting what your corporate contact is trying to say. Consequently, you could end up saying something unintentionally insensitive. Besides, key points tend to be clearer face-to-face, whereas digital meetings can feel like conversing underwater. 

You don't have to worry about unexpected technical issues

Given the nature of your work, you are probably more than familiar with technology's unfortunate tendency to fail just when it is needed. This can play havoc in virtual meetings, as entrepreneur and author Andrew Griffiths acknowledges in an article for the Inc. site.

Griffiths notes such unfortunate occurrences as "camera problems, connection issues, [and] wasting 10 minutes trying to get the microphone to work" - issues which render him "insane".

You can more effectively portray your personal brand

Remember those visual cues mentioned earlier? The other person can more easily see those coming from you, too. You should deem this a good thing, as even little things you do can all feed into the depiction of your personal brand, which could otherwise look muddled over digital platforms. 

Your manner of conducting the meeting, what you wear and even the computer and pens you use can all influence - hopefully, for the better - how others perceive you.

Face-to-face networking is hugely influential

In an Entrepreneur piece, freelance writer and web designer Lucinda Honeycutt hails such networking as "one of the most powerful tools available for increasing one's personal exposure". 

Fortunately, opportunities for this networking are plentiful, too, thanks to events like the Advertising Week conference, which runs annually in London. In preparation to attend this event and so make the most of the opportunities, businesses could rent flexible workspaces in London from BE Offices.