Is Video Conferencing The Future of Work?

I recently teamed up with the folks over at Polycom as part of their new vidiquette series (that is, video etiquette) to explore how video is impacting the workplace. I'll be honest, there was a period of a few years where I really didn't think much of video and thought it would have little impact on how work gets done. After all, video isn't new, it's been around for quite a few years and for some reason I never thought it was that exciting. It might sound silly but for me the realization of video's significant impact on how work gets done came after I launched my Youtube channel where I put out regular videos on the future of work. I had 0 subscribers and had no idea if this content would even be viewed. Imagine my surprise when I learned how much people actually enjoy consuming video content! (naive much?)

The interesting thing is that this doesn't just apply to how we consume content as individuals, it also applies to how we consume content inside of our organizations whether it be through learning management systems, video courses we take online, or video conferencing solutions that we use to communicate and collaborate. It certainly appears that video is becoming one of the top preferred communication and collaboration methods which is what Polycom and IDG Enterprise research has shown. A few other tidbits from Polycom:

• 96% of business decision-makers believe video conferencing improves productivity between teams in different locations.
• 76% of business decision-makers now use video conferencing at work.
• 56% of business decision-makers who use video today participate in at least one video meeting per week.

According to Research and Markets "the global video conferencing market will grow from $3.31 billion in 2014 to $6.4 billion by 2020, corresponding to a CAGR (Compound Annual Growth Rate) of 9.4 per cent."

I'm not an analyst but from my observations there seem to be a few things happening here which are causing this upward trend of video conferencing. Here are some of them:

• Organizations are wanting to save on travel costs and are utilizing video conferencing as an alternative.
• Hi-Def speakers and microphones are being embedded into pretty much every computer and mobile phone allowing video conferencing to take place on-the-go.
• Technology costs are decreasing making it easier to use video conferencing as an affordable cost option.
• The growth in consumer video is helping push the growth for enterprise/business video as it helps us get more comfortable with this medium.
• Smaller and medium size organizations are leveraging video conferencing solutions as their teams are oftentimes virtual or leveraging flexible work arrangements.
• Flexible work options among larger organizations are necessitating video conferencing solutions to stay connected with co-workers.
• Other technologies are being integrated into video conferencing solutions such real-time editing, commenting, and file-sharing thus making it feel more like a true collaboration vs someone presenting information.

I'm sure there are plenty of other trends which can be identified that are further impacting the video conferencing space but from my seat, it certainly seems as though video conferencing has a solid place when we think about the future of work. Especially as we see the technologies continue to advance while their costs continue to decline. Soon we will see augmented and virtual reality integrated into video conferencing solutions at scale (I know it's already available but it's not perfect, it's not widespread, and a bit expensive). What do you think? Is video conferencing going to dominate the future of work? Are you using it in your organization? Make sure to check out my other post in this series where I share some funny video conferencing stories!

Jacob Morgan is a best-selling author, speaker, and futurist. His new book, The Employee Experience Advantage (Wiley, March 2017) analyzes over 250 global organizations to understand how to create a place where people genuinely want to show up to work. Subscribe to his newsletter or visit TheFutureOrganization.