Drastically reducing travel budgets while simultaneously communicating more efficiently with employees, customers and suppliers. It might sound like a fantasy, but with Web conferencing, this way of doing business can be a reality.

If you're a company with global connections (and who isn't these days?) you don't need a calculator to figure out that if you increase virtual conferencing, you'll really take the bite out of your annual travel budget.

Consider the average cost of sending just an employee to an out of town meeting:

	airline travel ($400 per roundtrip ticket)			meeting room materials ($20)
	hotel ($100 per night)			meeting room catering ($20 per per day)
	meals ($50 per day)			employee downtime ($270 per day based on an average $70K salary)
	rental car ($35 per day)

That's close to $1,000 for just one person to be out of the office for two days. Ouch.

Increasing those numbers to an even greater budget-busting example, PlaceWare recently conducted a price comparison between an in-person seminar event versus a Web conference based on 200 attendees. Look at these numbers:

	airline travel ($90K)			catering/meals ($15K)
	hotel ($40K)			meeting materials ($5K)
	rental car ($14K)			audio-visual equipment ($7K)
	leasing of meeting space ($12K)			salary expense for employee downtime ($100,000)

That adds up to $283,000, compared to an average $63,000 for a Web conference that includes a phone and a customized online Web conference center – more than a $200,000 savings.

Talk about a positive return on your investment. That's a reality we can all live with.

About Barry James Folsom

Barry James Folsom, president and CEO of PlaceWare, Inc., is responsible for the company's business planning and strategic vision. Prior to joining PlaceWare, he worked in management positions for Exodus Communications, Baystone Software and Sun Microsystems.

1. World in Action, John Kenneth Galbraith