A few short years ago, most meetings were restricted to the company boardroom. If outsiders were invited, they were expected to jump on a plane in order to attend. Today, virtual technology has evolved to the point where we don't have to leave the city – let alone our office chairs – to attend a meeting anywhere in the world.

But if you've never worked in a virtual team before, you've probably taken the benefits of face-to-face interaction for granted. Working via distances presents a whole new set of challenges to team members. And that's where videoconferencing comes in – for virtual teams and remote staff, videoconferencing is the closest thing to face-to-face interaction.

If you have a SMART Board interactive whiteboard and a videoconferencing system, your SMART Board interactive whiteboard and projector can act as your display device. Take advantage of the board's large surface to get an image of up to 72" diagonal. With the SMART Board interactive whiteboard, you don't need an additional monitor to display your videoconference.

You can use the SMART Board interactive whiteboard in a combined video and data conference by splitting the screen into video and application images. Just like picture-in-picture television, your video image sits in a window alongside your data. You can brainstorm and diagram as if you were at a whiteboard and control all your computer applications directly from the board's touch-sensitive surface, while dedicating a portion of the board to displaying the video of your remote team members.

SMART has evaluated how a number of conferencing systems integrate with the SMART Board interactive whiteboard. Check out its Conferencing Resource Center.