The virtual meeting, held in the comfort of your own office, at your own desk with PC-based audio and video, is cutting into some traditional face-to-face business travel.
The reasons are varied, those in the industry say; but they include cost savings in a still troubled economy, available technology and perhaps a new attitude about the way business is done in the wake of 9/11.
Jeff Wong, director of product management for Genesys Conferencing, a company whose products help facilitate electronic meetings, believes the most compelling force behind growth in the industry "is that people want to cut down on travel" mainly to save money, but also to make more efficient use of their time.
Much of what Genesys does involves meetings that bring together people from within the same company, replacing regional or national meetings.