Abstract
The rise of technology in communication was facilitated by internet through the creation of global fiber-optic network as well as the advances in distance communication development, which has made communication easier for people in different places. These advances in communication help people in different places to plug and play, share knowledge and work, collaborate and compete. This new communication has a great advantage to teams especially employees who can work from their home. It also enhances interviews, trainings, and presentations without the parties physically meeting (Koester, 2006). The events where people work together interact and share information without meeting is referred as virtual events. However, the face-to-face meetings or live events are held in most instances. People meet to share, communicate, and interact directly. This paper seeks to compare and contrast between virtue meeting and a live event between five employees of a company.
Main Body
Virtue meeting and live events have both similarities and differences. However, they work in favor of one side or the other. During any event, whether live or virtual several factors are considered. These factors work for the two events, which focus on the context of delivery. The meeting being of five employees from all over the country, delivery of the context of the meeting is crucial. Everyone must understand the purpose of the meeting, capture the required information as well as knowledge (Lehman & Dufrene, 2011). However, the level of the delivery differs a bit in the two set ups. Further, the two set ups are similar in that there is passing of information or knowledge from one employee to the other. Whether the parties meet physically or not the objective is the passing of information or message. The objective in the two meetings is not subject to method used to pass the information or knowledge but the passing of information itself (Lwamoto, 2011).
On other hand, there are differences between the live events and virtue meetings with the first difference on flexibility. The virtue meetings allow these employees to bring together their ideas, experience, and knowledge without physically relocating, which saves time, travel, and cost. It enhances disperse of knowledge and ideas as well as expertise from one branch of the company that is not possible in live events. In live events, the employees must meet physically in order to disperse their knowledge, expertise, and ideas (Damster & Dimitri & Tolly, 2006). The next difference is on code of dressing, where in the live events, it is necessary for the employees to adhere to the company’s dressing code. However, for the virtual meeting the employees may dress according to their geographical places command, culture or at their comfort. This is mostly by the fact that they are holding the meeting from their home.
Focusing on the building of relationships, trust and rewarding experiences, the two set-ups differ a lot (Damster, Dimitri & Tolly, 2006). The ideal way in building employee or teems relationships is through spending time together face-to-face. In live events, the relationship between the employees is enhanced, as they have to meet face-to-face. Further, this mode of meeting enhances trust between the employees who through their face-to-face interaction learn, understand, and get to know each other characters. However, this is difficult in virtue meeting as the five employees are from different places. On the rewarding experience, there are skills and attributes that people acquire through face-to-face interaction (Lwamoto, 2011).
Confidence is gained through face-to-face and the five employees will gain confidence through meeting physically in a live event. Further, there is a difference where live events are more reliable than virtual meetings (Koester, 2006). In virtual meetings, there must be use of technological communication tools and methods such as ideo conferencing systems, cameras, video, visual transmissions and the transfer of data through internet or Local Area Network. The failure in these tools will affect the meeting and at the same time any disruption by power will affect the meeting too. However, in live event, a meeting of five people does not need any communication technology as they can freely interact. This makes the live event more reliable than virtual meeting (Koester, 2006).
The other difference is on concentration, where the levels of concentrations between the two set ups is different. In a live set up meeting, each of the five employees monitors the concentration of the other making their concentration level high. However, in the virtue set up every employee is at the comfort of his/her home, which reduces the level of concentration (Lehman & Dufrene, 2011). Consequently, this affects the level of understanding of the intended information. In live meeting, the level of understanding is much higher than in virtue meetings. Another difference is that in virtue meetings, much time is saved than in live meetings due to the travel time saved by the five employees. For virtue meeting the only required time is only for setting up the communicating gadgets (Lehman & Dufrene, 2011).
The two setups have different environmental factors that include the culture difference, climatic conditions, and interference. In a live event, environmental factors are the same, while in virtue setups they vary depending on where each employee is located (Koester, 2006). These factors affect the communication during the meeting. Example of this is noise that may hinder effective communication during the meeting. At the same time, climatic factors such as heavy rainfall accompanied by thunderstorms in one or more employees place may hinder effective communication. Consequently, this affects the delivery of the information intended (Lwamoto, 2011).
Conclusion
Though the two setups of meeting have their pros over the other, live meeting is much better to use for a five employee meeting. Even if little has been done about cost, the other factors are mostly in favor of live meeting. The most critical objective of any meeting is to deliver the context fully but live meeting has more weight delivery as compared to virtual meeting. This is dictated by several factors considered and my stand is for a live meeting, which is better than virtual meeting.
References
Damster, G., Dimitri, T., & Tolly, P. (2006). Event management: A Professional and development approach 2nd edition. South Africa: Paarl Print.
Koester, A. (2006). Investigating Workplace Discourse. Routledge, Oxon, United Kingdom. Web.
Lehman, C., & Dufrene, D. (2011). Business communication. Mason: Cengage Learning. Web.
Lwamoto, K. (2011). Strategic meetings management handbook: From theory to practice. New York: Easton Studio Press. Web.