Video meetings

We had a really productive group meeting at the end of last week, especially rewarding because we did it via video-conferencing: with the four of us who could attend hailing from Cardiff, Edinburgh, Leeds and Sheffield, it meant we could achieve in two hours what would have taken at least three of us a complete day (and more) if we'd gone for a face-to-face meeting at one of our institutions. Three institutions would also of course have had to pay out for traveliing expenses and another for a buffet lunch, so in these hard times video meetings are also very cost-effective. Whilst we do recognise the social value of meeting up in person every so often (which we tend to do at events anyway), using video means we can of course 'meet' more frequently. The only negative in my view is the slight time delay you get when someone speaks, so frequently you find that two or people end up speaking at the same time - not a big enough negative in my view to outweight the advantages and in fact this can be quite amusing when it happens. Our next meeting will be in December - via video.