Quote:
Originally Posted by llamaorama
Why would conventions become obsolete due to some irrational phobia of traveling after a major but generally unusual event?
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It's not about a phobia of traveling, that will presumably fade with time. It's about businesses being forced to try new telepresence methods and, probably, some of them will like it! Covid is ushering in these new technologies way faster than they would have developed otherwise.
9/11 isn't a great comparison because the technology wasn't there yet to provide alternatives. The bandwidth simply didn't exist for mass videoconferencing. Without a viable alternative, people eventually had to overcome their fear of air travel, or working in tall buildings, etc.
But I think it's different this time. The future will offer more ways for people to participate in work (or conventions, etc) smoothly at a distance, and will permit them to do so in many cases if they so choose. It'll be a mix. Personally, I don't like working from home on a daily basis (it helps that I had a breezy 10-minute bike commute previously, and I like my office space and my coworkers) but I hate business travel with a fiery passion. Airports suck, hotels suck, convention centers suck. I'm definitely not the only one.
I've already replaced several business trips with Zoom calls and it's wonderful. In some cases there's no substitute for being there - as an architect, I have to physically measure spaces sometimes - but in other cases there's no reason you can't hold a community presentation or a zoning hearing online.