Even with all the technology running rampant in our society, face-to face meetings will continue to remain important.  A recent interview article from PCMA's Convene magazine (July, 2011), reconfirmed this fact for me. Lisa Ling, journalist, was being interviewed for her upcoming general session at the DMAI Annual Convention, when asked about the "...importance of face-to face interaction." she stated, "....until you actually are able to interact with someone, look someone in the eys and engage them in conversation, can you really expect to be to....make decisions about people?"   No, you can't. 

Ms. Ling further went out to discuss the hinderance of human prejudgemental tendencies that occur within each of us, without us really taking the time to get to know people.  Because of this human judgemental nature and without face-to-face meetings in conjunction with reliance on technology, could we actually be taking steps backwards into truly becoming a global community?

Possibly technology makes it easier for us to connect on a more global level - reaching other countries, other organizations across time-zones and oceans.  However, how much are we really learning and understanding about those other countries - the culture, the customes, the people - through the technology?

With face-to-face meetings and actual in-person experiences, we can learn and understand more.  Meeting people in person, shaking hands, looking into their eyes, and sharing a human connection - not electronically-based or induced - provides us humans with the connections important to creating a community.