Air travel especially for business is an environment-killing, time-wasting, productivity-draining pain in the literal backside. If high costs, cramped seats, nonexistent food service that forces one to also juggle the grease-drenched so-called sustenance caked into landfill-bloating clamshell packaging, plus de facto strip searches, and weather and runway delays weren't enough then there's always labor disruptions.
And in anticipation of the latter, on British Airways (BA), Tandberg has wisely capitalized the opportunity to market its videoconferencing and telepresence solutions by offering TANDBERG FlyFree, a program that gives companies an easy and risk-free way of experiencing the power of high-definition video conferencing and telepresence.
By adopting Tandberg's technology, it says employees "can still make critical meetings, avoid unnecessary business travel and benefit from a better work-life balance by working around personal schedules. In turn, the technology can deliver serious business advantages and consistent return on investment, regardless of the BA strikes, as well as help companies make great CO2, time and cost savings."
"Businesses cannot afford to be slowed down by the impact of international travel disruption, especially at this time when continuity is so critical to success," says Simon Egan, Vice President, Western Europe & Sub-Saharan Africa, Tandberg. "By accepting our FlyFree offer, businesses can still make important face-to-face meetings while maintaining productivity among employees. Our standards based solutions enable our customers to communicate with their partners, clients and suppliers so its business as usual even when working conditions are disrupted."
Tandberg is onto something here. It should have similar offers with the green pitches launched in key seasons when North American air travel reliability goes into the toilet, like July-August and December-February and in specific markets like Atlanta, Chicago and New York/New Jersey. It should also buy billboard and monitor space in waiting lounges at LAX, Logan, Kennedy, O'Hare and in Canada, Pearson, to name a few, with images of relaxed business people in a meeting room or better yet on a home office desktop conference application with the catchline: 'Wouldn't You Rather Be Here?" The firm should also buy outside advertising on the Harbor Freeway, I-93, the Van Wyck, I-94 and the 401 respectively with the same message.
If more people went 'fly free' we could also breathe a little easier, and in more ways than one.
