I just read on a social media website that a friend of mine was taking off to London for a series of meetings. She is a brilliant, savvy, junior executive at a large technology organization who lives with her family in Connecticut in the US. It made me think (again) about business travel. I understand when she posts about a great article she just read or when she’s had a fun experience with her family, but why would she post a note letting her colleagues and acquaintances know she has flown overseas as opposed to using collaboration technology to avoid the trip?
I’m also a frequent business traveler and have been for a very long time. I’m a “million-miler” on one airline and just under that on another. I “check-in” on social media from every airport I take-off from and land at. Instead of boasting about my business travel, shouldn’t I be ashamed that I’m wasting all that time and producing all those carbon emissions instead of popping into a telepresence room – especially considering that I’m a collaboration technology expert and evangelist?