As I sit here ready to regale yet another ‘air travel nightmare’ saga, I consider that I actually have no one to blame but myself. In many cases, the technology is there to interact and collaborate effectively without all of this travel but, like many people, I just get sucked into doing things the same old way.

If there is anyone out there who still enjoys commercial air travel, I would be shocked. We basically now subject ourselves to spaces that would not be allowed by the Geneva Convention if we were prisoners (but we pay for it so I guess it is OK) and deal with a myriad of other discomforts which I am sure that I need not describe.

Beyond that, we are back to air traffic congestion that has delayed virtually every flight I have taken this year. With the cost of fuel skyrocketing and environmental concerns escalating, it seems that we should all take matters into our own hands.

While I totally believe in face-to-face interaction and traveling to meet with customers, I have taken many trips that, in hindsight, could have been handled just as well using collaboration/communication technology. Therefore, I have set a personal goal to reduce my travel by 20%. That amounts to simply not taking 1 trip in 5. While I will still travel more than most; I intend to travel significantly less.

The technology surrounds us to collaborate more effectively and (quite the opposite of air travel) it is improving every day. Technology allows us to have highly interactive conversations and share more and more rich information.

So assuming that we can leverage technology, what is the downside? Let’s see, I save tons of time not being in security lines, not walking aimlessly through airports, not eating standing-up and not having my knees jammed into the seat in front of me. And I reduce my personal-carbon footprint at the same time. All good!

I will let you know how my experiment turns out.

Mark…