PURPOSE BEFORE PRESENCE
The most useful meetings have a reason.
Video calls, messaging, and shared workspaces have made collaboration faster and more accessible. CODR Group uses those tools every day. They are excellent for routine decisions, focused updates, and keeping work moving across countries and time zones.
Some conversations still deserve more space. Complex technical discovery, a new partnership, or a difficult strategic decision can benefit from the attention and context that come more naturally in person. The point is not to travel for appearances. It is to recognise when being present will materially improve the outcome.
Are Trade Shows Dead?
No, but the useful version has changed. Events such as the Retail Technology Show and The Security Event still bring clients, specialists, and technology providers into the same place. The opportunity is real, provided the visit has a purpose.
The 2024 Freeman Trends Report found that 70% of surveyed attendees sought professional development and content at in person events. Freeman also reported that 80% viewed in person events as the most trusted marketing channel. People are still willing to attend. Their expectations are simply higher.
Successful participation is therefore about strategic presence. A small number of prepared conversations can be more valuable than a long list of scanned badges. Rumours about the death of the expo often say more about unfocused attendance than the format itself.
What Changes When People Share a Room?
Some benefits are difficult to reproduce through a screen:
- Trust develops through richer signals: A Forbes Insights survey of more than 750 executives found that more than eight in ten preferred face to face meetings. Eighty five per cent associated them with stronger, more meaningful business relationships.
- Creative thinking gains room to move: A 2022 Nature study found that videoconferencing inhibited creative idea generation, even though virtual pairs remained effective at selecting which idea to pursue.
- Technical discovery becomes more grounded: Nuanced discussions about a legacy system, operational constraints, or delivery risk often surface more naturally when people can draw, point, pause, and follow the detail together.
- Human connection gains context: Informal moments reveal how people think, what pressures they carry, and what a successful working relationship would actually require.
These are not soft benefits added after the real work. They often become the foundation for clearer decisions and durable partnerships.
Reflections from the Road
During a recent CODR Group trip to the United Kingdom, meetings with clients, partners, and industry peers reinforced the value of being physically present. Boardroom discussions and informal conversations gave technical discovery a depth that would have taken far longer to reach through a sequence of remote calls.
Legacy environments rarely fit neatly into a diagram. The important details sit in operating habits, workarounds, dependencies, and concerns that may not appear in a formal brief. Walking through the context together makes those details easier to see and safer to challenge. Organisations facing complex modernisation work notice when a partner is willing to show up and listen before proposing a solution.
Showing Up Is Not the Same as Showing Face
Presence has little value when it is only theatre. Showing face is about being seen. Showing up means arriving prepared, listening properly, and investing enough time to understand the environment on its own terms.
The same principle applies beyond client work. Supporting local technology communities, meeting partners on their premises, and taking social responsibility seriously all require consistent action. Authentic presence is not a photograph beside a banner. It is the work that follows the conversation.
Making Short Visits Work Harder
International travel carries cost, time, and environmental impact. A short visit should therefore combine a few compatible purposes:
- Client workshops: Use the room for decisions, technical discovery, and issues that have resisted remote discussion.
- Strategic partner meetings: Make space for the relationships that support delivery over the long term.
- Relevant industry events: Attend with named objectives and people to meet, rather than walking the floor without direction.
- Knowledge sharing: Bring observations home and turn them into actions that benefit the wider team.
Balance remains essential. It is also the title of chapter two in Piercing the Mirror, written by CODR Group founder Ken Metcalf. A diary packed from breakfast to bedtime may look productive, but thoughtful meetings need energy and attention. Quality consistently outperforms a schedule full of superficial encounters.
Digital Efficiency and Human Judgement Belong Together
Technology has transformed how work is organised. It enables distributed teams, faster decisions, and collaboration that would once have required constant travel. The sensible choice is not remote or in person. It is choosing the right setting for the work.
Routine coordination can remain digital. Important discovery, relationship building, and complex decisions may justify the room. For legacy modernisation in particular, the best technical answer often depends on context that only appears when people have enough time and trust to explain how the system really works.
Sometimes the most important line of code is written after a conversation that could only happen face to face.