Securities trading and management firm Weeden & Co. is known for many things. The Weeden family’s involvement in the securities industry, according its website, spans generations and can be traced back to the early 1900s, when Frank Weeden, the son of a sea captain, signed on as the first salesman for a new San Francisco brokerage firm formed by Charles Blyth and Dean Witter. With that type of pedigree, people tend to take notice when you make bold predictions like those made by Weeden & Co. senior energy analyst Charles T. Maxwell, who recently predicted American’s may soon be paying $12 or more for a gallon of gasoline.

Educated at Princeton and Oxford, Maxwell entered the oil industry in 1957 and worked for a major international oil company for 12 years. His background has been in four traditional sectors of the industry—producing, refining, transportation, and marketing. In 1968, he shifted to Wall Street, where since 1972, in polls taken by Institutional Investor magazine, Maxwell has consistently ranked among the Nation’s top oil analysts.

What does all of this have to videoconferencing? Good question. Nowadays, whether you believe in the science surrounding it or not, everyone seems to be talking about global warming. From the conference room to the board room and in every office and cubical in between, all of us are being asked to reduce, reuse, recycle, and produce stronger results while expending fewer resources. Before you know it, your business or organization’s “carbon footprint” will be judged right alongside its balance sheet and profit and loss statement.

If you believe Charles Maxwell’s predictions about the rising price of gasoline (or if you believe the ‘talking heads’ who reference Maxwell on cable television shows like CNBC’s ‘Squawk Box‘), then perhaps it’s time to give videoconferencing another look (especially the high definition videoconferencing solutions from LifeSize, which are expertly managed by us–Face to Face Live, Inc.). If, however, you think Maxwell and his fellow analysts and pundits are full of hot air, that’s okay… just don’t let that stop you from analyzing the clear ROI afforded by a reliable high definition videoconferencing solution.

Popularity: 58% [?]

Over the last few weeks, our staff and Partners had the opportunity to interact with customers and future customers through a series of open houses. Two events took place here in Scottsdale (at our corporate headquarters), while another was held last week just outside of Boston.

As you may have read here on the blog, one of our two Scottsdale open houses featured an opportunity to win the award-winning LifeSize® Express high definition videoconferencing system, and true to our word, we gave one away… to a very nice IT director at a local educationally-focused nonprofit organization.

For information about future open house events–where you can meet our staff and participate in a live videoconferencing session–continue visiting our blog or see the “News & Upcoming Events” section on the home page of our corporate site.

Popularity: 47% [?]

Each spring, people from all over the world partake in a ritual so excruciating that some participants actually faint, or worse—throw up—during the process itself. Similar to participating in an IRONMAN Triathlon, defending a Doctoral/PhD dissertation in front of some of the smartest people in your field may in fact be easier said than done. While each PhD candidate looks for any edge they can get during the agonizing process, future letter holders of academic letters have found that what they say is actually less important than how they say it!

Noted communications guru and Professor Emeritus of Psychology at UCLA, Albert Mehrabian, discovered way back in 1971 that people communicate best through body language. According to Mehrabian, effective communication requires a careful combination of three elements, best summed up as the “7%-38%-55% Rule”:

• 7% – Oral content (what you say)
• 38% – Vocal (tone, intonation, and volume)
• 55% – Body language (non-verbal communication)

This means 93% of all communication is lost when you can neither hear nor see the person you are communicating with (i.e., emails and text messages are some of the least efficient means of communication). With phone calls, you miss a staggering 55% of the message!

To maximize business communication effectiveness and efficiency, businesses of all shapes and sizes really should consider embracing technologies that allows for the best communication possible. This is the world in which our company (Face to Face Live) exists; at the cusp of one of the most innovative business communication solutions in recent history. With videoconferencing and telepresence solutions like those available today, you can finally have an affordable face-to-face communications experience, anywhere in the world.

Remember, they just don’t award a PhD to anyone. Be smart. Join the videoconferencing revolution today!

Popularity: 62% [?]

No one disagrees that everyone has the right to a speedy trial, but by its inherent nature, the wheels of justice do tend to turn rather slowly. And when you’re facing international litigation—the type which often requires plaintiff and defendant alike to cross one or more borders only to wait for a deposition or trial to take place on someone else’s notion of time—your costs can easily get out of control.

In an article published last Friday on Law.com, Daniel Wise of the New York Law Journal writes that the “Brooklyn Surrogate’s Court has conducted seven kinship hearings in the past two years with witnesses in distant locations, six of them abroad,” saving on international travel–by both a court staff lawyer and at least one other lawyer–by using videoconferencing.

From Law.com:

Brooklyn Surrogate Margarita López Torres, who…was elected in 2005, said she had pushed to “find more cost-effective ways” of conducting Surrogate’s Court functions “without jeopardizing quality.”

Yesterday’s hearing [sic: in Manhattan] involved claims being pressed by three maternal first cousins of Ethel Mudry, who died without a will in 2005, apparently without a living husband or children. With no other apparent heirs, the three cousins claim Ms. Mudry’s estate, valued at $270,000, should be distributed to them.

Three witnesses, including one of the cousins, testified during the hearing, which lasted more than 2 1/2 hours. Mr. Valentik, an old family friend, testified about Ms. Mudry’s family roots in Slovakia, which became a nation-state when the Republic of Czechoslovakia dissolved in 1989.

According to the article, the minimum cost of sending a Manhattan court attorney–and counsel for the public administrator–abroad is approximately $10,000, which is a fraction of what it costs to own or rent a videoconferencing system of your own for a year or more. With those types of costs, regardless of where you live, you shouldn’t be too surprised if your next deposition or sworn testimony is taken via videoconference.

Popularity: 43% [?]