[BUSINESS INSIDER]Bill Gates says inperson meetings aren't the gold standard anymore and that 50% of business travel will go away even after pandemic.

[Marano]

Business Insider article.

• Bill Gates is predicting that business travel and office work won't return to pre-pandemic levels in the future.
• "My prediction would be that over 50% of business travel and over 30% of days in the office will go away," Gates said at The New York Times DealBook conference on Tuesday.
• In-person business meetings won't be the "gold standard" anymore, Gates said, predicting that most companies will have a "very high threshold" for doing those types of business trips.
• Many major tech companies, particularly in the tech realm, are reconsidering the future of work. Some, like Twitter and Slack, have said employees may work remotely forever. Others, like Microsoft, after planning to implement hybrid models of work.

So this one is VERY REVELANT to both sides of the forum and I honestly wish there was a way to keep discussions about gaming/business specifically on their sides, but I don't know if there should be two threads for this as maybe just one would be enough, so I ask would you guys prefer if discussion on this was centered around the business side here on etcetera or should this thread be moved to gaming and you would rather discussion be centered around what this all means for gaming? We can discuss both in one place of course, but being on one side or the other will atract different posters (some just stick to one side mostly). I will make a poll.

So we've known MS is looking to have remote workers even after the pandemic is over and everyone here knows outside of Nadella and Amy Hood, there isn't anyone on earth more reliable when it comes to MS info than Bill himself (yeah he is only an advisor on board meetings as he focus on his foundation and charity stuff a lot more these days) still he knows what MS is planning for the future and I'd even go as far as saying he knows better than 99.99% of the population what the other companies are planning to do as well, especially tech companies.

In a way I think he is hopeful this is the future too, for MS it would be good to expand Azure, Linkedin and MS teams even further than the absurd levels of growth they've seen recently and maybe also Skype (if there is any hope for it to be salvaged at this point), they want to benefit from gaming too I am sure if this is the new norm and people are playing more, as we've seen already (though that will possibly change once all restrictions are lifted). Other companies that I think could benefit if Bill's predictions come true in my opinion (some more than others obviously) would be: Facebook, Google, Apple, Amazon, Oracle, AT&T, Netflix, IBM, NVIDIA, Adobe, Twitter, AMD, Akamai, Intel, Zoom (before they're bought out, though Eric Yuan doesn't want to sell), Discord (before they're bought out), Telegram (before they're bought out), ISPs such as Verizon, Comcast and some chinese companies too like Tencent and Alibaba, among many others.

Now first what does this mean for gaming? With MS, what will happen with all their employees who work in offices all over the world? They've expanded into new offices with some of their teams recently, will that stop now? What will happen with the other publishers such as Sony, Nintendo, EA, Activision Blizzard, Take 2, Ubisoft and most of the other devs? Will they follow MS into this work from home future too (at least a hybrid approach as they're looking to do, giving people the option to work from home if they want)? Some devs already did remote work before the covid hit anyways. What does this mean for gaming in the future? Will it be better overall? Will games take longer? Is it absolutely necessary for some games to be made in physical offices otherwise they wouldn't be possible any other way (this I sort of doubt since working from home has been the standard, though we've seen delays across all publishers and devs)?

Now for businesses in general outside of gaming, how will this change things? For one there are jobs that you absolutely can't work from home even if you want to, so those will stay the same either way. Now for those who can work from home, do we expect this trend to continue upwards (either slowly or at a faster pace) untill all work that can be done from home is done from home?

Some speculation (for both gaming and other tech businesses): one benefit is that location would no longer be an issue for companies looking for talent that are located outside of gaming and tech hubs, as employees would only need reliable internet connections to work (anywhere in the world where that is possible). Data caps could be gone in more places where it is still a thing and with 5G networks we could be looking at a better digital future overall with the cloud and streaming future that seems to be ineveitable (this could speed things up). For a longshot (though I doubt this), real estate prices could go down in places like the Bay Area and Sillicon Valley, southern California and the Seattle metropolitan area, cheaper rent for people who are not in tech and struggle to live in those places, as tech companies wouldn't need to have their workers close to their headquarters anymore, and some of those workers might find it more appealing to live elsewhere, but this also could in a way be bad for the local economy in those places (though they already have strong economies anyway for the most part) because you would be losing out on a lot of people's spending in those areas (because they no longer absolutely have to live there anymore, this might manisfet more with future generations who aren't used living in those places already), so it could affect other businesses outside of gaming/tech as a side effect (mid term/long term), though I am sure it wouldn't be the end of the world even if that happened (which I'm really not sure it would).

What do you guys think of all this? Gaming and business alike.

 

[Xando]

As long as clients want in person meetings we will do business travel. So far no one other than our chinese clients have indicated they want to move to a permanent virtual solution.

I have a hard time seeing sales pitches and handling of business critical data over stuff like zoom or teams for longer than the pandemic

 

[Feep]

My company *has* been working remotely but it's been extremely annoying in many respects. Creative fields just work better in person, I've found.

For others though, commutes are garbage and I totally see the appeal.

 

[Joni]

Personally, this period has shown me that in-person meetings are absolutely gold-standard.

 

[Humidex]

There's room for in-person meetings, more so for steering/strategic planning but for the 90% day-to-day catchups and meetings for smaller scale work? Do those at home.

 

[Xando]

Personally, this period has shown me that in-person meetings are absolutely gold-standard.

Click to shrink...

Yup same experience here

 

[Joni]

There's room for in-person meetings, more so for steering/strategic planning but for the 90% day-to-day catchups and meetings for smaller scale work? Do those at home.

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Day-to-day catch-ups - not agile ceremonies, but the informal sharing of information cross-teams - is to my opinion what suffered the hardest.

 

[Video Kojima]

I agree with Bill.

 

[Deleted member 21709]

He is right.

 

[cartoon_soldier]

Yup.

I already know of 2 companies that decided to do away with office space in few cities and are just having work from home permanently. Big ass sales deals are happening over video conferences.

Companies realizing they can save money in other ways too.

Definitely think in-person meetings have their advantages, like I would not want a full day brainstorming session on Microsoft Teams. Plus the relationship building that comes with in-person touchpoints help down the road.

 

[Ninge]

As someone who used to travel a lot and loved it, i will miss it, but I have to agree. My ability to do my job has not been reduced by working 100% at home. I definitely don't miss the commute to the office! My work/life balance is way better than before.

 

[Mivey]

Personally, this period has shown me that in-person meetings are absolutely gold-standard.

Click to shrink...

I can see virtual meetings becoming the norm for less important stuff, but anything where you want to sit down with others and work on a common problem (relevant in my area), in person meetings are irreplaceable in terms of quality. You lose so much when you can't directly draw something on a whiteboard or on paper in front of the person.

 

[dosh]

My company *has* been working remotely but it's been extremely annoying in many respects. Creative fields just work better in person, I've found.

For others though, commutes are garbage and I totally see the appeal.

Click to shrink...

Honestly, I go back and forth on the subject. I work in the animation industry and during the first lock-down here, WFH felt great. Sure, my internet connection is a bit slow and we had to figure out a few new ways to tackle some aspects of the job, but overall it was good: I felt more focused, I could prioritize tasks more efficiently, organize my team easily, etc.

Then we went back to the studio and I realized that everything was moving way faster and problems were solved in an instant instead of requiring for me to call several people in a row on Skype. Plus it was good to see colleagues and friends in the flesh and just forget the madness for a few minutes and take a coffee with them.

Right now, we're in the middle of a second lock-down, we're working remote again and looking back at the past few months, I think a hybrid solution would be perfect. Meet and work in person monday/tuesday, work from home the remainder of the week for example.

 

[Xando]

I think a lot of people muddle the waters a bit between business travel and WFH.

WFH i can absolutely see staying but as someone who was on business travel for more than 200 days last year i don't see how that is going away

 

[Temascos]

It'll defintely climb back up after the pandemic, but I reckon business travel will not be as frequent as it once was.

The human contact element is of course vital, but there's a difference being boxed into your homes all the time as we are at the moment, rather than WFH and also being able to go out with friends after a day's work.

For the day to day stuff, WFH will work just fine, but for the absolutely major events then yeah sure, I can see people travelling.

 

[jb1234]

I hope he's right, if only for climate change.

 

[8bit]

Most of my work was virtualised before anyway, the problem I sometimes have is that I'm not in the same timezone as some colleagues so our working window is tight and everyone is strained to make good use of it but we have some useful tools. The biggest issue I see is that some people are completely unwilling to engage with them though.

 

[Jakisthe]

I have to say, disagree for my field. Maybe working meetings will be less common, but we never really did those much in person to begin with. Far more common is to get a sense of the chemistry of the teams altogether, which is waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay harder to do when you're just facing off on a webcam.

 

[Deleted member 9932]

Personally, this period has shown me that in-person meetings are absolutely gold-standard.

Click to shrink...

So true lol

 

[Lurcharound]

He's probably more or less right as he's talking in total.

Some industries will got back near enough 100% to where they were with travel or in person activity, but many won't.

Those that don't will skew the overall average (which is what Gates is estimating) down. 50% seems possible; but it doesn't really matter, it might be higher it might be lower but the overall percent is going to stay down compared to immediate pre-Covid levels.

The cost savings, drops in environment impact and other positives are too big to ignore.

Its one of the few true silver linings from Covid. Where face to face matters it'll return, and I'm looking forward to it where remote doesn't work as well for me too, but I'm also happy I won't be asked to travel for an activity that works as well with a 60 min Zoom call vs a 3 hour-flight (and return), taxi trips and possibly an overnight stay for the same 60 min conversation.

 

[OnionPowder]

For my work, in the mortgage industry, almost everybody is moving to working from home. I know some mortgage companies are even downsizing their corporate offices because they plan on keeping things as remote as possible.

 

[MrKlaw]

For business - a lot can be done remotely. However the tools are pretty shocking as are ways of working when remote - 'sorry I was on mute' etc. That will take a while to develop new ways of working and honestly I hope technology improves a lot to have a more 'telepresence' approach so you can interact more naturally.

 

[Joni]

WFH i can absolutely see staying but as someone who was on business travel for more than 200 days last year i don't see how that is going away

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And I thought my 80 days were impressive.

 

[CDX]

Not every industry or company wants to or even can do it. But overall he's probably correct that we'll see a permanent reduction.

Reducing daily commutes, and business travel by plane can only be a good thing for climate change and the environment.

 

[Djalminha]

I think in a not so distant future, whether it's a career where you can work from home will be a relevant aspect when choosing what to study.

 

[Xando]

And I thought my 80 days were impressive.

Click to shrink...

I usually leave the house monday morning and come back home late friday or sometimes saturday morning.

Also spent 6 weeks straight at a customer last year so the numbers are a bit higher than normal (normal years are 150-180 days).

 

[Akusar]

Some industries will definitly do that, but in many fields where you need to discuss ideas/problems inperson meetings will still exist. Even uni groupwork is much harder to do virtual than inperson, because one easily losses focus.

 

[Skiptastic]

I work in finance and my boss has been at my location for maybe four of the fifteen years I've worked at my company. I was a prime candidate for work from home all along and that hasn't changed. If anything, the increased prevalence and use of Zoom has made it so I hear and speak to my counterparts more often.

There are manufacturing folks and engineers at my old site that are still going in every day because it's necessary they be in the plant to do so. But I can definitely see a reimagining of my organization. And, as mentioned before, it actually opens up opportunities for people who would have had to move to a big city for a job to stay where they want to live and still be effective.

Let me also say I worry a shit ton less about the future for the people at my company and the companies Bill is talking about here compared to the people working at Subway down the street from the facility where 1,000 people used to go to the office every day and now has 300. That's the impact that will really be damaging.

 

[gcubed]

And I thought my 80 days were impressive.

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Yea, I do 60-70 and this travel stop is just making it harder for me to want to actually go again

 

[Dennis8K]

Having just participated in a couple of Digital Conferences, rather than the usual physical conferences, I can confidently say

Fuck digital conferences.

Digital informal meetings? Sure. Anything more involved than that is a pain.

 

[Prine]

I think productivity goes up when your together, and so does ingenuity, throwing out ideas or quickly chatting to other colleagues. Perhaps for conferences this might be true but I don't believe it is for service based industries like tech.

 

[RecRoulette]

Personally, this period has shown me that in-person meetings are absolutely gold-standard.

Click to shrink...

^

 

[BassForever]

Seems like a reasonable estimate, maybe it'll be closer to 60:40 but this year has shown many established "this is how we have to do things" aren't as rigid as they appeared

 

[OrangeNova]

Personally, this period has shown me that in-person meetings are absolutely gold-standard.

Click to shrink...

Same.

Apart from having everything at my fingertips for information for meetings(Which is easily solvable)... Meeting in person is WILDLY faster and more productive.

 

[Fatoy]

Personally, this period has shown me that in-person meetings are absolutely gold-standard.

Click to shrink...

Agreed. Video conferencing loses all the nuance, spontaneity, and engagement of in-person meetings.

Don't get me wrong: I'm not rushing to sit around a conference table and debate logo colours or anything, but for meaningful discussions, collaborations, demonstrations etc. there really is no substitute for being together in the same room.

 

[Biske]

The only downside is I work with a gaggle of morons who are incapable of muting themselves. So any large group meeting becomes a darth vader mouth breathing, kids shouting, private conversation with honey cluster fuck

 

[OrangeNova]

Agreed. Video conferencing loses all the nuance, spontaneity, and engagement of in-person meetings.

Don't get me wrong: I'm not rushing to sit around a conference table and debate logo colours or anything, but for meaningful discussions, collaborations, demonstrations etc. there really is no substitute for being together in the same room.

Click to shrink...

Yeah, that's the thing I think isn't conveyed here.

Zoom/Meet/whatever is AMAZING for like large group scrums and meetings where you're just rattling off what you're doing.

They're horrible for 1:1s, questions, figuring out small things...

 

[Zip]

My work keeps giving out surveys including questions about how often we feel we actually need to come to the office. They are totally eyeing downsizing office space.

My wife's work has already rented out part of their office to other companies.

I highly doubt people will go back to five days in office if it's not required. Work from home is established now.

 

[GokouD]

But what's the point of him injecting us all with tracking chips if we're not going to be going anywhere?
/s

 

[Ecotic]

It would be amazing to see traffic congestion drop and stay down in major cities all across the U.S. I haven't traveled enough lately to know, but I imagine roads feel pretty light these days.

 

[Imperfected]

He seems to be meaning "meetings" as in long-distance travel meetings between executives, high-level managers, clients, etc. The sort of meeting you get on a plane to attend. He's not really saying in-person meetings between direct co-workers so much; that's covered under the "30% fewer office days" part.

 

[MattEnth]

I'm glad my company is still aspiring for a return to the office once the vaccine is widely available. Earliest they said we might going back is August.

If you can do your job from anywhere, it's only a small jump before your job can be done somewhere overseas by someone who's willing to work for a much lower salary than you.

 

[Nateo]

Once all the boomers die out then yeah it'll be easier. I work about 5 hours away from my colleagues and my manager is 3 hours away all in different offices I am the only one of my team in the office I'm at. They still want me to go back to work, I said sure when my pay returns to normal and there is a vaccine I'll get back in office which has over 150 employees on one floor with no splitters.

 

[Deleted member 83122]

.

 

[345]

i've worked from home for a decade, but with a lot of travel as i'm a journalist who generally "needs" to go see things in person. my wife works in finance and has been working from home this year for the first time in her life.

our joint perspective is basically that almost no-one should be going into an office five days a week. some people should, sure, but nowhere near enough to the point where it's the default for white-collar work. it's pure overhead madness that somehow no-one questioned before.

i like travelling for work and it would suck to see that go away, but i think it'll come back for things where there isn't much alternative. but i can't say it's been all that disruptive to most of my coverage, if i'm honest.

 

[Y2Kev]

People still talking about WFH...this is about business travel and it's not the same. I think it will take a few years but business travel will 100% be back.

 

[Heynongman!]

I can't believe Bill Gates made covid just to get out of going to meetings. lol

I agree though. A bit different than what he's talking about, but I haven't been in an in person meeting with any of my company's divisions in 6 months and my team is just as productive at getting them what they want.

 

[Vommy]

As much as I enjoy Zoom meetings, there is something missing not being with everyone in one room. But I would love not being forced to travel anymore.

 

[Bengraven]

What is with the poll? This is clearly a broad question and since most of us don't work in the gaming industry and our companies are also doing quite a bit of online conferencing, why would it's validity as a General forum post be in question?

 

[Joni]

Yea, I do 60-70 and this travel stop is just making it harder for me to want to actually go again

Click to shrink...

Haha, I have started missing it.