Opinion: Death of a junket

But the latest spotlight fell on the company for different reasons - rather than announcing new technology, Cisco has cancelled a couple of junkets.

Well, okay, they call them sales conferences but everybody else calls them junkets.

Instead, the sales force will get a virtual conference. And where Cisco leads, plenty of competitors usually follow - we'll have to wait and see if this is the beginning of the end for junkets everywhere.

The cost-cutting premise makes sense - logically. Less air travel, less time away from the office, less alcohol consumption.

And the same presentations and discussions can be done virtually. But junkets also allow for an awful lot of social networking.

Are we ready to replace up close and personal networking with some kind of corporate Facebook?

Can you get the same experience from spilling your wine down the front of an avatar?

And what about all the hijinks that goes on at junkets? Yeah, okay, so it's rare that anything really naughty happens, but there's usually lots of inuendo and low-level flirting going on.

All this is part of social networking. You just can't get angry at your line manager the same way after you've seen them dancing.

It proves they're human. And it usually proves there's at least one thing you could probably do better yourself - until you try.

Maybe you shouldn't have had that last red wine. Well, not on top of those beers, or that welcome glass or seven of bubbly or those shot glasses filled by novice bartenders using only their ambition to star alongside Bryan Brown for guidance.

But you've al been there so you know what I'm talking about.

It's not really "work" but it's not all play either. Can you replace it with a virtual conference?

I guess the sales force at Cisco is about to find out, and we'll have to wait for them to report back, but I suspect there will be other companies cancelling their own junkets long before then.

Perhaps we'll all rush back to the live conference venues after the Gloabl Financial Crisis™ has abated - but I won't be rushing out to buy shares in any hotel chains just yet.