It was well past my kids’ bedtime, about a decade ago. I was at the PC in my home office just outside Boston, watching a group of about 300 trade show attendees in Sydney, Australia, where it was already past noon the next day.

I had just finished my 20-minute pitch on “The Future of Desktop Videoconferencing” and could see them gazing up between mouthfuls of dessert at a 20-foot wide projected view of the screen on the PC at their location. I appeared in one window, with my “Q&A” slide in a second.

That morning I had pitched a handful of technologists from home, while they sat in their conference room at a major bank in New York. In the afternoon I “met with” some of our sales people at a training session in their San Francisco office. And now tonight I was the luncheon speaker at a trade show happening the “next day” in Sydney.

I had never left my home.

What a blast! This was several years before broadband, streaming video, web cams and web conferencing. I was living a future most people only dreamed of – digitally “jetting” around the world, but without the jetlag.

As I fielded the second question from the audience, I noticed the door to my office opening slowly. In shuffled my four-year-old red-headed daughter, dressed in her PJs. Quietly climbing into my lap, she murmured, “Daddy, I can’t get to sleep.”

Then looking up at the screen, she pointed at the window filled with people, eyeing her from half-way around the world, and asked, “Who are they?”

I pointed down at the office floor. “They’re way down there. And they’re watching us. Isn’t that neat?” Her timid wave at the screen brought a sigh from the audience. And then applause.

Forget the slides. This is what it’s all about.

Minutes later, we both waved good-bye. “Thanks for the chance to be with you,” I said. “But now, it’s time to tuck my daughter back into bed.”

Fast forward

That George Jetson scene I lived nine years ago is now within nearly everyone’s reach. Back then, I had to add a $5,000 card and fancy camera to my PC and plug it into an arcane switched-digital telephony network called ISDN. Calls cost about $1 a minute (up to $5/min or more overseas). Anyone connecting to me needed an equally pricey PC or videoconferencing room system tied into ISDN.

Web conferencing technology, fast PCs and the Internet have changed the game. Today you and your guests just need any broadband-connected computer that’s less than about five years old, a phone and (only if you care) a webcam. A variety of web conferencing services are available for as little as a few dollars per day.

The payback to your business can be immediate. Here are my top reasons why you should build web conferencing into your business processes.

1. Look bigger than you are. You’ve seen the New Yorker cartoon: “On the Internet, nobody knows you’re a dog.” With today’s prices, even the smallest SOHO can now host web conferences, just like the big boys.

2. Multiply your number of sales demos & pitches per day. A bag-carrying direct sales person on the road might visit a few customers a day. But an inside sales person doing live web demos over the phone often can pitch that many in just an hour.

3. Train your new customers. Host a live weekly mini-webinar for them, so they get a warm hug from your staff while learning how to make the best use of your product or service. Post archived versions as a complete “on line training” course they can review anytime.

4. Improve your lifestyle. Just as I was “in Sydney,” yet tucked my daughter into bed that same night, web conferencing can mean fewer trips away from home, family and friends.

I can easily list ten more, because the payback is so high. Aside from the phone and email, I can’t think of another technology that can deliver so much business value for so few dollars. My daughter appreciates the last one most.