I was recently at the VirtualEdge 2009 conference in California with our CEO to check out the industry's thoughts on virtual technology.  It is being used by early adopters for a number of things including User Conferences, Trade Shows, Conferences, and Training.  The bulk of the audience was comprised of the main players in this arena along with some of the larger technology companies like Cisco, IBM and SAP who have begun to experiment with this technology as a direct result of the current economy and their need to connect thousands of disperse people.  Cisco's next global sales conference will now be virtual.  This is big news because this event has traditionally been huge with 15-20,000 attendees.  There is also a great deal of tradition around this event - it has been held each year for about 20 years now and has included lavish entertainment (Aerosmith for eg.), accomodations, and food.  Cisco's CEO declared that this year, the event would have to be changed because there simply isn't the budget to do one as it has traditionally been done.  I am really curious to hear how they fare this year and how their sales reps will deal with this change.  Apparently the top achievers will still get a trip and have a small conference while the rest of the salesforce will be meeting in groups and connecting online.  I am very passionate about these virtual events and wish Cisco every success as they make this (probably pretty scary) change into the virtual arena.  The date for their conference is October and I will be watching this carefully.