Face to face
By Dr. Selim Erhan, TLT Editor | TLT From the Editor June 2026
Getting together in person offers valuable sources and opportunities to pass on and receive information.
We often refer to changing times, but what is really changing is circumstances, not time. We change, jobs change, environment changes, relationships change. We need to be prepared for changes, it is inevitable. Accepting this helps us make back-up plans, emergency preparations, take safety precautions and pay attention to the job at hand, even with tasks that we take for granted like driving. For example, do I have window washing fluid if I need it? This was a painful lesson when one time I had rented a car in the middle of winter and the water pump for the windshield fluid was not working. I will spare you the misery, but 20 years later I still remember it!
What I want to say is that as we are in the meeting months, it is important that we pay attention at these face-to-face meetings. They are valuable sources and opportunities to pass on and receive information. The conditions will never be the same. We need to take the current situation as a once in a lifetime opportunity. We will meet colleagues, customers, researchers and many others that can bring new ideas, connections and advancements. We should treat these occasions with care. We often hear suggestions on how to be better speakers. Do we treat speaking opportunities as being important? Do we prepare our speeches and presentations tailored to the audience? Do we plan the items in our speeches and presentations according to how much they will remember, how much should be included and how to leave the audience with information so they can find out more about the subject if they need to? When one concentrates on the message and the listener, self-consciousness, shyness and fear of public speaking all disappear. We get a laser focus and enjoy seeing and feeling the impact of our conversations.
I believe that everyone benefits from face-to-face interactions. It is equally important for researchers, teachers, marketers, sales and management to be mingling. It really pains me to see how these interactions are steadily being endangered with raising costs and shifts from customer satisfaction to profit orientation. Transportation, hotel and food prices are going up in leaps and bounds without real justifications. Consequently, attendance at conferences, meetings and visits will decrease. Teleconferences do not even come close to achieving what face-to-face meetings can achieve. Ideas are lost and opportunities are lost without ever knowing what we miss. We live in a technical world that is run by human interactions. Why cut the branch we are sitting on, especially if we are way up in the tree? All of us have a say in raising costs and we should use that right. Why is a glass of house wine $20? Even if my company is paying for it, I refuse to drink it because if I do, down the road it will hurt me, too.
Hope your meetings are fruitful, your conversations are meaningful and your time is well spent. Although time does not change, once it passes, it does not come back. Enjoy the day.
Dr. Selim Erhan is president of Erbur Solutions in Trout Valley, Ill. You can reach him at selim.erhan@outlook.com.