In person meetings are important!

Face-to-face meetings are still critical in establishing successful business relationships. Today with all the distributed teams, available online tools and tight budgets that is not an easily justified point-of-view but I consider it still true. In person meetings are very different from communicating via SMS, phone, email, video conference, instant messenger etc. because it is more personal. When we sit opposite from each other and can see the whole person acting and reacting that allows us to see the other person much closer as if someone can hide behind technique. There are still enough opportunities to have misunderstandings but it's a little bit harder to hide something. Ask for face-to-face meetings when appropriate (e.g. at the beginning of a project, when you start working with new teams, before big decisions etc.).