“Even if you have the iris and the fingerprint to get through the security line, you still might have to wait four hours for your delayed plane,” Schooley says.

Indeed, the nation’s air carriers still struggle with massive delays. According to reports by the U.S. Transportation Department, carriers this summer averaged a 70 percent on-time rate. To a frequent traveler trying to schedule meetings, those aren’t the most comforting odds. Schooley says the younger generation of workers don’t see the same allure for business travel that many experienced in past decades because traveling by plane has become more accessible than ever. As such, they’d prefer to travel for pleasure rather than business.

“This generation likes a work-life balance, and they just won’t stand for standing in four-hour lines if they don’t have to,” she says.

The success Modruson enjoyed using telepresence to present to his executive committee seems to have bought him some leeway. During the next six months, Accenture plans to install high-end video conferencing systems in 11 more locations, including cities such as New York, London, Madrid and Bangalore. While Modruson won’t say what vendor he uses, the installation hasn’t been cheap.

Telepresence offerings from vendors like Cisco range around $300,000 per location depending on the options and quality of the monitors. Other video conference vendors, some of which also have telepresence offerings, include Telanetix, Teliris, Digital Video Enterprises, Telepresence Tech, Tandberg, Sony, Codian, LifeSize, Polycom and Emblaze-VCON.

“They’re not cheap,” says Accenture’s Modruson. “But vendors have thought about entire experience so it’s very immersive for the participants. When you compare that against the high cost of travel and the wear and tear that goes with it, the business case is clear.”

As is your coworker's picture, just across the room—or state, country or continent—depending on your point of view.