It’s a well-known fact that most online meeting solutions and conference calls are productivity killers when left to their own devices. Over 50% of people admit to multitasking during web meetings and conference calls. To get people’s attention, you have to earn it. Forcing people into faceless digital places with no escape is definitely not the right path to take.

Fifty percent of the time, meetings start late because participants couldn’t find the passcode, get into the online meeting room or get the file to download. And trying to talk with your 80-year-old grandma on herky, jerky video chat is a painfully frustrating experience. What we really need is a place to build a community online, a room that can be anything we need it to be — a coffee shop, boardroom, bookshop, water cooler and classroom.

Don’t get me wrong. Information technology is amazing. Give me iPhone or give me death. Facebook is great for text and image sharing. Telephones and conference calls are perfect for hearing the latest news and updates. Email is perfect for sending a quick message. Video chat lets me see and hear the one or two people on the line. But there’s something missing as we migrate to a virtual world. We’re missing out on true emotional connections, a simple, effortless online experience that naturally builds a spirit of community in its citizens.

What we need — office workers, grandparents, road warriors, teachers, politicians and best friends alike — is a virtual coffee shop, a digital bookshop, an online water cooler that connects us all as real life human beings with ideas, emotions and unique personalities — not just voices on a phone or a frozen presentation in a web conference.

As citizens of the digital world and information technology dependents, we all deserve more. We deserve an experience without downloads. We deserve to see everyone’s smiling faces as they talk without buffering and static. We deserve to share the latest social media news, pictures and YouTube videos. We deserve technology that gets out of the way and makes people the focus of meetings — business or personal. And the meetings experts at PGi have paved the way.

Since I joined PGi in 2010, I’ve had hundreds of iMeet and GlobalMeet web meetings. I’ve met with my design team, content team, sales teams, family, friends, boss, customers and even my kids’ teachers. And the experience is freeing. No guest downloads. See everyone’s faces. Hear everyone who’s talking and you don’t even have to use a phone. Connect with colleagues on LinkedIn and Twitter. Share YouTube videos and even your Evernote files. I honestly feel I’ve been liberated from soul-sucking, productivity sapping, mind numbingly frustrating online meetings and conference calls.

If a picture’s worth a thousand words, does that make a video worth a million? Check out these videos for iMeet video conferencing and GlobalMeet web conferencing. And take the digital leap of faith that you deserve better. Better meetings, that is.