The watercooler comment resonates: i keep hearing it as justification to be back in-person and even in cases where i feel i've ha da productive watercooler conversation, it has very rarely resulted in anything crucial or important emerge from it. Businesses have problems that need solving (using technology): it is unlikely that the problem is identified at a watercooler (or other metaphorical equivalents) or the solution is identified in a one hour in-person meeting. One might 'feel' that the outcome from the quickly made decision in the 1-hr meeting was useful, but thats questionable too.