In a world where digital mice nibble away at our attention all day long, the notion that business professionals should meet in person in a real-time environment seems outdated.

Why expend the energy to get into your car and drive across town to meet with a fellow business owner when you can simply text each other? Or what about email? Isn’t that sufficient to discuss business affairs? Well, actually no, it’s not.

“When you strip away everything else and get to the core of collaboration, the real value is people interacting with information and each other – in real time,” says Harbrinder Kang. He’s the VP of Corporate Social Responsibility for Cisco.

Yet with all the technological advances, face-to-face communication far surpasses any other communication venue in our world today.

Over the last 10 years, the inventiveness of the human mind, as evidenced through great thinkers and inventors, could have dispensed entirely with in-person, face-to-face communication. But we all know that would strip the soul completely out of the process of building a vibrant business network. We need the full data bank of all those sensory-rich experiences that happen when two minds meet face-to-face.

Much of our personal communication is subliminal. We don’t notice it because the process happens without our conscious awareness. That doesn’t mean those interactions aren’t critical to our social and business relationships. They are absolutely necessary to forging enduring business friendships.

The bottom line: Show up in person, and serendipitous relationships could change the trajectory of your business.