When news of the volcano blowing its top in Iceland reached the PR world, it was quick to suggest how the resulting travel disruption had caused businesses to immediately splurge their budgets on videoconferencing solutions. Just hours after the ash started falling, a PR woman called me to say that videoconferencing providers were experiencing an eruption of new orders. This was an important story, she insisted.

I decided not to follow up this red-hot lead because it is a story I have written many times before. Any event that causes wide-scale travel disruption prompts a similar reaction from the marketing departments of videoconferencing providers. Computing knows to expect a flurry of calls whenever a public transport strike occurs, snow hits, swine flu breaks out or indeed a volcano erupts.

Of course, the benefits of videoconferencing solutions in these emergency situations are obvious, so why wouldn’t the recent travel chaos cause a spike in sales?

Cisco Systems, one of the largest makers of teleconferencing equipment, said the volcano had caused a boost in demand, although it admitted its only evidence was anecdotal.

Meanwhile, Brightcom and Coms Plc, also equipment manufacturers, said they had seen a jump in service usage.

Not to be outdone, videoconference application provider First Connections decided the crisis provided a golden opportunity to drum up new business so began offering firms a free four-week trial of its Vidyo-based personal telepresence service.

But what does this eagerness on the part of vendors to exploit a natural disaster say about the state of the videoconferencing market? To me, it suggests that most organisations are still not sold on the whole concept.

The sad fact is that it still takes a total transport meltdown for most businesses to even consider adopting videoconferencing. The argument that the technology can help organisations cut travel and office building expenses, and reduce their carbon emissions appears to carry little weight. So when the ash finally settles it looks like it’s going to be business as usual for the airlines.