I took some time to chat with Jason Lengstorf, founder of Ennui Design, about his SXSW panel “I’ve Never Met My Coworkers – Running International Teams”.  During this session both Jason and his colleague Tom Sturge (http://twitter.com/tomsturge) are planning to share their experience on how they successfully converted Jason’s business, Ennui Design, from a one-man design operation to Copter Labs, an internationally distributed collection of designers in less than three months.

Attendees will get first hand insight from Jason and Tom on how to expand their business and build international teams, while at the same time increase revenue and boost work / life balance.  More specifically, they will discuss:

• How they selected the members of their team
• Tools they use for keeping in touch and staying accountable
• Tricks for handling the timezone differences
• Strategies for making everyone feel like they’re part of the team and not feel isolated
• Reasons they chose to work with people thousands of miles away instead of local professionals

With Jason’s business savvy mindset and success growing his company in a short period of time, I was curious to hear his feedback on what he sees are the communication challenges moving forward as businesses become more internationally dispersed and the workforce is becoming more mobile.  According to Jason, “the hurdles for internationally distributed companies are actually fewer than in a traditional office setting.  With the huge technological advances in international communication, such as Skype, Google Voice, and other various project management and internal communication tools, we can constantly keep in touch, but the temptation to have endless meetings or pop your head into a coworker’s office to chat is lower.  In the end this creates a more productive work environment.”

Any business owner or entrepreneur looking to increase efficiency and free up time for extracurricular activities will definitely want to attend this session.  As for myself, I am looking forward to hearing how Jason and his team utilize technology to break down international communication barriers.