in this situation, I would insist on the conference too
... but just wondering, in this day and age, why does anyone even want a conference in person when email seems so much more convenient? When I used to go to my stepson's conferences (he just graduated high school earlier this year), I always felt like I'm "not equal" ... I'm just there to let it all fall on me and the teachers didn't really listen what I had to say anyways. Then when emails became more common I felt more on level with them and actually got a lot accomplished too! AND had a paper trail!
Email is great when you need to hold people accountable. It's also great when you need to make an argument, because it allows you to get all your points across before anyone makes a counterargument, because face-to-face, it's easy for things to go wrong when the other side locks in on one point, and either ignores the others, or you never even get the chance to bring them up. And, it's great for brief communications.
For anything outside of that, human conversation is far more effective. In particular, email is a creativity killer, because it inhibits that organic flow that conversations have.
Also, text comments have a way of being interpreted with a lot more negativity, because they lack the vocal and body signals that clue in the audience to intent. This is part of why flaming is so common.
