> On 15 Apr 2020, at 12:30, Mark Tinka <[email protected]> wrote: > On 15/Apr/20 12:28, Denesh Bhabuta wrote: >> All of these need to be taken in to account, IMHO. > While I agree with everything you are saying, we need to consider these: > • It is more and more likely that each country is going to extend the > lockdown at some point or other. So we'd do well to not expect the dates they > are telling us to remain as truth. > • As each lockdown is extended, re-opening will just take that much > longer. > • Even as lockdowns are lifted, I believe it will be done gracefully. > By the time everything gets back up to speed, I think we'll be more than a > year in. > • Countries are likely to lift lockdowns at different times. So while > an airport in one country may be open, another one at your destination of > interest may not. > • And then there is personal confidence in travel and immigration. For > me, I have no plans to jump on a plane for the rest of 2020, regardless of > what happens with country lockdowns. How long it will take to rebuild that > travel confidence is hard to say, but I'd wager that it won't be the moment > governments lift lockdowns. > • We would also be wise to account for the possibility that after > lockdowns are lifted and social interactions start to pick up, some countries > will see re-infections, which could trigger another lockdown. > All in all, I'd say 2020 is a write-off from a "normalcy" perspective, and > the 1st half of 2021 is looking a little sketchy as the fall-out spills over. > As the Internet community, some kind of hybrid between traditional physical > meetings and online gatherings is a hybrid model we should, at the very > least, work toward as our #NewNormal .
Absolutely! I agree. Hence my thoughts about how these things are to evolve and the the best way forward. :-) I had started thinking about all this stuff way back at the end of January, about how to handle future uncertainties, what sort of things we need to think about when it comes to planning, what sort of new clauses we should push for in supplier contracts, what we need to do with multi-year contracts already in place etc. However, the non-financial and non-contractual thinking was also taking place.. some which I mentioned in earlier emails in this thread - the wider logistical challenges, people psychology and pros and cons of physical vs virtual meetings. Additionally, all the NOGs and I*orgs are going to be vying for people’s time .. because there is no restriction on region / area, the potential to have more people “attend” is higher. This also means that those orgs are also going to be competing for content. A number of presentations are “recycled” over a number of different conferences. That will no longer be that possible. I have already mentioned online webinar / meeting / conference fatigue.. So one of the ways my thinking has gone has been about NOGs and I*orgs collaborating and doing joint online meetings rather than doing things separately. As you say, some kind of hybrid between traditional physical meetings and online gatherings is something we should be working toward. :-) (BTW, the ones I am involved in - UKNOF and DNS-OARC already do live webcasting of the physical meetings and PTNOG records its meetings for watching at a later date). Regards Denesh
