There is no doubt about the fact that we're heading into one of the biggest global turndowns, some economists estimating 20% - the banking crisis was 3.4% by comparison.
We've been lazy on collaboration and frankly well over invested. I know of few other industries that has the volume of face to face meetings that ours has (even Pharma and that industry makes real money!). I don't go in person to that many events anymore because all you get it the same old content over and over again. And anything that’s new you can, these days, for most big meetings jump on the webcast or watch it on youtube afterwards. But for a minute forget money, forget travelling, thinking of output: In several standards areas we are already seeing a significant improvement on quality and speed of output as more things switch to almost a Ci/CD real time type approach rather than waiting for some meeting three months away where the output is significantly less valuable and often watered or compromised downwards. Whether or not the money exists, the simple fact is that much more is getting done in many of these meeting driven bodies now day by day in the short space of a month than in the old model that hasn't changed in twenty years. I totally disagree with Denesh's point on the powers that be not caring, frankly that’s total nonsense in my view. There is a primary concern also, irrespective of money, some folks simply won't want to travel any more, many companies and organisations will need to think carefully about their staff travelling both from a wellbeing point of view and from a liability point of view, and as a wider business risk. No organisation is going to able to ignore ensuring that their events are remote participant inclusive in a much bigger way than has been in the past. If you think that next year all will be the back to the same old then I think you are kidding yourself on. I play videogames and pinball all over the world, all of our events have pretty much been written off until next year. So on the pinball font since we once though being in the room together was a mandatory requirement, now that we can't we're breaking through the barriers that stopped that being the case and held two trial events online that were fantastic, pinball is probably the most archaic anti-new technology hobby you can be involved in but if they can do it well - it's time for our industry to do the same and figure out what the things are that we are going to miss and figure out ways of minimising that or coping with it, because it's going to be very much the new norm. Regards, Neil. On 15/04/2020, 11:32, "uknof on behalf of Denesh Bhabuta" <[email protected] on behalf of [email protected]> wrote: > On 15 Apr 2020, at 10:59, Mark Tinka <[email protected]> wrote: >> >> The above is not to say that we should not try.. but we need to be aware of what we gain and what we lose in the process.. and shape the nature of events accordingly.. and evolve with all of that in mind. > This, here, is the meat. > The Coronavirus is accelerating and amplifying the shift in models; in > many cases, much to our chagrin. But, while we've all been talking and > hypothesizing about this for years, no one can claim delusion because, > well, we are all now living it, daily. > The outcome? To some degree, I believe there will be a huge drive for > improvement in efficiencies, because while we are struggling to keep > incomes coming in consistently on the back of all the lockdowns, our > CFO's are not going to be too unhappy to see that the 1st quarter of > 2020 saw a travel and logistics cost savings of well over 90%; and we > didn't all fall over and die. > So while physical interaction is certainly the holy grail, I anticipate > that we will be forced to be smarter about how we collaborate. I mean, > it's not like we don't have a live example. That cat's well and truly > out the bag now :-). I agree to an extent. We have all collaborated online for decades. However, despite all that online collaboration, we all find it better when we are physically in the same place. There is something about face-to-face physical presence which .. for me at least.. is not met by just collaborating online. I think this is because we are generally social animals and spreading that collaboration over a longer period of time - say during the conference / meeting, and then over a relaxed coffee / drink / social setting - helps a lot. The call for financial efficiencies will certainly be coming from TPTB… but these are the same people who very likely do not understand education and knowledge sharing and the best way for participants to benefit from it. These are the people who very likely do not understand psychology. All they care about is the numbers… not the people. Most of them likely already do not send their staff to meetings and tell them to catch up some other time. These meetings are not only about learning either.. they are about building (good) peer relationships. While I am enjoying the slower pace of life, I must say that I do miss the meeting up with people. I am keeping in touch with people online, via various online tools.. but it is just not the same. Additionally, I am now getting online fatigue! I seem to be sat in my Home Office day in and day out, attending lots of online meetings and webinars, socialising online.. not getting the benefits I personally get from attending things physically.. and am starting to feel the overload.. things take longer.. and I do not think I am the only one. Although this does not really apply to me, the various “rest periods” which form part of usual working day pre COVID-19 are no longer there.. All of these need to be taken in to account, IMHO. Regards Denesh PS. Yes, VR is likely to be the way forward.. we just need to get better at it.
