As we slowly awaken from our Covid-enforced slumber from the world’s longest lockdown, we will be conducting business much differently than we did 17 months ago.
There have been numerous challenges for all businesses, including PUNCH where we had to manage a new way to communicate with clients, media and how we work with each other from our home offices. The pandemic meant our travel clients had to suspend operations and marketing until now. As an organization we took the time to look at ourselves, adjust the way we work and we are so excited for the new opportunities ahead.
So, what does the future look like? What’s going to happen as offices open up and we get to interact with our colleagues and clients after a lengthy hiatus?
How will we get to work?
Will mass transit and rush hour gridlock return to pre-pandemic levels for millions of commuters?
How will we work?
Will we be working from the office every day, or will companies adopt a hybrid model, allowing employees to regularly work from home?
How will we communicate?
One of the most dramatic changes during the pandemic was how companies quickly adapted to new ways to communicate with their clients and staff. Zoom shares skyrocketed as video conferencing became the go-to medium replacing in-person contact.
Toronto PR agencies like PUNCH learned how to conduct virtual events from everything from product launches, to trade shows, conferences and media interviews.
Travel destinations such as Los Angeles used Facebook Live to stream a virtual performance of electronic duo Bob Moses outside the Griffith Observatory, showcasing the city’s magnificent skyline at sunset. The event launched a “Comeback” campaign to encourage tourists to visit the city once more when the time is right.
Back in Canada, parents had to adapt to a home working environment, juggling their work commitments with parental duties, while their children were forced into online classrooms where teachers scrambled to deliver their lessons in ways they never dreamed possible.
If there is a silver lining coming out of the Covid 19 pandemic, it’s about how we have learned to use technology to communicate in ways never thought imaginable before.
Canada’s real estate market is booming, especially in smaller markets, largely because Canadians have discovered there is an alternative to spending endless hours commuting to and from your distant residence.
Communicating from the dock of your cottage will again be a regular occurrence this summer as we continue to discover creative ways to stay connected with the real world while enjoying our own personal freedom.
We have changed how we live, how we work and where we work because of communications technology that will continue to change how we will live going forward. And that’s a good thing.
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