We’re all ultra-connected in 2020, but the futuristic ideals of working from home are rarely realised. With technologies like Microsoft Teams and Slack, now prolific in organisations, internet connections constantly improving, there are fewer and fewer reasons that businesses couldn’t still operate while staff work from home.
Naturally, there are industries and positions that are more conducive to working flexibly than others, but the output of a significant number of roles could be achieved anywhere with power and internet.
Health, education, entertainment and yes, remote working were all promoted as benefits of increasing broadband as part of the multi-billion dollar NBN rollout across Australia.
Despite the average internet speed at home having improved (still ordinary against international standards), there hasn’t been a fundamental shift in how we work, as evidenced by the peak congestion on our roads.
Coronavirus is now a serious global problem, with infections outside China, now spreading faster than in China. As technique to minimising the spread of the virus, we could see more employers become comfortable with the idea of not seeing their employees in the office each day.
The number of events that have been cancelled as a result of Coronavirus continues to grow:
- Geneva Auto Show
- Mobile World Congress Barcelona
- Google Cloud Next April 6-8
- Adobe Summit
- Facebook’s F8 Developer conference May 5-6
- Cisco Live in Melbourne March 3-6
- Intel Labs day March 12
- Zendesk Relate Conference March 3-5
- Shopify Unite May 6-8
With these events impacting hundreds of thousands of potential attendees, many companies are taking huge financial hits, with accommodation and flights not always refundable.
Company’s are now turning to online events, in an effort to still capitalise on some of the investments already made. Car Advice has a great run down of the alternate events automakers are holding to replace their announcements at Geneva Auto Show.
Have your plans been interrupted by Coronavirus? Leave a comment below and let us know.
