So much has changed since I attended my last major event, the Civtech demo day at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre in March last year. It was attended by hundreds of delegates and was one of an almost daily round of events that made up my business calendar.
Now they are on the verge of a comeback as the Covid restrictions are eased and we edge towards the “new normality”. Have we missed those physical meetings over the last 15 months? Most importantly, have we suffered or benefited from our period of isolation?
Being confined to working from a home office, my expectation was that interaction with others would reduce and that making new connections and helping others would be restricted.
In fact the opposite has been the case in that relations with existing contacts have deepened through more regular, rather than less, contact. Most surprisingly is that my network and the opportunities this delivers has increased beyond my wildest expectations. In effect I have found that it is easier to make new meaningful connections with individuals around the world through these online tools.