A cup of coffee becomes virtual: Steven van Belleghem.

Our new reality: Even the seagulls at the beach need to learn to find their own fish again, now tourists are now avoiding crowded places or an (intelligent) lockdown is in place.

COVID-19 has changed society, at least for now. It narrows our bandwidth of connecting in real life to people we love, we work with or need our help. So we need to find new ways, like drinking virtual coffee with friends and co-workers.

Healthcare is in the center of all of this, and my work in the past decades has been largely on the use of technology to solve some of the challenges healthcare faces, like doubling in demand, administrative burden and exploding costs. For years working on the Future of Health(care), lastly at Radboud University Medical Center, prior to that in the Ambulance- and acute healthcare sector. Nowadays helping healthcare organizations, corporates, governments, and Deloitte (in a non-commercial and neutral role) as an Edge Fellow of the Center for the Edge, as their Global Strategist (Digital) Health. All from out of my small company called Transform.Health

For years I've been using social media to improve healthcare via connecting (with) people from all over the globe, and to source for information, new initiatives and news. Most of them at the intersection of technology and patient-empowerment.

Some years ago was approached by Linkedin to join their 100 initial Linkedin Influencers to start blogging on their platform.

Now I'll take the next step by using Linkedin LIVE to reach out and connect to many in my network during these impressive times, to have a brief "Virtual Coffee" with friends, experts, and entrepreneurs about the challenges we face. always with a positive outlook, as there plenty other channels for criticism, although this will not just be "The Good News Show".

The first guest that will join me for a "Virtual Coffee" will be my friend Steven van Belleghem. Steven is an expert in customer focus in the digital world. He is a popular speaker at home and abroad. In his keynote presentations, Steven takes his audience on a journey to the world of modern customer relationships in a clever, enthusiastic and inspiring way. Steven gave about 1.000 keynote speeches in more than 40 countries

Steven is the author of four bestselling books. He became known for his first book, The Conversation Manager, which won the award for the most innovative marketing book of 2010. Steven also wrote The Conversation Company, When Digital Becomes Human and his most recent book, customers the day after tomorrow. When Digital Becomes Human received the award of 'Best Marketing Book of 2015'. Over 110.000 copies of his books were sold. 

I asked Steven to join me because during this COVID crisis I see many companies struggle with their offerings to their customers, some of them find novel ways through creativity to help their clients in these rough times, others don't. I look forward to picking his mind and have a dialogue about how companies, just like the Seagulls in tourist' venues, now have to find new ways, or maybe just use old ways like finding their fish themselves, to survive.

Monday, April 6th 17:30 -18:00 CEST (Amsterdam timezone) we'll start our dialogue over here at Linkedin, if you already follow my article posts you'll be notified as soon as we go live (otherwise now would be a great time to follow;-). They will also be posted as Podcast (audio only) via https://lucienengelen.com/podcast/

There you can subscribe overhere to Spotify, Apple Podcast and many other platforms).

There will be the option of commenting, asking questions as well. As this is the first time, bear with us, there is a pioneering element in this for both of us. Looking forward to seeing you there, until then: Stay safe, and keep distance!