What might the new normal look like?

Is your mind exploding at the moment? No, I am not talking about juggling life, work, kids and general survival during this crisis (although my heart goes out to all of you whose minds are blowing with all these pressures). Thankfully, I think most of us will survive and get through it and make it to the time when school opens, we are allowed to go back to that office and buy a pint from a bar and celebrate normality!

But what will normality look like? Will normal be normal? Or will there be a new normality? Well this is what seems to be blowing the minds of those people in the industry I spend most of my time frequenting these days - the events industry. For those of you not in the events industry, this involves a lot of people from corporate training and team building, to caterers, audio people, software developers, marketers, hosts, graphic designers, entertainers, museums, resorts, wedding planners, venues and I could go on. But I think you get the idea - a lot of people! They have been hit very hard as their business is practically zero for many apart from a few who have been able to pivot to online with the help of zoom.

The thought about whether people will want to be hanging out in large groups and touch things is starting people to rethink what the future may look like. Will there be more virtual conferences? Will booths at exhibitions need more space to allow people to physically distance? Will there be new regulations about queuing distances? Will we need more hand sanitizer? Will employees always need a piece of transparent plastic between them and the customer? Will people want to sit near strangers on a table, in a theatre, in a cinema? So many questions and we are not for the most part even tackling the big questions that will indeed have a massive impact on us such as more people potentially having freedom to work from home, the use of smartphone technology to keep tabs on us and so much more (take a look at this article for some of those bigger changes! https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/apr/18/when-covid-19-has-done-with-us-what-will-be-the-new-normal

Anyway what do I think? I think there will be changes - for starters some of us now realize the importance of washing hands now and seeing as we have been at this for decades this may actually develop into a much needed habit for some!

Although this event we find ourselves in may lead to more people working from home or at least have the option to, I think in reality this will be minimal. Many companies may crunch the numbers and see the advantage of getting people to use their own homes as their office, especially where they have seen productivity not impacted too much. However, I think for the most part we are social animals and people want to be near others, going to work however much we moan about it allows us to belong and be part of something. I also think some of us may actually enjoy having to make an effort, you know shower, shave, put on clean clothes everyday. So even though there is a big rush in the event industry to become the next zoom and produce a service or product to cater for remote workers there will be a niche but not an explosion like some are predicting. I also think many of us will be running back to work like it is the first day of the new school year, where anything is possible. Fingers crossed those who are currently out of work will swiftly be reemployed!

I also think as human beings we are quick to forget and so after a short period of apprehension and standing at a little distance in a social setting we will be back to normal and invading each others' personal spaces pretty quickly. People will be back at sporting venues, going to the cinema and frequenting busy bars.

For those running events yep more hand sanitizer will be required but your events will still take place. Oh and for those team building businesses out there, once everyone is back and their ship is steadied I believe there might be a bit of a boom to have team building events that have a very social and reconnection theme. A chance to celebrate being back together and to galvanize the work force to move forward together into those brave new world - all be it pretty similar to the one we left a few months ago!