For the vast majority of businesses, schools and colleges, daily operations have been drastically impacted by the restrictions put in place during the COVID-19 pandemic. Many are not open or working from home and educators, students and most of the workforce have turned to technology to ensure that everything doesn’t come to a grinding halt. AV technology has come to the forefront with tools that enable virtual meetings, collaboration and learning from home. Let’s take a look at some of the ways businesses and both K-12 and higher ed learning institutions are staying connected, educated and working.
Meet Virtually
The CDC is currently recommending that people work or learn at home whenever possible and to avoid gatherings of more than 10 people. When meeting face to face is not safe, virtual meetings are a great substitute. Allowing people to communicate and share content for business meetings and also for educators to provide instructional guidance to students keeps millions of people home every day while not missing a beat.
Infrastructure
In order to facilitate the most effective communication amongst employees or students, infrastructure is vital. Web chat and video conferencing can keep everyone working and learning together whether in the same city or different countries as long as they have a device and internet connection to keep them online. The right technology and software are key in ensuring that your company or institution has what it needs to stay up-to-date and connected.
Zoom and Microsoft Teams
Both Zoom and Microsoft Teams meetings are dominating the daily meeting and learning sessions nationwide. Zoom is a cloud-based platform that can be used for video conferencing, audio conferencing, meeting recordings and live chat. Microsoft Teams is a unified communication and collaboration platform that combines persistent workplace chat, video meetings, file storage, and application integration. Both platforms allow participants to meet one-on-one or in large groups.
Once social distancing recommendations start to relax, there’s no doubt these tools will continue to be utilized at a higher level than pre-pandemic days. People will remain cognizant of possible risks and businesses and schools are finding benefits to this new way of functioning, so don’t expect your virtual meetings to go anywhere. Instead, working to create a more robust infrastructure will ensure success far into the future.
