With technology driving our businesses for most of 2020 and half of 2021, it is now time to slowly phase out of our virtual meetings, be in the same room with our customers and colleagues, and look them in the eyes. You will be glad you did, and there is no doubt that it will be good for your business.
This summer I had the privilege of going to The International Surface Event (TISE) in Las Vegas. After 15 months of being cooped up at home and being Zoomed out, I underestimated the impact going to a convention would have on me. This wasn’t my first trip was since the pandemic began, but certainly the most meaningful. In March 2021, I flew to Denver so that I could be in a studio for a virtual meeting our organization, Fuse Alliance, put on in lieu of a live meeting, and I recently went to Georgia to visit some of our key suppliers in Dalton. However these trips did not compare to walking around a trade show hall, shaking hands, and happily hugging people I had not seen in more than a year. This was the first convention I attended since our last live Fuse event, which took place in Palm Desert in March 2020, just one week before California shut down.