The space for and use of digital meeting places has increased tremendously over the last decade. There are 2.9 billion people using social media this year (source: emarketer.com). Social media in our personal lives has also led to an increased presence in our professional and business lives and it seems a never ending series of embarrassing cross overs between the two. This article is not about that!
During the COVID 19 pandemic the business driven use and adoption of digital meeting places such as Zoom, Webex, Teams, Google Meet, etc has grown exponentially. This shows our need to meet and collaborate whilst working from home has not diminished. The scope of use varies from a simple voice interaction right through to full blown conference events with a virtual auditorium, exhibitor booths and networking. Some of these developments would probably not have happened at all, or certainly not as fast, if it were not for the pandemic. We are often comfortable with the way things are and resist change.
Many of the digital meeting places have a lot in common in terms of connecting multiple participants with each other and a wide range of content whilst being, to the greatest extent possible, agnostic as to location, hardware and content format. This accessibility can lead to better fully collaborative, data rich and informed decision making, which is good for us and our businesses.
On reflection, the essential characteristics of digital meeting places discussed above have driven StratumFive’s approach to data and the pre-COVID19 development of Podium. Whilst we did not anticipate the pandemic, we did see the need to develop a tool with those characteristics for our clients to fully visualise and share the data available to them. The fact we have been able to continue to do this in pandemic conditions whilst remote working is a bonus and certainly proves the concept!
The need for and benefits of digital connectivity we use to meet and collaborate as a business community are equally relevant to our data community. We welcome the industry’s call to action to accelerate digitalisation of maritime trade and logistics earlier this year. We need to continue to innovate and find the tools required to deliver effective services in the new normal. We believe the collaboration between data, solutions and timeline architecture within Podium is an innovative digitalisation accelerator. We are excited about sharing its progress with you.
Stay connected and safe.