For the first two months after we locked down, my delivery of training programmes for the FT’s business education arm stopped. Companies cancelled their courses, along with the associated travel. Then, as people realised Covid-19 would drag on, the orders for online programmes trickled and then flooded in. I delivered several a week, sometimes two a day, to participants on every continent. Instead of flying to Peru or Bangladesh, I marshalled panels and took questions from our spare room.
What have I learnt from this year of travelling virtually? How did it differ from being there?
First, you know the panic that sets in when, immersed in your phone or a newspaper, you wonder why the airport gate is so quiet, only to discover everyone else has already boarded? The virtual equivalent is holding forth to your laptop and realising that the only person moving is you. Everyone else seems to have frozen. They haven’t. You’re the one who’s frozen. After a few occurrences, I now anxiously check that others on the screen are moving. Blinkers and scratchers are useful.