Keep Connecting Virtually. It’s OK!

For the past 15 months during the global pandemic, Global Chamber® has held many more events every week all over the world, many more per week, than we had ever before held. Last month, we had six virtual events on one day! All these events have allowed members to jump in from anywhere to connect with the trusted global tribe everywhere — and it’s wonderful to hear all the success stories. Bravo, members! This virtual approach fits the global tribe well because they want to find ideal clients and trusted resources across metros and borders, with less focus on their own town or city. What better and faster way to connect across distances than to do it virtually? 

There are many examples of recurring virtual meetings that we hold frequently, including near-daily “meetups” that bring members for any metro area together with others from around the world, cross metro meetups (where one or more cities collaborate on the event, such as Phoenix-Tucson, London-Nairobi, Tokyo-NYC (this month), etc.), “League of Extraordinaries” (business referrals across borders), “League of Opportunities,” “League of Global Nonprofits,” “Global Women Online Network” and “Virtual Dining.” All these create global networking opportunities that couldn’t practically be done without new software that keeps us connecting effectively. 

Virtual Dining centers members on a particular cuisine, and then we meet over zoom with that food made at home or received by take-out. Then we learn about the country or region, and we discuss business opportunities. Last month, we ate food from the Philippines and talked about trade. Before that it was a Virtual Dining in the Balkans, including Bulgaria, Romania, Moldova and more. We spoke with an artisan baker based in Sofia, a wine expert in Italy and two chefs in the region about what to expect at the table. Join us every month at Global Chamber to bring at least one cuisine to dinner over a virtual dinner, to connect to grow.

Most of us like to talk over coffee with friends and business acquaintances, and now that more people are being vaccinated and wearing masks, meeting face-to-face is getting safer and safer. We encourage you to get back out there at your own speed and keep connecting through our globinars and meetups to accelerate success. Virtual meetings can be less satisfying than in-person discussions, but they save time, driving, parking fees, coffee fees and other costs. We can do much more now than we ever could before, so let’s continue the progress we’ve established as we consider what to do in the next phase.

Let’s not go back to what we did before, now that everyone is trained to be more virtual. Keep connecting virtually — it’s OK! Don’t let your desire to get back to some level of normal force you into a less productive world that we can leave behind. It still makes sense to meet people, and we look forward to doing that again. And we’ll continue our virtual world to extend success.

Cesar Trabanco is VP of Business Services at Global Chamber®.