A number of you may have heard by now about the op ed by Jerry Seinfeld in the New York Times (the "newspaper of record" as it were) as a response to an article saying how NYC will never come back post Covid. He loves New York, and makes a serious case on how it will always rebound. It's a good read, and nestled within is an interesting point concerning the efficacy of Zoom and remote meetings - again this is from a really successful professional performer, so worth the moment to read and consider:
"There's some other stupid thing in the article about “bandwidth” and how New York is over because everybody will “remote everything.” Guess what: Everyone hates to do this. Everyone. Hates.
Energy, attitude and personality cannot be “remoted” through even the best fiber optic lines. That's the whole reason many of us moved to New York in the first place.
You ever wonder why Silicon Valley even exists? I have always wondered, why do these people all live and work in that location? They have all this insane technology; why don't they all just spread out wherever they want to be and connect with their devices? Because it doesn't work, that's why.
Real, live, inspiring human energy exists when we coagulate together in crazy places like New York City. Feeling sorry for yourself because you can't go to the theater for a while is not the essential element of character that made New York the brilliant diamond of activity it will one day be again."
I'm with Jerry here. I've been a part of some very well run Zoom extension meetings, with plenty of participation, but it's not the same. Couldn't put my finger on it until just now - these meetings lack ENERGY. The energy of the crowd, the energy of all of us together, the energy of sharing some really exciting work to our avant garde berry industry, ever hungry for high quality science.
So you know where I am going, I am thinking through how I am going to handle the big berry meeting I run every year together with Joy Jacobs of the Strawberry Commission. At 300 + people in attendance, it is not going to be in person this year, vaccine or no vaccine, so I've got to figure something else out because man do we have a lot of data - in particular on Fusarium. A straight six hours of Zoom it will not be, it needs to have some pizzazz, some energy, something that is interesting and fun to be a part of.