Will Virtual Customer Advisory Boards Become the Norm?

As we look to the dawn of a new day when people are vaccinated and COVID is not a daily worry, we ask ourselves – will we go back to an office to work? Will we ever be on planes as often as we were in 2019? Will we have Board meetings in person again? These questions are still hypothetical given the state of COVID around the globe, but we see a glimmer of hope and with that comes questions. In talking with CXOs about these questions here are the answers we get:

• 90% of executives worry about the long term mental health impacts of  online-only settings. Most want to find a way to more in-person meetings.

• 60% of executives don’t envision a future where office space is used as workspace like the past.

• 20% of executives believe they will fly around the globe for meetings as they did in the past.

What does that tell us? Hybrid meetings are our future.

We will have people in rooms and virtual. Personally, I’m not convinced that hybrid meetings will work as effectively as those where everyone is in-person or online, but that is our challenge to solve.Together in 2021, we must find a model that allows for effective meetings with people in a room and others virtual. It requires a thoughtful approach to time zones for global meetings; a strong understanding of technology and latency; and tools like polling and voting to help move the discussions forward. Most of all, we will need to go back to our experimental mindsets from the start of COVID. I’m interested to share what we learn as we navigate this evolution with our clients and eager to hear your learnings as you take the first steps too.