Return of the Live Meeting?
Dr. David Flanigan, CSEP - Chapter President--2022
As I sit down to write this month’s point of view, I am reminded from two years ago when then-president Mark Evans had to write a similar article in the other direction: all live INCOSE events were shut down and replaced with a virtual forum. He wrote how the Board of Directors did a test run with Zoom and found it satisfactory for use with meetings. These days we take Zoom meetings for granted and are very familiar with the modality and features that virtual meetings offer. Lately many of us are returning to the office, but in a hybrid fashion. At our company, we are looking to encourage more staff to return to the office, sometimes holding events to draw others back inside. Some events have met with greater success than others, and all efforts are sensitive to the individual’s choice whether (or not) to re-engage in indoor and/or larger events
Much is similar to our INCOSE events. As the board debates the merits of returning to live events, we should be cognizant of what worked well during these last two years and also what worked well prior to the shutdown. In these last two years, I personally gained more visibility into other INCOSE chapters around the world, and was able to attend more chapter events that were available online. I saw chapters that quickly enabled more participation through virtual events, particularly with registration through a service such as Eventbrite, Teams, or Zoom links on the chapter websites. In our chapter meetings, we saw regular participants from around the world, and looked forward to their insights each month during our discussions. We all quickly learned tips to efficiently transition between online speakers and moderating post-lecture questions and answer sessions, in order to make the next session even better.
We did miss some aspects from not meeting face to face over the last two years and look forward to the live interaction of ideas, especially during our pre-lecture dinner sessions, and post-lecture conversations. There were a few glimpses of this last fall at a social event at the Guinness brewery and our winter gala at the Engineers Club. We are watching the INCOSE International events (IW and IS) as they transition to hybrid events, and also how the regional conferences will be held throughout the year.
The board looks to continue adapting to the changing environments to serve our chapter membership. Our annual survey should be coming out soon, with an eye towards how to better serve the chapter and listen to their preferences. If you have lessons learned or helpful tips that you’ve seen from your area of work or home, please let one of the board members know. Looking forward to seeing you at our next event!