There’s No Replacement for Being There
BY LAURETTE RONDENET
don’t think any of
us will ever look at
business travel the
same since the Covid. Before Covid, I was traveling almost every week to various customers, conventions and association meetings. Overnight, it stopped.
I welcomed the change and the slower pace, at first. I soon realized the travel was replaced with mind numbing zoom calls that lacked true connection. I realized I could travel every week and not be nearly as tired as I was on a day with back-to-back online meetings. They zapped my energy. Was it the blue light? Seeing yourself on the screen all day? No movement?
We are now in the middle of 2024 and the world has opened again and travel is happening again. Yet, it is different. Some say we are still awakening from that deep sleep. There is a Covid hangover still in the air.
I am writing this piece from a hotel in Westchester, New York. My colleague, Pat Updegraff and I have customer visits here this week. Tonight, for dinner, she found an adorable restaurant located on the Hudson River in Tarrytown. We ate outside as the sun was setting.
I