In almost any other year, next week would be virtually the end of the “sports business conference” season. Leaders Week, the Sports PR Summit and then the Sports Business Awards would bring to an end an almost non stop run of events each week that usually included stops in Miami, Boston, New York, LA, sometimes Orange County, Chicago and the off year events in places like Philly or sometimes Dallas. A nice end to the stretch run.
This year those conferences have continued on with an endless string of Zoom chats, at one point there were five on one Wednesday, that will continue on until we find a way out of our home offices and games take up people’s time…for now they usually serve as low or no cost learnings on various topics that we hope to pull some snippets of self improvement out of.
They also serve as bringing a modicum of value to the real reason most people spend time and money at industry conferences; networking. The value of showing up, and the randomness of making connections both short and long term has been lost this spring, replaced by scrolling through the role call on a screen to see who is also watching the same discussion you are. Virtual coffee breaks are nowhere near the same as wandering the halls seeing faces old and new, and we are left to our own creativity to see how we can expand options beyond a potential direct message to someone else, he or she also sitting on their couch or deck or basement, probably also running out of interest in watching a screen for any extended period of time.
We have lost the value of just showing up.
Now that value will return down the line, even if it is masked and behind social distancing guidelines. Right now almost any large scale face to face gathering has been moved to the cloud at least through September, and it remains to be seen what the fall will bring. Hopefully we will start some kind of return to normalcy, because as much as we have learned and adapted to engaging in social media, the real social is what you can do, and who you can learn from in person.
In the meantime what to do. Personally I have taken to the old rolodex, and started something that a longtime friend, former college and NBA coach Gordon Chiesa has done for years. Begin at A and go through the list and try and touch five people through LinkedIn, texts, Facebook and direct messages, a day. The more random, the more distant is sometimes the better. It serves as a great jogging of the mind, and if you have been around long enough by the time you get to Z, its OK to go back to the top.
I’m not looking for anything other than to connect peer to peer again, and maybe connect those people, especially those who are struggling to get by, with someone who can help them along the road again. It doesn’t take long, it serves as great mental floss, and hopefully it helps the person on the other end of the transmission as well.
It ain’t the 10 am coffee break, but I will take it.
