Staying connected in the new normal

02, Apr, 2020

Over the past couple of weeks, many of us have had to adjust our work lives. In the interest of public safety, working from home has become the new normal. This shift in our environments has of course brought about certain changes. One thing that should stay the same, however, is our ability to stay connected with our social and business networks.

Shaz Haque came on board with ASET as Manager of Corporate Relations last year. He’d like to introduce himself to members and reassure them that ASET is still working diligently for technologists across the province.

This support ranges from making sure members still have their benefits, to keeping events rolling along on schedule, albeit in a different format.

“Right now what we’re doing is, we’re working on virtual events that would yield something to our members and our clients,” Shaz says. “We are trying to make everything move into virtual reality, basically. This is the new normal, and people are getting comfortable with that.”

As the association and other organizations roll out their events in a new way than before, Shaz points out that there are quite a few advantages in moving from physical to virtual spaces.

“The one main benefit is you can reach a bigger audience,” Shaz says, “because if you have face to face, you might get five people in the room, maybe one office conferencing in from Calgary.”

That number can drastically expand with digital inclusion. “If you're doing everything virtual, anyone would be able to tune in to that presentation. So now we can reach a company that may operate across Canada. And we can have everybody in that virtual meeting and be able to share everything that we need to. And then across Canada, everybody would know, within our organization, what we're up to.”

For Shaz, it will be useful to see what lessons we can take from working at home and bring back with us to the office.

“Ensure that the time that you’re working from home, that you learn from your experiences,” Shaz says. “Because this is one of those times that doesn't come across your lifetime, often at all, or ever, for most people, but you need to learn from your experience at home. What have you learned? How has that made you grow?”

Shaz and ASET are happy to connect with members and organizations at any time. “ASET is here to support you if you do need us,” he says.