Connections

In our ever-changing industry landscape, we have had to adapt in order to keep businesses thriving in a safe and healthy environment. Our industry leaders had to take a deeper dive into breaking free from industry traditions, pre-COVID business models and environments.

Working from home/remotely has surfaced new challenges and benefits to business leaders and their team members, but it has forced an industry wide pivot to further embrace and develop technology to facilitate adapting to the new world we live in as well innovate and create new workflows, software and hardware in order to ensure the success of our business units, projects and our people.

Our new world has opened doors to remote, global partnerships which take advantage of a “chasing-the-sun” work schedule. Around-the-clock coverage can be achieved with team members working in various time zones to cover a workload without needing overtime, late shifts and avoiding potential burnout.

Traditional work schedules have been adjusted to accommodate peaks and valleys of workloads through an employee’s workday.

This, in turn, produced unexpected benefits.

MORE COVERAGE, PRODUCTIVITY AND WORK-LIFE BALANCE

Leveraging technology and remote work would cause a reduction in traditional business real estate footprints.

With this reduction in cash outlay, more money and effort is being spent on ensuring connectivity and productivity is maintained (and in many ways) increased while benefiting from lower cash output for physical space needed to provide physical workspaces for employees.

By focusing on remote workflows, cloud solutions, and tools to facilitate off-prem workflows in a secure environment, we increase productivity, work-life balance and regain time to continue to innovate in order to set our sights on higher goals in our roadmaps.

What education and training are required for employees and executives at content wonders and service provider companies in navigating changes in the evolving ecosystem of connected supply chains in creation and distribution? Where will your partnerships (with customers, technology companies and industry groups) fit into your roadmap?

Evolution has been an underlying theme in our industry in our new world. The learning curves for safety protocols, remote workflows, meetings, social events and conducting day to day business had to be abbreviated in order to gain traction quickly adopted in order to keep our businesses alive.

Amidst all these changes and challenges, we needed to increase knowledge and practical application of remote collaboration.

We all had to learn how to better communicate and convey our ideas, feedback and instructions in a way that was digestible through a variety of channels in lieu of being in-person.

LEARNING WHAT’S NEEDED

Education and training for employees and executives in effective communication for in-person, virtual, and digital interactions is something that may not have been needed in a pre-COVID world.

Or was it?

Being an effective communicator is something that we read in a job description, but it is a key component of our day to day in media and entertainment. We want our audiences engaged.

By this, they need to be listened to, captivated, connected and invested in our conversations.

This level of engagement and connectivity ensures that we maintain the humanity in what we do in such a high-tech work environment.

Additional cybersecurity training for internal staff. Creating a video call strategy with clients to remain in touch and catch up to continue business opportunities and maintain sales growth.

And what matters the most to you and your partners going forward? Media and entertainment leveraged technology in new ways during the pandemic.

Automation, remote sessions, workflows and processes, answer bots, forums, chatrooms, run books, online tutorials, education modules, marketplaces and seminars. The list goes on and on. Some key things to keep in mind during the midst of these amazing advancements are some of the main aspects of the very reason we are all in this business in the first place.

Connecting with an audience and providing meaningful communication with sound, imagery and word.

With all this said, perhaps we should think in terms of the following? Humanity over technology; people over process; strive to effectively communicate and equally important, effectively listen. Often we hear buzz words or the term “full transparency” in our corporate communications.

It’s a good move in the right direction, but we move the needle even further.

Do good business and uphold ethics and accountability for the products and services that are being provided. Conduct and run businesses with integrity and solidly built relationships. A healthy, safe, solid work community that provides support to the staff and promotes open communication.

Continuously work to improve in keeping the company team members updated and aware of all wins and losses.

We continue to come up with ideas to keep the staff engaged and inclusive whether working from home, remote hybrid or in office in order to maintain a strong feeling of community.

We do the same with clients via email with more personalized status updates on wins and on social media for a broader outreach.

GOING FORWARD

Our industry has changed from the traditional workflows of the not-too-distant past. Film workflows to tape workflows to digital workflows.

Today we have remote production, physical production, remote postproduction, virtual writing rooms, virtual sets and virtual happy hours.

Some, if not all, of the aforementioned may become the new normal regardless of a pandemic.

We as an industry have learned, embraced and innovated new technologies, techniques and communication in order to continue to thrive in a challenging world, but it has also opened doors, broadened horizons, expanded and developed new and exciting global partnerships.

One day the masks will come off and COVID-19 will live on as a cautionary tale and learning lesson for us all, but we as an industry have grown, rose to challenges in order to continue creating, entertaining and engaging the masses.

** By Vincent Lavares, Director, Operations, IDC LA **

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