Zoom's head of international and partnership marketing Derek Pando talks WFH, keeping the world connected and pirate hats
Talking Points is a semi-regular series where we highlight some of the key topics discussed at a Generation T keynote, fireside chat or panel discussion.
This year has been the world's largest ever impromptu remote work experiment. Most of us have done more than our fair share of remote working in 2020 and enjoyed the benefits, as well as some of the drawbacks, of turning our homes into our place of work.
To discuss this seismic shift in the way businesses operate, I talked with Derek Pando, head of international and partnership marketing at Zoom, at the Wild Digital conference. During the discussion, we discussed the future of remote work as well as the unique challenges faced by Zoom’s leadership this year as they work to keep the world connected. Here’s a few highlights of that conversation.
We’re finally ready for the era of remote work. The pandemic saw to that
“We've been learning how to collaborate in person since humans existed, but collaborating virtually is still relatively new to us. And because so many people still had the in-person collaboration option, remote work was never being adapted as quickly as everyone predicted. For years, they were saying, ‘This is the year.’ But what really changed is we had a forced worldwide experiment [in remote working] that meant that we had to learn and people didn't have a choice. I don't know if we've completely figured it out yet, but I do know that our ability as a global economy to innovate virtually is improving drastically day by day as we continue through this.”
See also: Struggling To Stay Productive While Working From Home? Try These Tips