Fast Pace Techno lives...
According to a recent Telegraph.co.uk article, the average Brit now spends an entire day EVERY SINGLE WEEK online.
That, to put it into perspective dear event industry friends, is a colossal 1,440 minutes; a staggering 52 days a year; and longer than the lifespan of the poor Mayfly, the poor little mites.
And whilst most of us are likely shrugging our shoulders and muttering ‘so what’ to ourselves – who, after all, can get by in life nowadays without a smartphone, a tablet, an Amazon Firestick and a self-driving hybrid car (ok, maybe not the latter just yet), there is an inevitable flip side when it comes to being surrounded by technology.
In fact, that same Telegraph.co.uk article found that fifteen per cent of people surveyed said smartphones made them feel they were always at work, 54 per cent admitted they interrupted face-to-face conversations with friends and family and 43 per cent admitted to spending too much time online.
Astonishing, don’t you think?
Here, our Event and Marketing Manager Helen Lowe talks about the importance of finding a balance when it comes to staying connected and, erm, staying connected… you’ll see what we mean.
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Picture this, you dash into a coffee shop for the order you’ve already placed online, a quick flash of the phone over the card reader, you decline the receipt and off you go. Sound familiar? Yes, thought so.
So common are scenarios such as this nowadays that I read an article recently about how Weatherspoon is actually allowing customers to order their drinks from their table via an app. They don’t even have to go to the bar!
Amazing, on the one hand, but somewhat frightening on the other; because as convenient as that is we are finding ourselves in situations every day where we get what we want, when we want it without even having to pause to say hello to the cashier, or ask how their day’s been.
We send loved ones and friends a quick text, rather than taking the time to meet with them for a coffee and a chat; we order gifts and cards whilst on the move rather than taking the time to think about the person we’re buying for; and book the cheapest or most convenient services and suppliers online instead of meeting and getting to know the people we are trusting to carry out our very important jobs.
Because you see, the sad truth is that whilst absolutely necessary and fabulous and not something I would ever want to do without, technology is seemingly taking over the world.
And, one must ask, at what cost?
Having everything at our finger tips is so very 21st century, but sometimes…. just sometimes…. maybe we should be taking a minute out of our busy schedules to take in our surroundings, say hello to a stranger and maybe, just maybe, put our mobile phone back in our pocket!!
The events industry is as hectic as they come and, with increasingly tech oriented lives, we’re all running around like headless chickens in and out of work.
No longer are we confined to shopping at the weekends or dashing from meeting to meeting during the week, with online shopping and Skype calling as prevalent as ever the boundaries are becoming blurred and the week all seems to roll into one.
People spend mere seconds away from their phone before the anxiety kicks in, and god forbid we go more than an hour or so without checking our emails!
I bet just about every person reading this blog will have, at some time or another, seriously considered launching a full-blown police search to hunt down a loved one after they failed to respond to a text within 50-minutes of sending!
Life is just a tap of your phone and off you go. Back into walking at break neck speed dodging in and out of people who are also ordering their ‘Super Skinny Mocha Lota Frothy’ over-priced coffee.
How on earth more people don’t end up face planting a lamp post, or a bus stop, I will never know!
Here at Europa, we’re as guilty as the next company at relying heavily on the technical side of things to get stuff done. It’s especially important given many of our team spend huge amounts of their time ‘on the road’. The SatNav, for starters, can prove an absolute saviour!
But there’s also no denying that we love a good chat, and we truly believe that having the one-to-one time with clients, colleagues and comrades is good for the soul!
Picking up the phone rather than hiding behind emails can be so refreshing, and inspiring; and depending the relationships you have with the people you work with day in and day out can often prove invaluable.
You never know, you might end up with new suppliers that are more in tune with your vision, mission and values and can deliver what you want, when you want it, to a location that you need it.
So why not give it a go, Event Profs. You can always start by giving us a call if you’re a little nervous to dip your toe in the pool of offline chatting for the first time in a while. We’re about as friendly as it gets!
As a very famous, old advert once said, ‘it’s good to talk!’ (Although, if you’re too young to remember that, you’ll have to Google it… go on, we won’t tell anyone!!).
