F ID I M A RC O M WHY ONLINE MEETINGS ARE HERE TO STAY EVEN AFTER COVID FIDI Secretary General Jesse van Sas on the set of last years virtual General Assembly Although no replacement for the real thing, this years online meetings have allowed the FIDI community to get more hands on with their association, more often. FIDIs Marketing and Communications Manager, Magali Horbert, explains how they will strengthen dialogue with Affiliates into the future A MAGALI HORBERT FIDI MARKETING AND COMMUNICATIONS MANAGER 54 FF301 Q2 21 pp54-55 Marcomms.indd 54 s we take stock of an extraordinary year, one company will consider 2020 as the year their luck changed for the better. The online meeting platform Zoom saw the number of daily meeting participants shoot up from 10 million in December 2019 to more than 300 million by April 2020. Zoom has become such an important feature in our daily lives that we have integrated it as a common word in our vocabulary: weve all suggested to quickly Zoom about something and have suffered from Zoom-fatigue; and we have to admit that we have played Zoombingo in some rather tedious meetings ourselves. As much as we miss real-life meetings, online ones have opened a whole new world of possibilities for global organisations such as FIDI. Until last year, our FIDI community was punctuated by two key events: our yearly FIDI Conference in April, and the IAM Annual Convention in October. These events were the setting of our main governance meetings and intense networking. Apart from these and other industry events, we did not have many chances to have meaningful conversations and discuss FIDI matters in more informal, open ways with our Affiliates. Thanks to Zoom and other online meeting tools, this has changed dramatically. Based on the successful meetings, panels and events we hosted and were part of in 2020, we have decided to hold regular online events throughout the coming year. We will try out different formats to cover diverse topics and to cater to different audiences. And we promise: we will try to avoid adding to Zoom fatigue. Here is an overview of what you can expect in the first half of 2021: Online governance sessions As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to keep us working remotely and dreaming of international travel, we will host our standard Delegates Meetings and General Assembly online. The next GA, open to all Affiliates, will take place on 21 April, 2021. The bi-annual Delegates Meetings and General Assemblies WW W. F I D I FOC U S . OR G 16/03/2021 09:51