Sense Virtual Meet-Up, July

Spontaneous observers and non-linear future thinkers joined our July Sense Virtual Meet-Up to share our thoughts on the constantly changing world around us!

By Rakshita Arvind

Through the Sense Virtual Meet-Ups, we hope to open up to conversation with people from around the world to reflect on our collective experiences and discuss our hopes for the future. It was truly wonderful to meet and get to know all those who joined in. One of the best things for me is to be able to revisit and summarise the positively energising conversation to share with you all!

Here are some of the highlights from our conversations…

So often we feel the need to be able to define what a post-COVID future would look like. But have we gotten a full grasp of the long-term effects of social-distancing and the threat of a virus on our psyche? How has it affected people of different ages, from children, to teenagers, to adults and the elderly? The best we can do is reflect and articulate on the now to actively contribute to creating a better future.
Linearity and adaptability: We are beginning to let go of the idea of ‘linearity’ in our lives, careers and the way in which we talk about progress towards the future. Global pandemics can have different plans for us. Career paths are no longer set in stone. And we’re all learning to adapt and be agile in working with what we’ve got. Sometimes you need to move forward or to the side and sometimes you really need a step back!
With the loss of physical touch and body language cues, our voice, speech intonations and language have become the sole indicator of familiarity and comfort. How might this affect our future of communications with each other?
How spontaneous are we? When did you last pick up the phone to call someone unscheduled?
The importance of combating loneliness. And also, what’s happening with the loneliness commission in the UK?
We had a really interesting chat about the future of retail, the evolution of the shopping experience and the plight of malls in America. Here are some ‘haunting’ photographs of empty shopping malls pre-COVID across America.
We then wondered what would happen to urban ‘public spaces’ of the post-COVID future? How might we shift the ways in which we utilise and design future public spaces to encourage and nurture a feeling of community, while being acutely aware and changed by rules of physical distancing?

We run our Virtual Meet-Up’s every month. Look out for the next one to connect with like-minded people from worlds unlike your own, exchange stories, broaden your horizons and expand your mind. Let amazing things happen when our worlds collide.