Reflecting on February and March of this year, at the outset of the pandemic, countless businesses great and small paused their existing marketing campaigns. Whether these campaigns were promoting upcoming events, new business launches, or semi-annual sales, many became virtually irrelevant and, in some cases borderline insensitive almost instantaneously.

Marketing teams across the country and seemingly, the world sat down to analyze their present strategies on a granular level. There was a historical, widespread urgency to determine which, if any, sales pursuits were essential and/or ethical enough to warrant advertising spends and solicitations during a time of crisis.

Digital marketing has come to the forefront as one of the chief disciplines in communications practice. That makes sense when we consider that digital citizenship is up. A whopping 96 percent of American adults now claim to carry a mobile device, and the lines between “digital” and “in-person” life are blurred to the point of being nearly indistinguishable.

While the State of Nevada recently relaxed some of the COVID-19 limits on public gatherings, many people still prefer to attend these meetings via Zoom or other videoconferencing systems.

This week, I’ll share two ways to create successful “hybrid” meetings where some people attend in person while others attend online. The technology you’ll need for these hybrid meetings can range from simple to quite complex, depending on how much simultaneous interaction you want among your attendees.

We’ve all experienced “buyer’s remorse” – that sense of regret after making a wrong purchase. Unfortunately, “hiring remorse” is even more common – the recognition you’ve brought on board someone who can’t do the job. When discussing a non-performer, I’ll bet more than once you or one of your colleagues has said, “How the heck did we not see that when we hired him?”

As some of our workplaces suddenly became — and then stayed — remote, many of us have had to embrace full-time virtual communication in our jobs for the first time without much guidance. But the fact is, virtual was trending long before COVID-19. The global remote workforce has increased by 140% since 2005. So thinking about how we can communicate better in a virtual environment is not simply a short-term challenge, it’s essential to the future of our work.

What does track-and-trace software, Dirty Wookie, panty subscriptions, cybersecurity and salumi have in common? They’re all products or services offered by the organizations that won the 2020 NCET and EDAWN Awards.

Amid a global health crisis, the team at the Haws Corporation didn’t slow down innovation. Instead, they accelerated the development of products and tools they knew would be critical to help healthcare workers, scientists, educators, and other essential workers. Haws invents, manufactures, and builds drinking fountains and standardized and customized emergency response products. With more than 8,000 distribution locations and 250 employees worldwide, the family-owned and operated company continually focus on quality, service, reliability, and complete solution support.