I'm Baaack! The Return of Klessblog

I'm happy to announce that after a long hiatus, Klessblog is back! 

It's been years since I've published on this blog, and I've been wanting to do so for some time. So much has changed over the last two years and in the many years since I was active on this blog. Online video is now everywhere, streaming is a household word, and Zoom is the most common way we meet with each other these days. 

There's no going back to the way things were before Covid. Our lives have changed in so many ways and the distance between who we are now and who we were then, and how we live our lives in the world today, with our faces covered by masks most of the time, is the new normal we've adapted to during the pandemic. 

Business models have evolved, new markets have emerged and every one of us have learned so much along the way that our old lives seem a distant memory. Offices full of workers packed and stacked in high-rises in the dense cityscape are all but empty, with the remote workforce now in non-stop Zoom and Teams meetings, instant messages, screen sharing, muting, unmuting, virtual backgrounds are all part of our everyday work lives. 

Many of us had to shelter-in-place for months on end and continue to maintain social distance from each other, and as time went by so many businesses both big and small, restaurants, bars, music and entertainment venues closed up their doors, workers were furloughed, supply chains disrupted and our economy and mental health took a downward spiral. But many of us took up new hobbies and art forms, worked on projects that we had long put on hold, started new business ventures, and innovated in ways we we never had before. As movie theaters closed, online video subscription services we called OTT (over-the-top) television, now just streaming services, are ubiquitous and available as apps on our all our various devices and Smart TVs. 

With all the changes in our lives, the most serious impact of Covid has been on our healthcare system which has been staggering for our medical professionals. In one of the most politicized public health issues in generations with over 900,000 lives lost from the virus, an ambivalent America struggles with an uncertain future. We've called our healthcare workers heroes time and time again to be there to save the day, but the truth is they are not asking for praise... but for just kindness, masks and vaccines. so they can sustain themselves and keep up their fight against the deadly coronavirus. 

I've spent the last two years of my 32 years as a healthcare technology professional innovating in new ways to support the many physicians, nurses, staff and leadership whom I worked with everyday. In this new way of working, my team and I pivoted from producing live in-person events to 100% virtual events. We're no longer setting up extensive AV systems in hotel ballrooms with lights, cameras and the action we all knew so well,  and now simply log on to Zoom and Vmix and broadcast to any platform. And for many of us videoconferencing and  streaming isn't new at all.

I'm hoping to find more time to share what I've learned over the last several years in the online video and meeting space, new technology solutions and innovative ways my team and I have adapted our production environment and workflows today. My thanks to you all for still reading this blog and I wish you all well. 

It's good to be back and look for more posts here soon!