What are your biggest barriers to networking in the age of Covid?

I am so much more a hands on person.  While I'm loving the zoom experience, when it comes to networking I would much prefer to do it person to person.  You can tell so much about a person when you can see their face, posture, etc.  While I do participate on zoom networking, I do miss the personal contact.

I love to be part of the community by volunteering and now with covid-19 that has been slow with less community gatherings. I am more than able to do so now with my biggest sales on our health supplement- fountain of life. More individuals are protecting and preserving their health because it is very important to them. A lot of persons have lost love ones and now are more keen to take care of  their families and pets with our amazing products.

My networking volume has increased dramatically this year.  Along with Covid came Zoom.  I have a national real estate network for 70 other cities that I network with, and our weekly Zoom call has brought us all closer together.  The bigger problem is not networking, but customer interaction which is challenging to say the least.  I am in the business of office and industrial lease negotiations and it is hard to speak with companies about long term decisions when they have no idea what they are doing this month or even this week.  

Our digital networking has gone crazy busy!

Personally what barriers I noticed networking was finding venues that would allow our large group to gather inside without masks. This was such a large issue that it forced my hand and I had to cancel the remaining networking events for this year. I really hope I can revamp and bring these events back next year!!

My biggest challenge with one project is figuring out the best way to follow up without messing up. A week before the nationwide shut down, I sent an article and photos to a college that had expressed interest. Once the shut down occurred, I followed up with my contact in an email, saying I would get back to them in the fall. It's fall. I would love to sell the article to them, or have them decline it, so I can send it elsewhere. This is income for me. But how do I best approach them for an answer?

Having time to network with others.  I am busier now than I was before the COVID-19 shut down.  As people clean out their closets, they bring me more work.  I'm not complaining about being too busy, but networking has taken a back seat.  People seem to know how to find me when they need my services, so fortunately word of mouth from others means I don't have to do lots of networking for myself any more.

Have not noticed any barriers.  We ignored covid.

We can’t conduct live classes .

Working Zoom/ navigating the technology  is more demanding than one thinks - some days we have 50 people on at one time - 

You have to be aware of everyone - you have to navigate you tube / and at the same time manage the “ chats” and the non verbal children who may also want to hear- sing -play a song - but not have the ability to ask ,

So I would have priced it much differently had I known before ! Thanks for your attention - Billy 

For those of us who like to get out of the office, not being able to do so as frequently as we like has been a challenge. However, with digital technology, the ability to go from meeting to meeting in moments has been a real plus. I am far more productive by eliminating travel time.

With regard to my weekly BNI meetings, most of our members don't like the weekly Zoom meetings. We overwhelmingly prefer meeting in person. But here again, we learned a new way to conduct business and it has allowed us to continue to refer business to each other and invite visitors. We have even added new members to our chapter.