What have I learned from 25 Zoom workshops?

Since late March I have been pleased to help over 500 people stay connected through Zoom with colleagues, friends and family while they follow health-protection measures during this awful pandemic.

Many people have shared heart-warming notes about how they have been using the skills they have learned, and describing the confidence they have gained to move forward with vital social justice projects and personal endeavours.

COVID-19 has changed our lives tremendously, but it has clearly not diminished our commitment to building a better, more sustainable, and more peaceful future.

To stay healthy and engaged, we will need to learn a new shared repertoire of skills and vocabulary – including how to make use of new remote communication and collaboration technology.

Our organizations can also become teachers to ensure that everyone is brought along, together. Many people need a helping hand to make the adjustment.

In an informal survey of hundreds of people who signed up for my Zoom workshops, the largest number of people (36%) told me that they had used Zoom a bit, “but just listened mostly,” while another third of people said either they had used Skype or FaceTime before, or they were utterly “new to all this stuff!”

For social movement leaders, this skills gap shouldn’t be overlooked. The people who are trying to keep up with technology are the same people who take actions like signing petitions (73%), and making vital donations (63%) to peace, climate change, or social justice causes. The Council of Canadians, Amnesty International, and the Green Party were the top three beneficiaries most often cited by respondents.

Five weeks and 25 Zoom workshops later, I’m taking a moment to pause and reflect on what I have learned. Peering into the faces of hundreds of supporters and activists across Canada through my laptop screen has been truly humbling – and inspiring.

Now, as we hopefully have “flattened the curve” of this terrible pandemic, perhaps we can turn our attention to ensuring that the world that will emerge from our recovery will be better than the world we were living in before anyone had ever heard of COVID-19.

The virus has taught us so many things. The inequality and unfairness of our society has been laid bare. But the pandemic has also demonstrated the power of collective action and political will – especially through our governments – when we need to care for one another.

Let’s bring that knowledge and spirit of positive change into the recovery, as we rebuild our communities in the months to come.

Steve Staples is the founder of Public Response and has been leading digital community engagement campaigns since 2003.