Staying in touch means the world to us!

One year ago, we hosted our last OPEN event before the lockdown due to COVID-19. The OPEN events are for creative people who value the benefit of meeting other creative people for a chat, a drink or even business. It doesn’t matter if they are interested in IPR or whether they are clients, non-clients or competitors. We believe that an open mind and social events facilitate constructive discussions and relationships.

Meeting face-to-face gives us the opportunity to learn from each other and experience what is behind the look. In face-to-face meetings, spontaneous conversations occur and the dynamic between people brings energy, creativity and progression into the room.

During the lock-down period, we have not had many face-to-face meetings. IP conferences – where you meet people you already know as well as new people – have been held digitally and have therefore mostly been relevant for attending the professional program.

However, what we have had are numerous digital meetings with our clients over Teams, Zoom, Cisco Webex, etc.. It has been of utmost importance that these digital meetings have been possible in order for us to keep in close contact with our clients.

The digital meetings have been indispensable. It has been so good to see each other and to discuss IP matters and exchange views on outstanding issues and the like.

Admittedly, digital meetings have advantages: you save money as no one needs to travel, only one person speaks at a time, you save time as the meetings are normally very efficient, and since you can see each other it is easy to see if you agree or disagree.

That being said, where are the dynamics, the spontaneity and the social benefits?

In an attempt to compensate for the missing face-to-face meetings, we developed aera bento box digital lunch. With this concept, we have found an alternative way of bringing digital meetings and meetings in person together. With aera bento box, we meet with our clients on Teams and have lunch together just as if we had invited our clients for lunch at a restaurant. We book the table (order the food) and of course we pick up the bill. Until now everyone has been thrilled about this new way of having lunch together and we really enjoy meeting our clients on this more informal basis.

Of course, we look forward to seeing everyone in person again, but when things get tight, we believe that it is important to look for solutions, just as we do in our approach to business.