Mini-report from NYC: mood has shifted over the past few weeks as we see our numbers on the decline, the weather warms up, and neighborhood restaurants & bars reinvent themselves as curbside pickup/delivery depots. It got me thinking about what to expect for the next few years... Surviving restaurants will revamp what & how they sell. Many offer online packages of produce & toilet paper. Michelin-starred @MarcForgione offered just two dishes for pickup, and sold out. Last night, bars opened up for window service. I saw 4 people sitting on the sidewalk.

If there is one thing you read today about #COVID19 today, it's this op-ed from @choo_ek &
@VincentRK one what federal government must do to prepare for the next battle: medicine shortages. nbcnews.com/think/amp/ncna… 1. We have a shortage of #PPE, testing, and treatments such as azithromycin and hydroxychloroquine, but as more patients are admitted to the ICU, we now have a shortage of other common medications used in ICU, and specifically, to place a person on a ventilator.

While it feels like the #CoronavirusOutbreak is to blame for large scale shifts in work, business, education & society, most have been happening in slow motion for some time. They are just accelerated in the face of a a crisis. Here are a few examples: 1. Work from home, remote work & distributed teams. This gradual trend is now experiencing a massive litmus test. It's impt to know that not every job can be done remotely, and not every employee has the ability to work from home. We're about to find out when place matters most.

12 days ago, we authored our company's COVID-19 contingency plan (h/t @dpatil @coinbase for the kick in the pants). What I wasn't expecting was the speed at which our plan would become obsolete and how much brain power it would consume for me. A few lessons to share: 1. If you haven't yet authored a plan, do it now. I'm partial to a google doc as you WILL update this frequently. Keep it simple. Here's our table of contents:
- Overview (goals)
- What we know
- Prevention and treatment
- Contingency plan (Phase 0, Phase 1, Phase 2, Phase 3)

Remember that moment TSA required us to take off our shoes at security and banned liquids over 3oz? I remember thinking "how long will this last?" That was 14 years ago. It's also the best analogy I can come up with for all of the new norms due to #coronavirus. Some of our new norms are good things (yay! we're all expert hand washers now!). And some are concerning (I actually needed toilet paper, and there was NONE to be found in the grocery store.) I'm hopeful that the former is true in 14 years, and that the latter is resolved. But...

Undercurrent #1 from @VoiceSummitAI #voice18 - what most people get wrong about "voice" is that it's not a single technology, but many, that come together to create a new conversational experience. The vocabulary, and hashtags are nascent. #voicefirst #voicetech #vui #vux Undercurrent #2 from @VoiceSummitAI #voice18 - Why are there are a lot of old school #SEO people here? Because they have done this before. The #voice opportunity will have similar organizational, tech, design, product, and mkg challenges as Web 1.0, search, social & mobile.