Connecting with peers now is critical and may require options like video conferencing when in-person meetings aren’t possible.
Here is an announcement NeuGroup founder and CEO Joseph Neu sent to members this week outlining how the company is preparing to respond to the coronavirus:
Dear Members,
Like all of you, NeuGroup is closely following developments with the coronavirus outbreak.
First and foremost, we hope that those who have contracted the virus return to good health and that all efforts to contain its spread, mitigate fatalities and find a cure or vaccine are successful. Health and safety is always the primary concern.
Second, we want to continue to offer you opportunities to share and learn about important projects and priorities, including how companies across the globe can better address the growing impact of the coronavirus. It is in times of uncertainty and crisis when the input of peers is often most valuable, and this health crisis looks like it has the potential of becoming an economic and financial crisis
Accordingly, for our H1 meetings, given our concerns about health and safety and our commitment to knowledge exchange, we are preparing to do the following:
- Offer dial-in and/or video conferencing participation options for all our H1 meetings whenever and wherever possible. If you are unable to attend in person for any reason, we encourage you to participate remotely. If you do, as an added benefit, we encourage you to invite any relevant member of your team to join you. Please let us know in advance how many team members plan to participate, and how, so we can facilitate accordingly.
- Use dial-in/video conferencing to hold upcoming meetings remotely if the host or members, by consensus, decide to cancel an in-person meeting. We may then adjust some agenda items and meeting durations, but please hold dates on your calendars for remote attendance. We may also plan additional remote sessions to supplement those on the scheduled meeting day.
- Use remote meeting and digital tools to create new touchpoints for communication with and between our members and supporting partners. Our goal is to continue to connect, exchange, distill and distribute the best insight on what is going on and how to respond. In that vein, we want to encourage everyone to share what they are learning and how they are responding so we all come through this as successfully as possible. This includes sharing information on remote meeting and digital tools you are using or considering as more colleagues in various parts of the world work from home while remaining connected. Stay tuned for further announcements regarding digital tools to stay connected.
We will continue to monitor updates from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other credible sources so that we respond appropriately to balance the health and safety imperative with the knowledge exchange value of our peer groups. In the meantime, if you are ill (or believe you may be at risk of illness), please stay home. We hope you get well soon and urge you to participate remotely if you feel up to it.
Whatever happens, please know we are prepared to facilitate—in any way that we can—sharing and learning about the coronavirus, its impact and all the other important projects that remain on your agendas. If there is anything specific that we can assist you with, please let us know.
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In addition, a post published in NeuGroup Insights outlines some of the key items that treasury and finance teams should be considering to support the business response. It includes a call for everyone who serves corporate finance professionals, including NeuGroup, to step up for their customers rather than step back.
So we are not canceling our meetings, but rather looking for alternative ways to deliver them. If anything, we think this is the time to offer more opportunities to share and learn, not fewer.
To all our members, and any finance professionals who wants to share and learn, we are here to help. To all our partners who support our members, we thank you for supporting our mission and welcome any further assistance you can offer in supporting our members during this crisis.
