The NeuGroup for MNC CFOs for greater China meets in person for the first time in 2020.
The first NeuGroup to meet again in real life took place last week in Shanghai. “It did feel like the old days,” as one member noted.
Since COVID-19 has been effectively contained in China, members in Shanghai wanted to return to a “normal” meeting. Going around the table with projects and priorities sharing, indeed, felt like old times.
A unique group
As NeuGroup Founder and CEO Joseph Neu noted in his opening remarks to the group (attending via a Microsoft Teams connection):
“This group and the people in it have a special place in NeuGroup, because of the very personal connections you have with each other. Those connections don’t come through as easily in a virtual meeting. And while other groups enjoy being hosted by a member company, no group takes more pride in the ‘company visits’ and sharing their professional home than our AsiaCFO group.”
A glimpse of what’s ahead
It was fantastic to see these real connections return. It is an early glimpse of the enthusiasm we can look forward to when other NeuGroups are also able to again have in real life meetings.
The NeuGroup team and a few members joined via Teams. So, this was also an early preview of how hybrid meetings can work, if they must. It is the next best thing to being there…except you don’t get the gifts.
A big thank you to Standard Charted for sponsoring this small-scale return to normalcy. And our heartfelt appreciation to the members who attended. But most of all we thank the team at The Coca-Cola Company in Shanghai for being such gracious hosts.
This has been a crazy year—and returning to the old days, even via a Teams connection (for us), reminds us all at NeuGroup that there are special days ahead.