How brave will you be in this brave new world?

How brave will you be in this brave new world?

Iman Ghorayeb, Avaya

Iman Ghorayeb, Director of Marketing & Communications, EMEA & APAC, Avaya, shares her views on how we can leverage the 'new normal' to bring positive changes to the environment.

Less than two weeks after the COVID-19 field hospital at Dubai World Trade Centre was shut down, the convention centre has reopened to the public last week, with its first conference since the pandemic began.

The event, Ai Everything, marked a major milestone for the #RestartDubai project. As one of the speakers put it, it served as a kickstarter for the global conference industry, on the same day that China reported progress towards economic recovery. It is a brave new world we are entering as, I am sure all of us hope, the COVID-19 heatmaps cool down and countries come to terms with the new normal.

It took a lot of guts to show up, with facemasks, sanitisers and all. Meeting friends and colleagues from the industry after such a long time was heart lifting. While we held back on the embraces, smiling eyes, expressive body language and a tremendous use of emotional vocabulary did the trick. We shared experiences and stories and exchanged warm congratulations and best wishes.

Speakers at the conference,