Responding to the COVID-19 Pandemic: GVF Member Services

by Martin Jarrold

London, UK, April 1, 2020--The global spread of coronavirus, and the impact of the COVID-19 disease it causes, is changing our world.  GVF is acutely sensitive to this impact.  As the global association of the satellite industry, we are responding to the effects the virus is having on our Members’ operations by exploring ways to increase the digital exposure of our Members’ news, products and services, while also creating digital learning opportunities that add to our already existing suite of online training courses and certifications.

As I sit in my home office writing this column, 199 countries and territories have reported cases of Coronavirus.  To state the obvious, this public health emergency is affecting all facets of life and very sadly causing so many premature deaths – approaching 50,000 at time of writing.  In consequence, many of the world’s governments have introduced quite unprecedented measures which have become described as “lockdown” for around one-third of the Earth’s population.  Much global business and commerce is now, quite suddenly, being conducted on a very different operational basis and “Social Distancing” is now one of two drivers affecting the scale and scope of human interaction.  “Social Distancing” on its own can be very limiting, but the second of these drivers, realized through today’s digital connectivity infrastructures and telecommunications applications, is quite the opposite.  It is enabling, and it has, more than at any other time, really come into its own.

For me, the first major concrete evidence of escalating concerns about the impact of Coronavirus on the wider telecommunications industry came with news of the cancellation of the Mobile World Congress.  In terms of impact on the GVF’s events schedule, this was followed by announcement of the postponement to later in the year – 26-28 October – of CABSAT and of our embedded SATEXPO Summit which we, as a key supporting partner of the Dubai World Trade Centre event, had once again organized.  Following that announcement, the list of event cancellations and postponements has had many, many additions.  SATELLITE 2020 in Washington DC was not unaffected, closing a day earlier than scheduled with the result that three GVF organized panels were canceled.

Like all industries, much of the business of the telecommunications sector has traditionally relied, at least in part, on the significant traction achieved through personal and physical interaction.   Promotion and selling of technology and service solutions; developing new, and maintaining existing, customer relationships; etc., has often relied on meeting people in exhibition halls and conference rooms.

This partial reliance is despite the sector – that is, the satellite, fixed and mobile terrestrial/wireless, cable/fiber segments – continuing to develop, and provide, technology platforms, services and applications which render much of this physical communication somewhat unnecessary.  As I write, the pandemic means that the only truly safe way to meet “face-to-face” is via video – using applications like Microsoft Teams, PowWowNow, Skype, Zoom, etc. – augmented by other sharing features of a range of social media platforms.  The facilitation of people coming together to exchange ideas and extend industry knowledge is, at least for now, solely a digital experience.

No doubt the current crisis will foster an even greater and more accelerated process of innovation in the functionality and delivery of these digital platforms, whilst at the very same time there is innovation and heightened investment in the scientific endeavor devoted to development and deployment of a Coronavirus vaccine.

When the latter succeeds, the abrupt interruption to the global events calendar may be reversed, but possibly only in part.  With circumstances having dictated that for human interaction to occur reliance on digital platforms had to be 100 per cent, organizations may in the future decide to significantly review their policy towards returning to the old events paradigm.  Things are unlikely to be as they were.

Whatever transpires in the medium-term ahead, the impact of the cancellation and postponement of conferences and exhibitions, of associated travel restrictions, and the necessary imposition of working-from-home models, in the shorter-term GVF will be re-focusing its energies into the expansion of our digital services for our Members.  GVF will do so by providing additional platforms for the promotion of Members’ services and products and extending learning opportunities about the latest developments affecting their business.

For our members, we are exploring the organization of video panels of experts and related podcasts to discuss latest ongoing developments in areas of industry interest.  We are also encouraging Members to make greater use of the GVF eBulletin to post their releases on new products, services, and corporate developments, paralleling the existing opportunities to post on GVF.org, through our LinkedIn page, and Twitter account.  Additionally, we are discussing with Members the formation of a cross-industry Marketing Working Group where  members can share ideas on how to maintain promotional activities during the current period of travel restrictions and event postponements.

This expansion of online membership benefits will complement the long-standing provision from GVF Training/SatProf of specialized online training to our Members’ employees at discounted rates.  GVF is known globally for its portfolio of training courses and some 17,000 installation technicians worldwide have benefitted from GVF certification.  Online self-paced training is fully operational 24/7 and queries, enrollments, and student services remain fully available so that staff who are working from home have the option of using their time for certification training.  Additional information is available at www.gvftraining.org and Members can email gvfsupport@satprof.com with inquires.  If your organization is not yet a Member of GVF you can explore the entire range of membership benefits by visiting https://gvf.org/members/

Martin Jarrold is Vice-President of International Program Development of GVF. He can be reached at: martin.jarold@gvf.org