Tech:NYC Digest: November 8

Tech:NYC Digest: November 8

November 08, 2021 • Estimated Reading Time: 8 minutes

Monday, November 8, 2021

In today’s digest, US opens borders to vaxxed travellers, what the infrastructure bill means for New York, and solving Zoom fatigue for hybrid workers. 

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  • The US reopened its borders today to fully vaccinated travelers from Canada, Mexico, and dozens of other countries, ending more than 18 months of restrictions on international travel. (New York Times)

    • Miles-long lines of cars formed before sunrise to cross Rainbow Bridge between Niagara Falls in Ontario and New York, and thousands of excited passengers were on the first flights into JFK from London.

    • Others remain cautious about international travel as several countries across Europe are reporting new spikes in infections going into the winter season. (New York Magazine)

    • The State Dept. has a tool to lookup specific country recommendations and restrictions, find it here.

  • The travel reopening is just the beginning of New York’s plan to welcome back tourists with open arms.

    • To kickstart the tourism industry, Gov. Hochul announced almost half a billion dollars in new state funds for hospitality workers, business rehiring programs, venue operator grants, and more. (State of Politics)

    • And in a new set of surveys, NYC reclaimed its spot as the number one travel destination for US tourists during the upcoming holiday season. (Bloomberg)

  • After months (or some would say years) of negotiations, Congress passed a landmark bipartisan infrastructure bill late Friday that will bring billions of dollars to the New York City region.

    • The bill includes funding for public transportation agencies to make elevator upgrades in the subway system and to advance the long-stalled Gateway Project to build regional transit tunnels under the Hudson River. (Gothamist)

  • Mayor-elect Eric Adams hopes NYC students can attend schools without face masks before the end of the academic year. Adams wants to see the mask mandate for the city's youngest residents dropped, as long as scientific data supports it. (NBC New York)

  • Following Mayor-elect Eric Adams’ viral tweet to take his first paychecks in Bitcoin, CityCoins is developing a dedicated NYC-based token. NYCCoin mining is expected to launch this Wednesday. (Bloomberg)

In other reading:

  • Is It Just Us or Does Everyone Have a Cold Right Now? (New York Times)

  • What the end of the Covid-19 pandemic could look like (CNN)

  • These Photos Capture Emotional Airport Reunions After Coronavirus Restrictions Were Lifted (BuzzFeed News)

Do you groan when a colleague asks you to “quickly hop on Zoom”? Would you say you have meeting fatigue? You’re not alone. 

A new report by “smart calendar” startup Reclaim.ai looked at anonymized, aggregated calendar data of more than 15,000 professionals and found the average workday swelled from three to five meetings per day. (Protocol)

  • Meetings now occupy more than half the workweek, with the average professional now spending 21.5 hours a week in meetings, up from 14.2 hours a week before the pandemic.

The primary culprit: one-on-one meetings.

  • 1:1s accounted for almost 80 percent of new meetings during the pandemic, a more than 500 percent increase.

  • Put another way, 1:1s now take up 8.9 percent of a workers’ calendar.

In some ways, this shift isn’t surprising: Virtual 1:1s have functioned as a stand-in for the more spontaneous lunch or water cooler check-ins you’d more easily do at the office. But just adding more Zoom meetings isn’t necessarily the answer.

  • Reclaim.ai co-founder Patrick Lightbody: “Unprompted, unscheduled, five- [or] 10-minute calls where you work through something and just casually catch up — that's helped a lot,” as opposed to scheduled 1:1s, which typically last around 43 minutes.

One solution, streamline scheduling: More than 42 percent of 1:1s are rescheduled, so Reclaim.ai rolled out a Smart 1:1 feature that automatically suggests new dates and times.

Our takeaway: When tech leaders talk about the future of the workplace as “hybrid,” it applies to meetings too — and that may not always be positive. It reminds us of stories we’ve heard from tech workers commuting to the office just to join Zoom meetings with colleagues at home all day. Part of being a “hybrid” workplace is being a “coordinated” workplace — being strategic about when we’re on Zoom and when we’re in-office to maximize the benefits of both.

In other reading:

  • The Great Resignation is just the beginning. We have to prepare ourselves for a post-work world. (Business Insider)

  • Microsoft’s Own Metaverse Is Coming, and It Will Have PowerPoint (Bloomberg)

  • Can't get a call back from a job? You might be making one of these mistakes (Washington Post)

  • November 9: Virtual: SVB Fundraising Workshop, with Human Ventures CEO and general partner Heather Hartnett. Hosted by Silicon Valley Bank. Register here.

  • November 10: In-person, 7pm: Tech Talks @ the Williamsburg Hotel, with Casper co-founder Neil Parikh and Wardrobe founder Adarsh Alphons. Register here.

  • November 10: In-person: 2021 Open Source Strategy Forum, with FDIC chief innovation officer Sultan Meghji, Goldman Sachs co-head of technology John Madsen, and others. Hosted by FINOS and the Linux Foundation. Register for discounted pricing using the code OSSF21NYEARLY here.

  • November 16: Virtual: The Electrified Future, with Verizon senior vice president Elise Neel, Fermata Energy co-founder John Wheeler, and others. Hosted by Newlab. Register here.

  • November 18: Virtual: The Hunt for Talent Post-COVID, with Schmidt Futures head of talent Tony Woods, Eden Health chief people officer Chloe Drew, and The RealReal chief people officer Zaina Orbai. Hosted by Savills. Register here.

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