Tech:NYC Digest: October 13

Tech:NYC Digest: October 13

October 13, 2021 • Estimated Reading Time: 9 minutes

Wednesday, October 13, 2021

In today’s digest, US to open Mexico & Canada borders to vaxxed in Nov., LaGuardia AirTrain goes on hiatus, and what Herman Miller’s office design team thinks about RTO. 

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By the numbers:

  • New positive cases statewide: 3,376 

    • New positive cases, NYC: 1,028 

  • Statewide Fatalities: 35 (+5)

  • NYC Positivity Rate: 1.3 percent (no change)

  • Statewide Vaccine Progress:

    • Percentage of adults (18+) with at least one dose: 85.1 percent 

    • Percentage of total population with at least one dose: 72.2 percent 

*

These numbers represent the latest available data, as of Oct. 12. Today’s data was not available by publication time.

Today’s latest: 

  • A federal judge ruled yesterday that New York State health officials must allow healthcare employers to grant religious exemptions to a COVID-19 vaccine mandate while a lawsuit challenging the mandate makes its way through the courts. (New York Times)

    • The judge’s order temporarily thwarts part of Gov. Kathy Hochul’s effort to require vaccination for all healthcare workers, offering a reprieve for the thousands of unvaccinated workers who had applied for religious exemptions and would have been prevented from working beginning Tuesday. Hochul, however, has indicated the state would appeal.

  • The US will reopen its borders with Canada and Mexico only to fully vaccinated travelers beginning in November. Unvaccinated travelers will continue to be banned. (Wall Street Journal)

  • The LaGuardia Airport AirTrain project is officially on pause as the Port Authority reviews potential alternative mass transit options. The controversial project, pushed by former Gov. Cuomo, promised a 30-minute ride from LaGuardia to Midtown Manhattan. It would link the airport to the 7 train and the Long Island Rail Road at nearby Citi Field by a more than two-mile elevated rail line. (NY1)

  • In an effort to jumpstart business recovery efforts, the SoHo Broadway Initiative BID has proposed a “public realm vision” plan that would turn the stretch of Broadway between Houston and Canal streets into a pedestrian, bus, and bike-friendly route, as well as increase pedestrian amenities like street seating and public plaza space. (Gothamist)

In other reading:

  • What the Future May Hold for the Coronavirus and Us (New York Times)

  • Will New York require COVID vaccines for students? The state’s pediatricians hope so. (Chalkbeat)

  • These NYC City Workers Are the Least Vaccinated Against COVID (Patch NYC)

  • Is it the ‘worst cold ever,’ the flu or COVID? What to know before winter (Washington Post)

Are offices even necessary? It’s a question few would have asked before the pandemic, but the massive shift to remote work over the past year and a half has forced companies to think long and hard about the physical spaces they occupy, and what role they play in fostering — or inhibiting — collaboration and inclusivity. (Bloomberg)

Office furniture maker Herman Miller’s office design research team quizzed hundreds of companies to learn what it will take to get workers back to their desks:

  • Ryan Anderson, vice president of research and global insights: “We have to recognize that the office is in competition with other places where you can do work. Imagine when an office space is only 40 percent utilized. That’s tens of millions of dollars wasted over a seven-year lease. Thankfully, organizations are saying that maybe filling rows of desks is not what’s needed.”

Some office design improvements are obvious, like making conference rooms more Zoom-friendly, but what employees want in a workspace can change over time:

  • While helpful, employee surveys are also snapshots in time, and unless they’re conducted consistently and longitudinally, they might not actually capture workers’ preferences.

Herman Miller is pushing companies to rethink everything, even the popular “open floor plans” boasted by most tech companies:

  • Instead, it’s advising a so-called “neighborhood” approach that creates space for people in the same department to collaborate, grab coffee, or work independently.

The takeaway: The decisions companies make now with their workspaces will not only impact their corporate cultures but will influence the shape of cities for years to come.

In other reading:

  • Who Gets To Have Fun At Work? (Galaxy Brain)

  • Almost 15 percent of high-paying job listings are now remote (Axios)

  • Slackers of the world, unite! (The Atlantic)

  • Beacon Platform, a New York City-based maker of trading and risk management apps, raised $56 million in Series C funding. Warburg Pincus led the round and was joined by Centana Growth Partners, Global Atlantic Financial Group, and PIMCO. (PR Newswire)

  • Hibob, a New York City and London-based HR software company, raised $150 million in Series C funding at a $1.65 billion valuation. General Atlantic led the round and was joined by Bessemer Venture Partners, Battery Ventures, Eight Roads, and Entrée Capital. (TechCrunch)

  • LIT Videobooks, a New York City-based company turning books into videos, raised $5 million in seed funding. MaC Venture Capital led the round and was joined by Founders Fund, Noemis Ventures, Bloom VP, and several individual investors.

  • Mulberry, a New York City-based product protection platform, raised $22 million in Series B funding. Commerce Ventures led the round and was joined by Hudson Structured Capital Management, Ally Bank, and CreditEase. (MarTech)

  • Trumid, a New York-based bond trading platform, raised $208 million in new venture funding. Point Break Capital Management led, and was joined by Motive Partners, Senator Investment Group, TPG, BlackRock and T. Rowe Price. (Financial Times)

  • October 14: Virtual: The Future of Health and Wellness at Work, with Unilever chief human resources officer Leena Nair and Wellable CEO Nick Patel. Hosted by the Washington Post. Register here.

  • October 20: In-person: Cybertech NYC, with Congressman Ritchie Torres, former CIA director Gen. (Ret.) David Petraeus, US Dept. of Energy CIO Ann Dunkin, NYCEDC president and CEO Rachel Loeb, and others. Use special Tech:NYC code “fullnyc21a4” for a free “full event pass” ticket. Register here.

  • October 20: Virtual: Startup Marketing $0 to $100M+, with Snyk chief marketing and customer experience officer Jeff Yoshimura. Hosted by Work-Bench. Register here.

  • October 21: Virtual: The New Benefits Package, with Upwork chief people officer Zoe Harte, Paradigm IQ managing director Dr. Evelen Carter, and others. Hosted by Protocol. Register here.

  • October 22: Virtual: FutureProof Tech Summit, with Aclima CEO Davida Herzl, Twitter head of ethical AI Rumman Chowdhury, Lerer Hippeau investor Meagan Loyst, and more. Hosted by the Startups & Society Initiative. Register here.

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