Connectivity priorities

Physical or digital?

The discussion moved on to whether new ways of working, which have been accelerated due to COVID-19, have shifted the balance of priorities from physical to digital connectivity.

There was universal agreement that if coronavirus had hit 10 years ago, its disruptive impact on knowledge workers could have been much greater.

R&D activity has gone on largely unhindered by the
pandemic in many sectors. Some life sciences
companies have been directly involved in the
response; others have gone about their lab-based
work with some additional precautions. But most
are engaged in activities which inherently require
safety equipment and robust hygiene
protocols anyway.

Tech companies, on the whole, have been able to continue working through digital platforms. That wouldn’t have been possible a decade ago. But in both sectors, businesses are really missing those water cooler discussions, or informal learning from peers; neither happen virtually.

Another attendee agreed: “In considering changes to the way we work, it’s important to differentiate between what’s workable, and what’s optimal.Yes, many businesses have proven resilient and kept working during the pandemic. We’ve seen productivity maintained in many sectors.But has that been at the expense of creativity and innovation? Ideas and neurons don’t obey diaries.We don’t know where we’re going to be when inspiration strikes. But it does tend to happen more when we have the random chance meetings and are surrounded by people to bounce ideas off.”

Have we missed out on ideas we get from those water cooler discussions?

The relative merits and drawbacks of high-speed fibre, compared to 5G, were also discussed.

Most agreed that it was vital for WM5G, the UK’s first region-wide 5G testbed, to succeed:

“We need public and private sector collaboration to ensure that this project continues to deliver impact at scale. The alternative is laying more high-speed fibre, which would involve significant disruption and planning to install across the region.”

Virtual and augmented reality-enabled laboratories were hailed as crucial to universities, particularly during the pandemic.But the consensus was that there are still some activities that will never translate well to a VR experience.

Immersion is the key element of VR and similar technology – and that’s improved markedly as the technology has matured. The E-labs at the Collaborative Teaching Laboratory are incredible and their application will only grow.

But there are some other areas where you can’t replace the
real-world: can you imagine training to be a surgeon without getting your hands on real skin?"