The global pandemic is here. With horror, the entire world wakes up every morning to check the news and find out how many more are diagnosed with #covid19 #coronavirus. We wonder how many are dead, how many new countries are reporting new cases, and if it is safe to travel. Hand sanitizers are sold out and people everywhere are nervous.

Now more than ever, the idea of “social distancing” is one of the most dangerous of ideas to us as a society. With the coronavirus now hitting the globe intensively, everyone is on edge. People are hoarding food and household items, looking at one another in strange ways, and milling about like nervous ants. We have never been here before.

Sometimes the most offhand ideas turn out to be game-changers. That happened to my team and me a couple of years ago. We were about to launch a massive virtual summit, with 60 speakers from 17 countries participating. I had been using Zoom for our interviews and loved using Gallery View to put a small group discussion into a Brady Bunch or Hollywood Square type of visual grid.