“I think this has been a little bit of a revolving door. We're kind of open now, we're kind of closed. Then we are kind of open again. And I think we're getting to the point where people want to go back. They want to be active. They've got a little extra money. They didn't go to the movies. They didn't go to restaurants. They didn't buy extra things during these past 24 months, and they're ready to spend,” Sara said.
Impacts of a Lockdown and How it Affected the Hosts
Blair discussed a Johns Hopkins University meta-analysis that looked at studies around lockdowns. They went from looking into over 18,000 studies to then narrowing in on 24 studies and concluded:
Lockdowns had little or no impact on deaths from COVID.
Shutting restaurants and bars did work. It had a 10% effect, but that was the only sector they felt had a significant impact.
Lockdown costs will not be determined for many years since things are still being affected by the lockdowns.
People who missed appointments or people who were too scared to go into early detection appointments could have missed health risks or detections.
Blair then asked the group, “How did it impact you?”
Brent stepped in as IHRSA’s interim president & CEO when the shutdown happened. “It completely turned my life upside down for a good while and was life-changing for at least the last year,” he said. Brent also added that he learned a lot about Zoom meetings and creating videos because of the role and opportunity.
Bill said, “I learned how fragile the human mind can be. I thought I was an extremely mentally strong individual. And I learned that I'm not nearly as mentally strong as I thought I was. I learned a whole other aspect about myself that I didn't like, and that scared me. But at the end of the day, it made me better and stronger.”
Bill added that people have had to go through career losses, loss of life with the loss of loved ones, and it brought depression, mental illness, and isolation. But good things also came from it with creativity and optimism and new birth and new growth. He closed with, “It was very much learning about myself in a different way than I would have otherwise.”
Sara had to really figure out technology and went on to explain that she is a people person. She said, “I had to figure out how to connect with people on a screen and then realize I want to do a conference and nobody knows how to do it.” She found the truth in the phrase “stronger together” and saw teams and people coming together like never before.
Social Media Trends Worth Considering for Your Business
Sara started off the topic with a video highlighting nine social media trends for 2022.
Sara, who said she isn’t a social media expert and had fun with leading the topic, has really noticed how huge TikTok has become. She stated from her findings that TikTok is growing and is the fastest growing social media site—47% of the users are younger than 30-years-old and 22% of them are between the ages of 30 and 55. It's currently the highest-grossing app out there at $540 million.