The COVID-19 pandemic has seen businesses implement flexible working practices including remote operations at a record rate in order to protect the workforce and provide business continuity.

Although everyone is anxious for the pandemic to be over, there is much uncertainty and new guidelines and protocols will continue for some time to come. This leaves companies adjusting to a new way of life.

To assist in this new situation, UFO has recently finished its first Virtual 1-2-1 Meeting Week where members were able to book 30-minute meetings with each other to discuss existing and potential new business using their specially developed in-house booking system.

A key feature of the system was being able to make notes against each meeting as well as one-to-one messaging so that members could engage with each other before, during and after the Virtual 1-2-1 meeting week.

UFO president, Rachel Crawford said: “We are aware that communication and connections are vital and want to ensure that UFO continues to evolve and provide its members with a strong networking platform. Indeed, belonging to organisations like UFO could be essential to the survival of many independent forwarders over the coming years.
“We are delighted that our first virtual event went so well as video meetings are an excellent way to connect in the absence of our annual gatherings.”