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Michele a’court’s office is open all hours – just bring the green tea!

Last week at my place, I hosted an event for 700 women. You’re probably thinking, crikey, that’s a lot of canapés, but – and I think we are all relieved about this – the snack situation was down to individual responsibility.

I’m not sure what other people grabbed during breaks – I can only confirm that a couple of times I sent a text to my husband to bring me a cup of green tea if it wasn’t too much trouble. Unspoken was an instruction to leave it near the door so no one would end up in the background of my Zoom screen in their Disney-themed pyjama pants!

This was one of the many gatherings that, in other years, I have MCed in person but has, in COVID times, moved online. I genuinely do miss looking out at a sea of faces and having random chats in the bathroom with kind and interesting people. But I’m also finding the upside to communicating in a virtual world. There was a moment at the start of this day when women started logging on – 45 participants, then 186, then suddenly 600 and climbing – and they were throwing cheerful “good mornings” and “kia oras” into the live chat on the side of my screen, and I felt genuinely emotional about making this connection, even if it was by fibre optic cable.