Stay At Home and Keep Learning in Times of Coronavirus
Hello Learners, we’re all aware of what’s going on in the world with the sadly-famous COVID-19. This means more and more companies and people are forced to stay at home and reduce movements outside. People’s freedom of movement is being limited in all Italy right now (and this might extend to other countries soon… fingers crossed) in an attempt to stop the spread of the virus, causing each one of us to rethink the way we live, work and learn.
We deeply empathize with everyone who's under pressure because of the virus, and its consequences.: this unprecedented situation is really testing every one of us, and we are extra lucky this time around as we’ve been a remote company for the last four years. So here’s a couple of things we want to do for and share with our community of Learners.
At Avanscoperta, we’ve always valued the people’s learning experience more than anything else, and if you’ve been to one of our events, whether it’s a workshop or a meetup, you’ve experienced this first hand.
This is the reason why whilst we encourage you to stay safe and healthy and to follow the authorities’ guidelines… We also state, with the same force, that learning doesn’t have to stop! 😎
Having the time to stay at home, read and think can be seen as a tremendous advantage in these uncertain times. Let’s take this opportunity to finish that book we never finished, start a new one, watch that video that’s been in our bookmarks for the past months, and write that piece of the blog still in draft.
Also, this situation is forcing a lot of companies to embrace the so-called Smart Working. In this article, you'll find some useful resources whether you're used to it or it's something completely new for you and your company.
Scheduled Workshops and Events
We have postponed two of our workshops, due to take place at the end of March. The new dates are available on our website and we always share this news on our social media channels.
Our workshops planned for May and June keep being scheduled, but the situation is constantly evolving, meaning that although we’ll try our best to stick to our plans... these might be changing again as your and our health is our first concern, and it will always be.
Keep an eye on our usual channels and if you bought a ticket for one of our events, you’ll be notified of any changes.
Our Remote Meetups
We’ll be hosting a number of online and free-to-attend events in the next weeks as we don’t want to stop offering our community opportunities to learn and meet… although virtually.
Check out the next online meetups we'll be hosting on our website as well as the videos of our past events: Free Events for our Community.
All of our virtual events will be live-streamed on YouTube.
Join our community on meetup.com and never miss an update.
Articles
Some links about Remote Working that might be of interest:
Tools for Remote UX Workshops - NNGroup
The Basecamp Guide to Internal Communication - Basecamp
The State of Remote Hiring - Balsamiq
Quick, work remote! A guide on how to set up your working remote strategy - Erin "Folletto" Casali
La vita ai tempi del Coronavirus - Soisy
Why Great Teams Embrace Remote Work - Trello
Coronavirus: la digitalizzazione a supporto di cittadini e imprese - Agenzia per l'Italia Digitale
Osservatori.net su Smart Working
Stare o lavorare a casa, in tempi di epidemia - Stefano Stravato
Books
And here's a list of cool books that you might wanna look at:
REMOTE: Office Not Required - Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson
Distributed Teams: The Art and Practice of Working Together While Physically Apart - John O'Duinn
Working Remotely: The Telecommuter's Guide to the Galaxy - Tim Baran
The Year Without Pants: WordPress.com and the Future of Work - Scott Berkun
Reinventing Organizations: An Illustrated Invitation to Join the Conversation on Next-Stage Organizations - Frederic Laloux
The Connected Company - Dave Gray and Thomas Vander Wal
Drive: The surprising truth about what motivates us - Daniel Pink
Thinking fast and slow - Daniel Kahnemann
Antifragile - Nassim Nicholas Taleb
The black swan - Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Freedom from Command & Control - John Seddon
Turn the ship around! - David Marquet
We also put together a list of books and recommended readings from our community of experts.
Podcasts and Videos
Subscribe to our YouTube channel and never miss a new online event or a video of one of our in presentia meetups.
And if you prefer the "listen-only" mode, it might be good to know we opened our Avanscoperta Spotify Profile, with plenty of interesting podcasts for techies and nerds alike.
Random and Useful
Another useful link, in these times of forced “working from home”, is the one issued by the Italian Government and called Solidarietà Digitale, where a number of services are offered for free or for a very small fee. These go from internet services to online subscriptions to free e-books and magazines. We’re sure you’ll find something for you!
We can't wait to see you again at our live events as we do really miss the opportunity to meet and interact with our wonderful community.
"Andrà tutto bene" - everything's gonna be fine - is a message that's being shared on post-its (the magic piece of paper!) and stuck everywhere in Italy these days, from train stations to windows in the shops and restaurants.
We do believe so, and whilst things do clear up... Let's keep learning! #WeAreLearners
Check out the full list of our upcoming training courses: Avanscoperta Workshops.