THE TIMES OF CANADA NOV 2020
ARE ZOOM BACKGROUNDS B
THE NEW JEWELLERY?
ack in the early days of the pandemic, when Zoom calls seemed like a novelty with an expiration date, I advised my clients against using cute backgrounds during meetings. A screen of the Eiffel Tower or a beach at sunset would be too cheesy, I thought, it would undercut the professionalism of whomever was speaking in front of it. With so many distractions present in our own home offices, why add yet another during a
call? But now that Zoom is our new normal, I’ve changed my mind. Why the shift in opinion? For starters, backgrounds have improved exponentially in just a few months. We now have a huge number of highquality choices that can create visual interest or emphasize the points we wish to make. Zoom offers a curated selection of backgrounds ranging from sports team logos to Alaska Airlines
travel photos to animated still from the Cartoon Network. If you use a site like Unsplash, which offers thousands of beautiful stock photos for free, you can tailor your backdrop to your personality or the meeting topic. The sheer number of Zoom meetings we must attend on a daily basis also calls for change. Zoom fatigue is very real, and keeping clients and colleagues engaged is an ongoing challenge.
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