Joel Berwitz

What has been your personal highlight of 2020?

It's definitely our rebrand to boxxe - both within our own organisation and externally. The impact has been extremely positive. Our mission to ‘Make Technology Human' is so appropriate for today's world.

Which three celebrities would you invite to a Zoom party?

Elon Musk, because he's a bit nuts but we'd have a good chat about technology. Harry Redknapp, because I'm a Bournemouth (and general massive football) fan. Finally Boris - so I could explain to him what clarity means.

What has been your guiltiest lockdown pleasure

If you asked my wife she would definitely say that one person couldn't watch as many football matches per week as I did, alongside eating as many chocolate digestive biscuits.

Which tech figurehead has inspired you most this year, and why?

There are some great COVID-related channel stories this year, but if I had to choose more generally then the Snowflake IPO (valuing the firm at around $70bn for an organisation with a turnover of $260m last year) is a pretty inspirational story from its leaders.

What piece of technology, or app, have you not been able to do without during the pandemic?

This might be a very standard answer, but I've spent hours, days and weeks in front of Microsoft Teams. I could do without it - but at the same time I'd be pretty unproductive.

If you could be anyone else for a week, who would you be and what would you do?

A pilot, because I'd love to take myself on holiday!

Do you miss face-to-face events?

If you'd asked me that a few months ago I would have said no, but as time passes I think that answer might be changing. Maybe I'd like to go to fewer than I did pre-COVID, but there is value in the face-to-face and social aspects.

How will COVID leave its mark on the way the channel operates long term?

Digital. If the channel doesn't embrace its own digital transformation, it will fall behind to the ones that do.