SAN FRANCISCO — A US study from Bospar finds the number one reason people are worried about contracting COVID-19, or coronavirus, is that they work in an open office. That was the fear of 50.6% of respondents. In fact, a majority of Americans, 52.9%, think open offices will lead to an uptick of the coronavirus infection and 41% of them think their open office will be a hotbed of infection. A majority of respondents, 51.4%, think that viruses like COVID-19 and the flu will lead to more companies adopting virtual offices, but only 37.7% believe that viruses like the coronavirus and the flu will lead to open offices going away. 

NEW YORK — The PR Council has launched an initiative called Close the Say Gap, through which the PRC and its member agencies have set a goal to collectively train at least 5,000 women as spokespersons for conferences, events and media interviews. The PRC’s member agencies will champion the initiative in a number of ways including: talking about the program internally and on social media; providing female business and community leaders at least one free media and presentation training; identifying one new female spokesperson within the agency and getting her on stage and in media at least two times this year; participating in panels with equal gender representation; and working with clients on other solutions, including auditing client organizations to ensure they have diverse SMEs, training the identified women and developing thought-leadership campaigns for new female SMEs.

NEW YORK — The Dentsu Aegis Network has launch a global initiative called Female Foundry that aims to create a diverse and inclusive digital economy by helping female entrepreneurs. Female Foundry is kicking off in Chicago with a three-day boot camp with 15 slots opened for Chicago-based female businesses and is accepting applications here. So far the program has upskilled 71 businesses around the world, with the goal of getting to 100 female entrepreneurs by end of year.