In the midst of circuit breaker measures against the spread of Covid-19, Singapore companies are having to find ways to conduct their business online.
In an interview with todayonline.com, 30-year-old co-founder of Boom Singapore, Ms Victoria Martin–Tay, shared that her company’s original plan was to create a paid portal for members to join and have continuous access to their site. But in the end, they decided to make certain portions of it free via Instagram.
Ms Martin–Tay said: “The situation is so grim and people seem so down, the least we can do to contribute to the wider community is to make them free. We hope it can bring some cheer to them, and give them something healthy to do.”
Now Boom Singapore can be accessed by anyone, and they will be privy to 6 new workout programmes uploaded via Instagram each week. However, a few of its programmes are kept exclusive for members.
Another company, Haus Athletics, has also started sharing its classes via Zoom video. Although the difference between Boom Singapore and Haus Athletics is that you have to pay for all the classes with the latter, the fee is quite minimal, almost half the price of its usual in-studio classes. To join will cost you S$10 to S$12 for HIT or high-intensity training, strength and core classes that take place at least three times a week.
The director of the company, 31-year-old Reagan Kang, said: “Our members will book the Zoom class through our website and this ensures they have a spot with their preferred instructor.” He also shared that most of the exercises can be done without too much equipment as well.
And it is not all about exercise either. Another enterprise that is going to put up its first virtual wine-tasting session online by April 18 is winemaker Steven Raidis. The owner of Raidis Estate in Coonawarra, South Australia, will have an interactive online class which allows the audience to do a live tour of the vineyard and winery.
The winery’s managing director and co-founder of The Wine & Gourmet Friends restaurant, Mr William Seah, said: “Coonawarra has this very unique special soil called terra rossa, which is very rich in iron, that allows the wine to display expressive notes of the dark fruits, plus some minty notes which will be explained during the session.”
This also gives them the perfect opportunity to start their online portal about wine and all things related to wine, which they hope to launch in about two years. Mr Seah said: “Because of Covid-19 and everyone being at home, we figured we’d trial it now and have our first session on Zoom.”
Adults are not the only ones who can take online classes during the circuit breaker. The School of Music, Art, Drama & Dance, MADDspace, is also holding classes online these days. In fact, 12-year-old Ho Mei Xuan has been able to continue her vocal lessons from home, never even missing a lesson.
She said: “The only difference is that online singing lessons require us to be more independent. For example, when we do warm-ups and singing exercises, we need to be trusted to do our warm-ups properly.”
She added: “For singing lessons, there are many areas like breathing techniques that might need to be corrected which are harder for the teacher to correct online. For group lessons, it is also harder to practise harmonisation as we cannot sing at the exact same time.”
Singing is not the only type of class that children and teenagers can take. The dance company, Converge Studios, has gone online with its dance tutorials. Mr Nash Tan, the 34-year-old managing director and co-founder of the business, said: “Home audiences can view our catalogue, preview the trailers, and rent our dance class videos for a small fee of S$3.60 each for 72 hours. This is a good opportunity for people to give dance classes a try, especially if they have been afraid to do so physically in person.”
He added: “Our dance instructors have been advised to choreograph the dance pieces to suit the available space within a living room or bedroom. They have also been told to be extra detailed, since home audiences are unable to ask questions and clarify, unlike in a normal dance class.” /TISG