If you look closely at your 2023 calendar, there are a lot of whimsical “national days” being celebrated this month from “National Bobblehead Day” (Jan. 7) to “National Rubber Ducky Day” (Jan. 13) to “National Fruitcake Toss Day” (Jan. 21).

While we can live in a (less fun!) world without bobbleheads and rubber ducky’s – and tossing your fruitcake sounds a bit dangerous if it’s hardened over the holidays – there is one day we are celebrating this month that we truly cannot live without: National Technology Day on Jan. 6.

Heck, in today’s office every day is “National Technology Day” as we work and live in a digital-first world, but the folks at Las Vegas-based tech company AXEL, coaxed the registrar at the National Calendar Day in 2016 to officially declare every Jan. 6, “National Technology Day.”

“National Technology Day on January 6th recognizes how technology changes the world and looks to the future of technology. Each year, from the wheel to smartphones, the day honors technological achievements that impact our daily lives,” says NationalDayCalendar.com.

Office Technology Steps Up During Pandemic

National Technology Day takes on an even more important role in the last three years considering the COVID-19 pandemic.

“If the pandemic taught us one thing, it’s that technology allows us to be connected, even when we can’t be physically present together,” said AXEL.

While technology was allowing medical and health professionals to identify the make-up of the coronavirus and rapidly develop vaccines, it was also playing a key role in getting life back on track with remote learning and work taking advantage of tech advances.

“Technological advances have made office communication digital and instantaneous, making the necessary transition to remote work during the pandemic relatively simple,” said AXEL.

For sure, words such as “Slack” and “Zoom”, which many employees were not familiar with before 2020 became household words and standard office tools. Both of those companies and the technology they harness for their products are not every 20 years old with Slack founded in 2009 and Zoom in 2012.

“From the wheel to the Commodore C64, to today’s smartphones, technology is constantly changing the world,” reported NBC television station WSLS 10.

The Evolving History of Office Technology

The evolving history of office technology can quickly make what is considered “high tech” today seem antiquated tomorrow.

Today’s digital natives, Gen Z, won’t even recognize technological advances that made the lives of older generations more productive and entertaining such as the SONY Walkman, floppy disks, pagers, transistor radios, and Rolodexes.

“How people work has evolved,” says the Library of Congress in its “History of the Office and Office Equipment: A Resourceful Guide”. “Technology made possible alternate arrangements like hoteling, telework, and shared workspaces.”

Among the office technology changes highlighted by the Library of Congress include:

• Typewriters and Computers: “The history of typewriters and computers is primarily thought of as a 19th and 20th-century story, but their history goes back in time and is intertwined with those machines and systems used to count or compute. The typewriter and later the computer had a profound impact on the everyday office.”
  
  
• Communications Equipment: “The ability to communicate with other businesses and consumers is an essential part of business.” Evolution in this area includes:

o   Telegraph

o   Telephone

o   Fax machine

o   Cell/smartphones

o   Internet

“With the advent of personal computers, computer networks, and e-mail, businesses were able to bring powerful computing to even more employees, and communication became more than just sending messages. Twenty-first-century video conference systems allowed people to hold meetings without even having to travel. Technology got smaller, though no less powerful. Cell phones, and then smartphones, became multifunctioning devices going beyond making/receiving calls and text messages, to accessing the internet and email accounts, and providing apps for video chat and even payment systems.”

• Photocopiers, Calculators, etc.: “There are many office gadgets and equipment both big and small.”
  
  
• Office Management and Administration: “New equipment brings with it new ways of working and new ways of managing offices. Technology in the second half of the 20th and early 21st century has made changes to the workplace happen even faster. While newer trends like hoteling and telework have a history, there are related emerging concepts and trends like coworking or coworking spaces. The rise of technology has also introduced new ways to work and introduced the concept of the digital nomad—those people aided by the use of new technology, who can work from anywhere in the world and are not tied to a physical office.”

In today’s office, unified communications and collaboration utilize VoIP, mobility, video conferencing, instant messaging, bring-your-own-device, and presence technologies to help employees work together seamlessly, no matter where they are physically located.

Emerging Business Tech Trends to Watch in 2023

The Forbes Business Development Council expert panel put together a list of eight emerging tech trends to watch in 2023.

“In the pandemic-shifted new normal, company leaders and their teams across the world are coming to terms with the necessity of digital transformation in business operations today,” said Forbes. “Whether employers are requiring that their staff members return to the office as soon as possible with hybrid opportunities in place or the company has already existed as a remote-only establishment long before the initial days of shelter-in-place guidelines, tools like conversational intelligence, for example, continue to be beneficial for workforce teams overall.”

The eight trends to watch, according to Forbes:

• Advanced 56 and 6G Connectivity: “Wireless speed and other connectivity technologies will accelerate the future of work.”
  
  
• Conversational Intelligence: Conversations from digital meetings and interactions can be analyzed to provide deeper understanding.
  
  
• Automated Contact Systems: “The ability to discern the need for automated contact versus personal contact and having both align to the goals of the company, is essential in business.”
  
  
• AI and Machine Learning Tools: Artificial intelligence and machine learning-powered tools are reshaping the way business is being conducted.
  
  
• Hybrid-Virtual Office Technology: “A return to the office is spurring wider adoption of hybrid-optimized video conference spaces and cloud productivity tools to enable collaboration and team building across time zones. Growing businesses should consider investing in physical and virtual office technology in the new normal era.”
  
  
• Predictive Analyzation Frameworks: Tech can help predict lifecycle, update, and upgrade needs, and finetune cost allocation for digital assets.
  
  
• Hybrid Networking Events: Look for in-person and online networking events in the future.
  
  
• Metaverse Blockchain: The course of the Metaverse is uncharted but the path appears powered by blockchain-based startups.