as inperson experiences such as shopping and going out to eat were halted for a significant amount of time during the pandemic small businesses had to find ways to survive we were gearing up to offer wine tastings cocktail making and cooking classes in peoples homes but when the pandemic hit it upended our entire business model and plans michael wolkon cofounder of night inn told abc news so then we started in june of 2020 offering virtual wine tastings to individual groups at home as well as corporate clients who wanted to do virtual happy hours across the entire country night inn founded by wolkon rena ogura and ryan lane also turned these virtual tastings into a way to give back to an industry that was so badly hit by the pandemic by hiring bartenders and sommeliers who were laid off more these young americans created apps to help address mental health crisis among peers theyre really excited about this opportunity to completely work on their own time and make an additional income stream wolkon said people dine in plastic tents for social distancing at a restaurant in manhattan on october 15 2020 in new york city angela weissafp via getty images file more importantly they found that their virtual experiences were giving people the togetherness they longed for as they were separated for months we love the idea and the feeling of community that you can have just by being in a private space with the people you care about ogura said what the online model demonstrated to us and what weve heard from our guests is that this has been one of the very few ways in which theyve felt truly connected and truly together with their families we have our professional from california talking to people in new york lane added and that family in new york has cousins out in denver and it brings everyone together just from one sitting it was one of the hidden gems from virtual that we discovered night inn continues to help industry professionals like restaurateurs bartenders and sommeliers as they plan to expand to inperson tastings and experiences with a covid19 protocol set in place more a complete collapse of preventive health how indias 2nd covid wave exploded jeanette mulvey editorinchief of co a publication by the us chamber of commerce said she has seen this trend happen over time with online and ecommerce sites the pandemic has allowed many small businesses to shift from localonly to serving a national audience ive seen this over and over again where businesses out of necessity moved to ecommerce and grew a national customer base mulvey told abc news stock photogetty images eliza blank founder and ceo of the sill a plant delivery business that also offers educational workshops never expected something like the pandemic to happen she knew adjustments needed to be made from how she initially founded the business in 2012 she said and felt she needed to