In addition to wearing face masks, avoiding crowds, and developing closer bonds with their families than they ever imagined, millions of working people have been subjected to video calls and other online applications to keep communications flowing and businesses thriving during the crisis. While this option is arguably better than no communication at all, the novelty quickly seems to have worn thin for many.

The Solution

Bring in some farm animals. Sweet Farm, an animal sanctuary in Silicon Valley, came up with an idea to bring a little fun to video conferencing while offsetting the losses they’ve suffered since the Coronavirus lockdown. For anywhere between $65 and $250, you can request a cameo appearance in your business video chat from Sweet Farm’s llamas, goats, sheep, pigs, cows, and turkeys. The project, dubbed Goat 2 Meeting after the popular conferencing software program, allows people to bring farm animals into their online happy hours and company conference calls.

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For $65, you receive a 20-minute virtual tour of the farm for up to six video call participants. For a meeting with more participants, you get a 10-minute animal cameo for $100. A 25-minute virtual tour of Sweet Farm for a large group costs $250.

Sweet Farm co-founder Anna Sweet told Business Insider that since launching Goat 2 Meeting last month, she’s completed more than 300 requests for animal cameos and virtual field trips for clients from all kinds of companies, from Fortune 500 brands to brand new tech startups. She noted that one law firm even brought their kids along to take a virtual tour of the farm and meet the animals.

Sweet Farm’s Story

Sweet Farm is a groundbreaking non-profit animal refuge dedicated to alleviating the devastating impact of factory farming on animals, plants, and the planet at large. They recognize that the global food web is exceptionally complex, and that it’s not possible for us to progress without first recognizing how all its parts are connected. By creating links between vegan agriculture practices, farm animal rescue, and proper education and training, Sweet Farm is reinventing the parameters of the term “sanctuary.”

Sweet, who also works in the Silicon Valley tech world, co-founded Sweet Farm as a non-profit animal rescue and sanctuary intended to “connect people to where their food comes from.” For that reason, the sanctuary also provides free virtual field trips to schools and other non-profit groups. Schools in the United Kingdom and Brazil have already taken their students on some of these virtual tours, and there’s another one planned soon for a homeless shelter in North Carolina.

“I think we’re all a little stressed with what’s going on — many of us have been sitting inside,” Sweet recently told Business Insider. “We’re just hoping to bring some smiles to people’s faces while bringing them out to the farm at the same time.”

The post Need a Star for Your Next Corporate Zoom Call? This Company Lets You Hire a Remote Goat or Llama first appeared on Dornob.