It’s fair to say COVID-19 significantly changed our lives and the way we go about our daily business. With working from home the new du jour Zoom, in particular, has become a go-to for many for hosting meetings or even ‘attending’ events.

Zoom’s impact was such that the Faculty of Medicine and Health decided to run a special competition in its honour: Name the collective noun for a series of Zoom meetings.

The competition attracted more interest than anticipated with the organisers dramatically under-estimating the number of entries they would receive. They therefore arbitrary separated the entries into two categories. The first category, Descriptors using the word Zoom, had 35 separate submissions, with some effectively identical nominations combined. Final voting saw 62 respondents with the top 10, in reverse order, being:

10 – Zoomberg
9 – Zoomania
8 – Zoomitis
7 – ZoomFest
6 – Zoombies
5 – Zoomnani
4 – Zoomerous
3 – Zoomdemic
2 – Zoomathon

The winner, with 26 votes, was ZOOMAGEDDON, submitted by Karen Hazell Raine from the School of Health

The second category, for the Best collective noun to describe a series of Zoom meetings, attracted 32 separate entries. The top 10, again in reverse order, were:

10 – A depression of Zooms
9 – A looming of Zooms
8 – A gauntlet of Zooms
7 – A cascade of Zooms
6 – A cluster of Zooms
5 – A Mazda of Zooms
4 – A pandemic of Zooms
3 – An outbreak of Zooms
2 – A gloom of Zooms

The winner of the second category, with 23 votes was… A BOOM OF ZOOMS!, submitted by Sam Bugden from the Faculty Learning Design team.

The organisers wish to thank everyone for having a bit of fun with this competition and will try to work out a suitable prize for the two winners, Karen and Sam.