HOW AS AN EVENTS START-UP WE NAVIGATED AND SURVIVED THE PANDEMIC
As lockdown 3.0 has begun, and a New Year is upon us, we at The Big Smoke Events have taken the time to reflect on what went right in 2020.
Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock - (sometimes we wish we had) - you’ll know that last March the coronavirus pandemic turned the world upside down and the events industry was forced to adopt a virtual model basically overnight. As an events start-up whose only product was in-personmass participation scavenger hunts, pivoting our business model towards virtual events has been both a challenge and a necessity. Yet for our company early moves to diversify our offerings to virtual and remote-friendly team activities have not only cushioned the fall, but paved the way for new virtual opportunities. We are proud to say that December 2020 somehow managed to be our biggest month of all time, and while there is a very long way to go in terms of recovery and the impact we saw earlier in the year, I think we can officially say we have survived!
When reflecting on how as an events business we have managed this, we believe our strength lay in the fact that we promptly adapted to a new normal, offering engaging, interactive and fun events that were palatable to the new virtual user customer. Pivoting a business without losing its core values is essential to the success of a company, especially when it’s still a start-up and can open the doors to new exciting opportunities that will add value to any existing model.
So what are our top 5 Big Smoke highlights for 2020:
We started with 1 product, and now have 7 (with 1 more incredibly exciting one coming in imminently)
In 2019 we ran events in 2 core cities but in 2020 we ran events across over 20 different countries
We now have our Scavenger Hunt written in 5 languages (it had only been in English before)
We have a new and blossoming partnership with @Ping Pong Fight Club
We raised over £2k for @Mind charity from self-run fundraising events
We have seen virtual as an opportunity, we have seen our new events connect global teams, drive innovation, create a really focussed and captive audience, and bring joy and laughter to people when they have most needed it this year.
The new role of digital platforms in our lives means a virtual component will be a must-have in the new events landscape and one we must make our own, even with a renewed desire to connect physically. Humans will forever be social creatures! There will always be a need for events be it virtual or in-person and we will be there to run them for you!
Finally we would like to thank our amazing and loyal customers. We would not have survived this year without you and can’t thank you enough for the bookings, repeat bookings, feedback and reviews. We look forward to seeing you all soon, and if you haven’t tried one of our events do check out our promo video below and see what we are up to!