Is it just me, or has the business world fallen out of love with events? Is the inexorable rise of building online relationships in the virtual world snuffling out our innate need for real life human interaction? Or is it just the pace that we live at, or our credit crunch mentality, where to spend nothing is definitely better than to spend something well? I don’t have the answer to these questions, however, what I do know is that as a design and marketing consultancy we are constantly challenged by our clients to achieve maximum impact with minimum spend whenever they are looking to create and develop meaningful relationships with their publics.
And so to one of our clients, the Wates Group, who earlier this month wanted to launch a new business; Wates YourSpace – a specialist interior fit out company aimed at smaller sized projects in the private and public sectors. The question to DUO was HOW to communicate the message on a tight budget and within an even tighter timescale. With a corporate brand proposition of ‘Above all, it’s about people’, real people contact had to lead the promotions and so a drinks reception at the very business like, yet younger, funkier IoD Hub on New Broad Street, London EC2 was the focus for the launch. The event was supported by an fantastic showcase of Wates YourSpace’s work in the form of a contemporary brochure, display panels and AV. It was great fun; a cellist played, guests arrived and connected over a glass of wine and canape or two, the Wates team thrived on the energy in the room and many new horizons were talked about and imagined.
Why am I writing about this rather ordinary, 2-hour event that took place on 13 May 2009? Well as an advocate of real human interaction being infinitely better than all that virtual stuff, and recognising that actually what we all seek is to attract energy to ourselves and our businesses it’s time to get back to getting together a bit more often. Energy is infectious. It builds people up and makes them feel that they can achieve even more. Its the fuel for ideas, creativity, progress. And its something that is still a little illusive to even the best web designers. So for me, events and occasions to generate some positive energy is just what we need more of!
Viv Middlebrook, Client Services Director
