Where on Earth have we been?

We’re aware that we’ve been very quiet on our social media in the past weeks – but no fear, we are still here and as busy as ever!    

I thought I would provide an update on what we’ve been up to in these most strange of times.

Lockdown for team DRIVE started with such sadness; we lost family, we lost friends and we lost colleagues. Like offices up and down the country, we’ve relocated the team to homeworking and spend a lot of time on Zoom or Teams calls.  We’ve not had cocktails in London for months – and we’re even missing the HighSpeed train and our legendary train picnics. The world of events has been turned on its head and we’ve had to work closely with clients and venues to rethink an entire year’s calendar.

Courtney recently wrote about the number of events she and the team have put on – a fabulous 48 online events in 26 weeks, attended by over 1,200 guests; this is no mean feat and I couldn’t be more proud of how we’ve managed to adapt and deliver quiz nights, roadshows and seminars to and for our clients.  October is always a big month for us – and this year it is bigger than ever as we take a one-day conference and turn it into a series of daily events and seminars held over the course of a week. 

Like so many businesses and services, some of our clients have faced struggles, and we continue to do all we can to help them through the challenges with marketing, digital and strategic support. On the other hand, some, especially those which offer an online product or service, have thrived, and it’s been rewarding to witness and celebrate our part in these successes in amongst the gloom.

At DRIVE, we’ve always been passionate about helping and working with charities and not-for-profits. Throughout the pandemic, we’ve been working closely with a local support hub to help spread the word of the essential services they provide to the elderly and vulnerable, and it is heart-warming to see how the community has rallied round to help those in need.

We keep in touch regularly with our clients via online meetings and calls (though it’s been tough seeing our Spanish clients basking in sunshine throughout) and we’ve managed face-to-face meetings with some.  Our team meets online daily for our production meetings and in person weekly. We’ve always worked collaboratively, and not being together to work through ideas, campaigns and projects has been tough.  Still, when we do get together, it’s a great excuse for biscuits, cake and perhaps a sneaky sun-downer – ever the event team, we can’t help but make an occasion of it!

We’re also pleased to have been taken on by a number of new clients – mostly through existing client recommendations – and we’re excited to be working on some new projects for Q4 and into 2021.  Watch this space!

As the nights draw in, the weather gets chillier and the COVID situation continues, we are grateful for the support of each other, of our fabulous clients whose perseverance, resilience and cheeriness-in-the-face-of -it-all inspires us to work as hard as we possibly can for them.

Oh - and we also found some time to design ourselves a cheeky new logo…! Let us know what you think!