Resilience, Resilience, Resilience

 

I have been running SJ Events for the last 15 years, and this is quite simply the hardest time of my career. But the priority at this time is undoubtedly people’s health and ensuring that we follow government guidelines to limit the transmission of the virus.

As a company, we entered 2020 with our strongest pipeline of events ever, but the onset of Covid-19 has unavoidably changed people’s plans. We are currently working hard with our industry contacts and suppliers to support our clients in navigating the disruption this is causing to their planned events programme.

For us as a business, the focus is on being here for our clients, really understanding their moving business objectives and seeing how we can help to deliver them. The core principle of SJ Events is to help businesses and people engage, and now more than ever, continuing to engage is vital, both on a business and a personal level.

We have continued to engage but in a slightly different way, through virtual chats and cuppas with our clients and suppliers. It has been enjoyable and heartening to catch up, share concerns and just simply chat through daily issues. At a time like this, support is so valuable and I am really pleased that the level of interaction we have seen across the team reflects the strength of relationships that we have built up over the years, allowing people to reach out to us.

Something that has really impressed me during this time is the resilience of my team.

These are tough, uncertain times for everyone working in the events industry, but the positive spirit and the care the team has shown for each other and their well-being has been really heart-warming.

When you put a team together, you always hope that as well as performing effectively, they can become a support mechanism for each other. The latter has been visibly demonstrated over the last couple of weeks.

Whilst we are working remotely and the dynamic of how we interact has changed, the team spirit and, I am pleased to say, our sense of fun remains strong.

These are tough times, but tough times really can bring out the best in people. For me, resilience is key. The important focus has to be on people’s health and well-being. And sticking together, being available and keeping in touch with each other will help us all to get through this.

And, when this is all over and we get back to “normality”, we must keep this sense of community going. I love the events industry and I thrive on delivering fantastic events and experiences. My team and I  will be back to doing this soon, and we will do it with a massive smile on our faces.

Finally, I just want to remind you all that we are here to talk whenever you need us.

Take care and stay safe.

Sam.