We have noticed a lot of organisations in the business networking space celebrating the fact that they have started to host ‘in-person’ events again during the Summer – after a fourteen- month absence.
It is great to see a slow but sure return to ‘normality’ – but as Downtown members know, the ‘business club with attitude’ has hosted literally dozens of ‘live’ events throughout the Pandemic.
Each time there was an easing of restrictions and new guidelines announced, DIB would study them carefully, and then work out ways in which we could, safely, securely, and within the rules, get people back into the room face-to-face.
Because, for all the raving about virtual events, the absolute fact is that people would much rather be in the room than on a Zoom.
So, not only did Downtown in Business host a whole range of exclusive invitation only lunches with personalities such as the Leader of Manchester City Council Sir Richard Leese, the Chief Executives of Manchester, Leeds, and Liverpool City Councils’ Joanne Roney, Tom Riordan, and Tony Reeves, the Shadow Labour Minister Jess Phillips MP, football pundit and entrepreneur Gary Neville, London Deputy Mayor Jules Pipe, and the political giant Lord Michael Heseltine, but we also hosted TWO ‘live’ awards events – The ‘Livercool’ awards back in December, the only in-person awards event to happen in the UK in 2020 following the first lockdown in March last year, and the City of Birmingham Business Awards at the Grand Hotel a couple of months ago.
In all we actually hosted an incredible 40 plus ‘in-person’ events whilst many others were still screaming at their laptops ‘You’re on Mute’.
Of course, we also took advantage of the new communication platforms that we have all become used to over the past eighteen months. Again, we were the first to launch a series of on-line events through the ‘Downtown Den’ which we established in April 2020. Over 150 DIB Zoom events have taken place since.
So, given our impressive track record during the most challenging of times, can you imagine how outstanding our events offer is going to be this Autumn and beyond, as we see (fingers crossed) further relaxation of the restrictions that have been in place for far too long?
Among a list of amazing upcoming Downtown events is the National Planning, Property, and Regeneration conference at the Belfry, the City of Manchester Business Awards, the Downtown Parliamentary Reception in Westminster, and the https://downtowninbusiness.com/city-of-liverpool-business-awards-2021/City of Liverpool Business Awards.
For details of our extensive Autumn events programme please visit https://downtowninbusiness.com/events/.
We’d like to say ‘Welcome Back’ – but if you’re a Downtown member, the fact is you’ve never really been away.
