Print.IT Reseller - issue 87

PRINTITRESELLER.UK 39 AFTER PARTY It happened. Finally. After several attempts to hold the long awaited PrintIT Awards 2020 After Party, we finally got together at The Sway Club in London on Thursday September 2 A night to remember The fabulous Tom Allen put on a fantastic and entertaining show, and we provided some amazing hampers, but that said, we knew it wouldn’t totally make up for missing out on a do. I know I’m not alone in having missed the social side of work and instead relying on Teams and Zoom to meet people – and don’t get me started on the topic of having to deal with the ‘you’re on mute’, or ‘we can’t see you’ routine day after day! That’s why we planned the After Party and after a couple of date changes we finally all got together on September 2. After so long spent apart, it was incredible to get together – and we definitely made sure it was a night to remember! Over the past eighteen or so months, we have all found ourselves working through the most challenging and unpredictable period in our lives. From our perspective, running the inaugural PrintIT Awards in the midst of a pandemic was interesting to say the least… but like so many of the businesses in this industry, we too had to pivot to keep things moving. So, as COVID-19 meant last years’ black tie do wasn’t able to take place as planned, we pulled out all the stops, and used every bit of technology in our arsenal to broadcast the awards event and announce the 2020 worthy winners on February 11. Phil Jones, Managing Director, Brother UK “Big thanks to the whole team at Kingswood Media for hosting (finally) the PrintIT Awards After Party. It was terrific to see so many industry colleagues there and also be able to share a few words of encouragement to those in the room as the inaugural recipient of the Industry Leader of the Year award. “Taking inspiration from the Ian Dury and the Blockheads 1979 song entitled: “Reasons to be Cheerful, Part 3” three things that came to mind were: 1) to acknowledge the PrintIT Awards for putting on a superb virtual event in 2020 at a time we all needed a lift. 2) To see the huge opportunity of so much change in the world of work for the whole technology industry (products, services and people). And 3) To be in the room together having a shared experience as people!” “Thank you for hosting what turned out to be a really good night, it’s been a long time since I think any of us have had a night like that. It was great to catch up with quite a few people I haven’t seen for years and some people I have only ever video called – you really can’t beat face to face discussions. Roll on December for what will hopefully be a great night, you have set the bar high though!” Kelvin Paterson, Head of Supplies, Ingram Micro continued... Ethan White, Kingswood Media