The End of Events? Not for everyone!
Johnny Palmer
Activist and founder of projects including PYTCH, Luna Domes, Box7, SolCell, DB Cooper Whisky and extensive properties. Owner of an island and private jet. Activism campaigning for access to clean wild swimming spots.
The UK events sector has been sent to the grave. Since last week there has been a flood of stories of disaster, collapse, insolvency and bankruptcy for events companies and events professionals.
"Our industry has been outlawed"
"But I did nothing wrong and am losing everything"
"Without help they are destroying us"
These are the kind of remarks being made all over social media and in national press from people in the UK events sector.
But one team in Bristol is doing the opposite and are flourishing in these times, disrupting the market and showing that complaining and adopting a victim-mentality does not help.
"It was clear back in Feb(ruary) that live events were stopping for the foreseeable future" says Pytch founder Johnny Palmer. "Many of my contemporaries were saying that everything will be back to normal in September. I know this was unlikely, so this formed our "plan D". Some even made conscious decisions to do nothing as they believed they could increase their prices! Those ones are now going out of business"
Pytch is one of those companies that moves fast, is not afraid to try new things and upsets the stalwarts of their industry. They are more akin to a silicon valley tech company than the small cottage-industry business that is common.
"So when Covid hit the team and I asked "how can this play out, how can we serve others and what is going to grow?” It was immediately apparent we had to reposition our resources and reskill."
So what did the Pytch team do?
"We hit multiple projects hard! We setup new businesses, pivoted our core business and we have taken our clients and staff long the ride with us!" Johnny is loud, direct and enthusiastic.
But there is a sad side to this story, one where many people are having a terrible time, "I know a lot of people are hurting now and I work hard to develop my empathy for them. But sometimes hard and fast action is what is needed to save jobs, save companies, and come out on top. What I am doing is a lot of coaching and mentoring - I am volunteering my time to do one to one sessions with both young people struggling with their careers or fellow business people that want to chat. I'm not the most sympathetic person, but I'm damn good at firing people up and helping them make a plan!"
Johnny and has team did the following
Built a software platform for streaming live events. "At the start of lockdown we had a load of people on furlough. While they couldnt do work for Pytch in that time, there was nothing stopping them setting up their own company. So me and a bunch of the team founded a new company which we are all co-founders and shareholders of and built the best events streaming platform. This is now live and delivering live events to thousands of people around the world - not bad in four months!" The platform is called Intelligo (www.intelligo.uk)
Build three TV studios. "We had a lot of high value clients on multi-year retainer deals that needed to share messages and create experiences. We deliver to our clients no matter what so to do this we had to build TV studios to turn their events into tv shows. We now have two studios in Bristol and one in London".
Developed a renewable power system. "We have been at this for a while, but lockdown gave us the chance to develop it further. SolCell is changing the way people get power at events. Batteries, bikes and solar panels can now deliver power to events with zero carbon emissions and zero fossil fuels." www.solcell.net
Launched a staycation business. "Outside of Pytch I launched a geodesic dome hotel with my good friend Dan Kenney. This is now live and bookings are great" https://www.eutierriadomes.com/
Sustainability Activisim. Founded in 2018 Pytch supported Palmer’s “Warleigh Weir Project” which purchased an island to plant trees to offset carbon. “Lockdown has been great for activism.” Palmer goes on to say “People have been more receptive than ever, and more engaged with using the wonderful outdoors we have around us. This allowed me and a team of fellow activists to start to deal with river pollution issues. We setup Sewage Free Swimmers which has been a contributing factor in the massive national shift in attitude towards river quality. I’m super proud of this!”
What's the message here? Things are not all bad. With the right attitude, a bit of courage and a passion for a positive future we can all get through this and come out on top.
This is an era of personal responsibility and a new wave of future-focussed entrepreneurship is shining through. It is also a time when business people can do more than ever to make the world a better place
More info:
Interviews
Johnny Palmer on 07970 430 089 or [email protected]
Pytch Website
Pytch Youtube channel
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2XetC1TV3HdTWtUkQp-EBg?view_as=subscriber
Tour of the Pytch Virtual Venue
Warleigh Weir project
Johnny’s Linkedin Profile
https://www.dhirubhai.net/in/johnnypalmersxsevents/
Pictures of Johnny
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1plYhsbiNRYi_zIM9oAjKChnHUHNcj407?usp=sharing
Sewage Free Swimmers
https://sewagefreeswimmers.co.uk/
SolCell
Eutierria Domes
Director at PNA Training | Inspiring growth | Unlocking potential
1 年Thanks Johnny