Well, what an extraordinary month it’s been – a month ago the buzz and excitement around the Stream office was really quite something else. We had a suite of new impressive marketing material, new ideas to pitch to clients and the team seem to have really stepped it up a notch. We were living slightly naively to tell you the truth – the C word was a crisis happening the other side of the world and we were all still going about our daily lives as we normally would.

The world has quite literally changed in the space of 1 month.

From a team full of grand plans for 2020, like many companies across the UK and worldwide, there is now a sense of survival mode. In just the past few weeks we have seen our team work tirelessly to move most of our incentive business into 2021, large scale projects cancelled or postponed and in recent days a large number of businesses furloughing their staff and closing the doors. To say we are in unprecedented times really does feel like an understatement.

But in this new world we find ourselves in, there is hope and a team spirit beyond anything I could have expected.

Indeed Stream like many find themselves reassessing and trying to predict the outcome of this new future – but, with every crisis comes opportunity and we are starting to see a few encouraging glimmers of opportunity out there. From an online event app, replacement rewards-based incentives to customer hubs, Stream are looking at ways in which we can support our clients and keep them connected with their customers as we start to rise out of the lockdown and the restrictions start to relax.

Stream are determined to be one of the survivors of this crisis and to support our clients in any way that we can. The team are using the unusually quiet time to proactively scope ideas, develop new skills and be ready to be fast-paced in supporting our clients when projects come back online. We appreciate that many of our clients are experiencing difficulty during this pandemic and are having to make difficult decisions such as furloughing staff. We are offering our support during these tough times by providing additional account management or content support for new developments free of charge.

Mark, Mel and I are very proud of the team we have – their resistance and team work when faced with uncertainty and turbulence has gone far beyond anything that we could ever have imagined, their commitment and work is a true credit to themselves and their values – for that I truly thank them. We have had a flexible working and remote working policy for years, but the reality is that we are a social team and enjoy working together. So what happens to a team with such a strong bond in the office when they are forced to work remotely…that bond appears to grow stronger.

With a young social team it is difficult not to worry about their wellbeing – it’s one thing having the option to work remotely but its very different being told you have to. So what are Stream doing in this new world?

All office activities and meetings are still happening digitally, this means that our Monday morning stand up, Hot Chocolate Wednesdays and daily scrums are still happening amongst the teams on Microsoft teams. What about the highlight of the week for most the team, Friday Beers – they are still happening, now over Teams rather than face to face and with added games and quizzes. Personally last weeks Friday Beers really lifted me after a challenging week and reminded me how much I love working with this fantastic team of people. We have also instigated a coffee break on Tuesdays and Thursdays – 15 minutes to connect with the team and chat to those that perhaps you are finding you no longer talk to now that you are not 6 feet away from them in the office.

Yesterday, we celebrated Stream’s 11th Birthday – a little different to the prosecco and cake at 9am from the year before! A heart felt thank you to all our clients and employees past and present for their support and business over those 11 years as without them we would not be stood here today, facing this crisis with optimism and belief.

So, let’s hope that the months ahead are not too hard – they will certainly be very different…..but they will be different for everyone globally and we know that Stream do not stand alone here.

Stay safe– and keep in contact – onwards and upwards!!