In September 2022, some of the Hale Events team were delighted to attend the Taste of the West Awards ceremony, the first since 2019, at the Great Hall, Exeter University.
It was lovely to reconnect with colleagues that we hadn’t seen face to face for more than two years, and we all enjoyed the most amazing canapés and lunch, all created by the university’s talented chefs, using superb ingredients from the South West.
However we were amazed, and surprised, by how many faces we didn’t know! We’ve been working closely with Taste of the West for more than 15 years and thought we knew their members. During the pandemic we honestly thought we’d done a great job staying in touch with our market. We had been busy throughout, emailing and making customer service calls and continuing to build our database. But the amount of change we have all seen in the last 2 years meant that there were a great many new faces and businesses, many of which had been set up during lockdown. It was fantastic, and we achieved so much in such a short time! We met new people, found out who had moved where, and re-enforced existing relationships.
OK, so we’re biased! We’re event organisers, and our income relies on getting together, so it’s no surprise that we believe that trade events like this are the best way to do things. It’s even our strapline – ‘Business to Business, Face to Face‘! However there were times during lockdown when we genuinely thought we’d see a significant shift to online events, and yet more disruption to our industry. So it was very reassuring to see that, while online sales were clearly a lifeline for many businesses, the only way to really connect meaningfully is still face to face!
Human beings are, by nature, social creatures, and it’s amazing for morale to look your colleagues in the eyes and connect properly in person. Some things you just can’t do online!
PS: Here are all the very proud 2022 Taste of the West Award winners – as you can see it was hard to get them all in one shot!
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