Team of the Year entrant – Inspired Film and Video’s live event production crew
A trio who helped their company not just survive but to thrive during the pandemic have been nominated as a Team of the Year in the Staffordshire University Business Awards.
The live event production crew at Inspired Film and Video have been put forward for the accolade by Michael McDonald, the company’s Business Development Director.
He said the team, comprising Severin Gammon, Jordan Mountford and Matt Hackney, have been integral to the success of the business over the past few years.
Live event coverage usually makes up around 35% of Inspired Film and Video’s turnover but when the national lockdown was announced in March 2020 they immediately had £75,000 of work cancelled.
Michael said: “We travel the country and sometimes even further afield providing coverage of conferences, award ceremonies, sporting events, management meetings, product launches and graduation ceremonies. We have worked at football stadiums, museums, conference centres, hotels and even the Eiffel Tower.
| “Lockdown could have easily been the end of our business but we have innovated and adapted our services and working practices to match the changing needs of the market and the changing regulations and travel restrictions.”
The company launched a virtual events platform from scratch, ran tv studio style livestream events, hybrid events and managed fully remote management get togethers. “Our development in this area has not only maintained our business but actually led to our best results in terms of turnover and profit,” said Michael. “None of this would have been possible without our amazing team.” “They have had to learn new skills to constantly adapt to the challenges we have faced including lockdowns, social distancing, ever evolving technology and most recently even travel disruption.” The live event production team currently consists of three Staffordshire University alumni who graduated between 2012 and 2021. Michael said: “Events work is always tough, long days, lots of travel and tight deadlines but on top of the normal stresses and strains our team has risen to all the additional challenges thrown at them. “They have developed a culture of constant learning and evolution, adapting to new technologies as they are launched and having to learn them with little time and little or no training resources. “They have a positive attitude to change and have calmly managed changing practices due to restrictions, travel issues or last minute changes.” Severin leads the team and mentors Jordan and Matt who are both in their first professional media roles. Michael said: “He has taken great pride in their growth. They have quickly become invaluable to the team with a fantastic skillset and increasing situational awareness, professionalism and confidence. “Jordan has progressed from never having been to London when he first started with us to managing a shoot in Madrid on his own. “Even through these difficult times the team have also continued to give work experience opportunities to the Staffordshire University Film students on the live events. The team are always keen to share their knowledge and experience with those just starting their journey into the industry.” He added: “Our service is now better, offers more options to the customers, makes us as a business more robust and more profitable. We could not be prouder of our team.” |