With an ear to the ground and an eye to the future - Contrast turns 30

I rubbed my eyes that December morning, the day after our 29th year in business. We were heading towards 30 years in business and that thought, it felt almost unreal. I got up, had my first cup of coffee and absentmindedly plopped down on the kitchen chair. Looking out at the winter landscape outside, my thoughts rolled back in time... to how it started and what we've learned since then...

I remember when the papers from the Patent and Registration Office arrived, announcing that our company had been registered and given an organization number. How little we knew then, I thought. About entrepreneurship in general and about everything we have since had the privilege of experiencing.

We started at a time when the term event wasn't even coined as an industry, let alone brand experience or relationship marketing. We were happy event makers and conference organizers in a time where the internet and email were not a given. 

We wanted to give companies an alternative to meeting in the pub by offering adventure and experiences. Companies had become interested in organizational theory, and research showed that a good working environment contributed to development. 

The concept of team buildingbecame big. Customer relationships were built around a campfire, in an old castle ruin or at a football match at Camp Nou. The bigger the contrast (hehe!) from everyday life, the better. 

1994 was the year when business leaders started acquiring email addresses and web agencies were formed. Back then, few had the knowledge and the right networks to carry out event-related projects. Access to information became part of our USP. We also had the courage to think out of the box and venture out with ideas and concepts that were completely untested. Customers cheered.

Little did we know then about the crises that would later challenge us. And what they would mean:

🎈 The IT bubble that burst.
In 2000, the inflated investment zeal in IT start-ups ran out of steam. From having sprinkled money, all companies were now holding tight to their wallets. We were forced to scale down from the big spenders of the happy 90s to something almost ascetic. The benefit of this was that meetings and events now became more thoughtful and efficient.

📱 The launch of the iPhone.
Not since Gutenberg invented the printing press in the 15th century had anything revolutionized interpersonal communication the way Apple did in 2007. The very next year, we started to see what the change meant for our industry. People started talking about brands and the principle of marketing changed from 'inside-out' to 'outside-in'. To be honest, it took us a few more years to realize that we were actually working with brand experiences and engaging communication. And just as many years until we dared to admit to ourselves that we were actually specialists in the field.

📉 The Lehman crash.
When the fourth largest investment bank in the United States went bankrupt in 2008, it hit the world like a bomb. In Sweden, the financial system would be threatened to the core, large listed companies would fall brutally on the stock exchange, thousands would lose their jobs and the government would be forced to guarantee hundreds of billions of kronor to support the banks. Conferences abroad, which until then had been a major part of our offering, virtually disappeared. We focused on more domestic meetings and on developing new meeting formats.

😷 Corona pandemic.
In 2020, a pandemic came that completely overturned the industry and we were forced to rethink just to survive. Once again, we had to adapt and we were given a new format, the TV medium. During this time, we worked solely on message and content. We learned all about dramaturgy and refined our skills in creating engaging meetings.

We are grateful for all the challenges. They have shaped us into who we are.

😻 We have seen with our own eyes, year after year, what works and what is less successful. 

😒😃 We have made mistakes, but we have also learned from them. 

🤝 We have had the privilege to get to know many wonderful people and conducted 1000s of meetings all over our planet.

🍪 We have seen how cultural differences have had to be adapted to the expectations of a Nordic market. For example, we know that you need to double-check transportation in Spain, not just once but at least four times. We know that technical conference solutions in Greece are twice as expensive as in Sweden, and that a conference coffee in Milan consists of cookies, cookies and more cookies. 

✅ We have learned the importance of accuracy and to never leave anything to chance, to double-check EVERYTHING. Documents such as production schedules, driving schedules and checklists are part of our everyday life. 

❤️ Above all, those of us working at Contrast have experienced so much. This journey has been absolutely amazing.

I can say with some confidence that we have an incredible amount of experience and knowledge. I believe that those who choose to work with us feel that they get a reliable supplier of meetings and events.

We have been working with creativity for 30 years and I would say that we are constantly striving to innovate. 

We have always had the will to develop and look ahead (otherwise we would most likely be doing something else today). We have mixed old with new, i.e. constantly rejuvenated the organization, but with a handful of young 50-year-olds as a base.

And finally, and perhaps most importantly, we still think we have one of the most fun jobs you can have. Helping companies create relationships between people and brands, with the meeting as the basis for communication - it feels both smart and important, we think. 

We keep our ear to the rail, our eyes firmly forward, but always with a little grateful eye in the rearview mirror.

Congratulations to us! And thank you to everyone who has been, and is, part of our world.

/Ola