2009 Year in Review

A year and two days ago I wrote our first blog. A year later and 144 blog posts later, it's now 2010. So just like everyone else, I thought I'd do a year in review post. Obviously the thing that dominated our 2009 was our move. I looked back at the first blog posting and it was about hoping we'd finalize things with the landlord for the new building. I read some of the early posts and I can't believe it's been a year since some of those things. I also look back at some of our early Making Of webisodes and think the same thing. So January was dominated with finalizing the new lease. Then February was focused on getting the build out going, which began before the end of February. I remember March 1 coming along and thinking "holy crap, we're moving in a month". March was a whirlwind of packing and getting the build out completed. I read through the blog postings and can't believe all of that happened in just one month.

Then April 3 happened, the big moving day. I will never forget it. Started at the old place, it was so calm and quite. Then the movers arrived and it was crazy. Then the rain came and everyone sat around for 2 hours. Once it stopped, movers finished packing the trucks, and got down to the new place and the craziness went from the old building to the new place. A lot of boxes and only some minor damage later, everything was in the new building. What a day.

The rest of the year was a lot of firsts in the new building. First client meeting, first edit session, first margarita Friday, which by the way has become a regular occurrence. We celebrated our 8th birthday this year as IDEAS, our first birthday in our new home. We also had our first Thanksgiving in our new home. We hosted a couple events at our new home. We had an event with Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer in which he welcomed us to Downtown Orlando and we presented him with original artwork we created for Orlando's Creative Village, we hosted a Women & Film & Television quarterly meeting with the Film Commissioner of Florida, and we have hosted a number of staff meetings for our friends at Vitamin Water. All of this of course is on top of the hundreds of client meetings we have had since moving in.

Once we were in the new place it was back to 100% focus on the business. Operating business in the new place was different than the old building. We got to meet a lot of great people, from new clients to people from the Mayor's office. From a business perspective it's been an interesting year. Here's some breaking news, the economy has been tough on everyone. We've have clients who have been a regular client go to nothing. We have had clients who typically pay in regular 30 day payable intervals now pay in 45-60 days if not longer. And there have been a lot of clients who want and need our help and we get all the way to contract and they have to pull back.

On the other hand, we have found new clients who have been very creative in how to work us in to their budgets. And we have found ourselves also being more creative in finding new clients and new ways to work with our old clients. In the end, it is what it is and we're optimistic about 2010 when it comes to current clients as well as some great new ones.

We are very proud of the work we accomplished in 2009. If I listed notable projects I'd forget plenty so I don't want to do that but generally speaking, we look back and realize that we worked on a couple broadcast television projects. We worked on a couple projects that entertain kids and a major project to help kids stay safe in weather emergencies. We worked to help returning veterans from Iraq and Afganistan and we're working with other branches of the government and military to help those involved with our military. And we continue working in various areas of the helthcare industry, trying to improve things for workers and patients. We are proud of the work we did in 2009 and look forward to more projects in 2010 that make a difference in the world.

So here we are, the end of 2009/beginning of 2010. A lot has happened since this time last year. But don't we say that at the beginning of every year? Every year we look back at the past year with some good memories and some bad. And we look forward to the possibilities of the new year. This year is no different so we start 2010 with the same optimism and excitement. We look forward to the possibilities of the relationships we have been building over the past few years, especially those we have built since moving to our new home last April. We will work harder in 2010 than ever before. And I'm quite certain at this time next year we'll have some good memories and bad of 2010. But I think there's going to be a lot more good memories than bad.