“This Time Last Year? A Look Back at 2020 and Starting a New Job at the Beginning of the Pandemic” -by Steve Malmo (Social Media Manager @ iXperiential Media)
Looking back on the year at the end of March? …usually, this sort of retrospective is the type of thinking we find ourselves doing in December and January but from March 2020 to March 2021 — sometimes it felt like the longest year ever — looking back now it kind of feels like it flew by.
For me personally, this time last year was when I first joined the team at iXperiential Media. Starting a new job with a new company is always a time of transition but this was different. This was a time where nothing felt certain, everything was scary, and we were just trying to figure out how things would work in a “new normal.”
For iXperiential Media this was a time we were poised to move into our hip new office in DTLA- across the street from the Ace Hotel and down the block from the iconic Eastern building and the Orpheum theater. That of course would have to be put on hold- but what wasn’t put on hold was the drive to keep doing what we’ve always been doing… to find new ways to create memorable and interactive experiences. Whether our work was debuting at the Paris Airshow in a fancy pavilion or on your laptop screen from the comfort of your home the desire to Go Beyond always remains. For each of us the goal is ever present to make each new project even better than the last. In a year filled with challenges and restrictions on what you could safely do outside of your home it was up to management to find a way to make sure to “take care of the talent” as they say here in LA about their rock-star employees. Sometimes that meant buying a laptop or a PC for a team member to be able to work from home successfully, other times it was just making sure to carve out time for team members to take some time off after completing a project. Can’t go to the office but you have a big render job to complete? Why not bring the office to home and set up remote rendering stations that the team can share access to.
In my previous work experience one of the coolest things about the job was traveling to the installation or show site and being able to see the reactions of our clients and their customers when a project was finally delivered. While the format of delivery may have changed in the last year it was just as gratifying to be able to deliver our V-CEC technology to a series of virtual events, to build websites in a new and more interactive way, to produce photo realistic 3D animation, and everything in between.
While the year has been challenging and unlike any other for all of us- for iXperiential it’s all about how we made those adjustments to look after each other- to celebrate an accomplishment with a surprise champagne toast over Teams video conference, to find awesome new team members from places outside of the LA area, and ultimately to keep doing great work- because, you know, as Dave likes to say “Great work begets great work.” Here’s to more great work as we move through 2021. Can’t believe it’s already been a year- and what a year it’s been!
