With the ear to the tracks and the eyes forward – Contrast turns 30

I rubbed my eyes that December morning, the day after the company turned 29 years old. We were on our way to turning 30 in the industry and that thought, it felt almost unreal. I got up, had my first cup of coffee and drifted off slightly absent-mindedly on the kitchen chair. Looking out at the winter landscape outside, the thoughts rolled back in time… to how it all began and what we had learned since then…

I remember when the officials from the Patent and Registration Office came and announced that our company had been registered and had been given an organizational number. What little I knew at the time, I thought. About entrepreneurship in general and about everything that we later had the privilege of experiencing.

We started at a time when the concept of events wasn't even coined. as an industry, let alone brand experiences or relationship marketing. We were happy event planners and conference organizers in a time when the internet and email weren’t commonplace. 

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

The concept team buildingg became big. Customer relationships were built around a campfire, in an old castle ruin, or at a football match at Camp Nou. The greater 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. The availability of information became part of our USP. We also had the courage to think differently and to throw ourselves into projects with ideas and concepts that were completely untested. The customers cheered.

At the time, we knew little about the crises that would later challenge us. And what these would mean:

🎈 The IT bubble that burst.
In 2000, the air was gone from the inflated investment spree in IT startups. From having splashed out money, all companies were now holding tight to their wallets. We were forced to scale down from the big spenders’ pants of the happy 90s to something almost ascetic. The advantage of that was that meetings and events became more well-thought-out and effective. 

📱 The launch of the iPhone.
Not since Gutenberg invented the printing press in the 15th century had anything revolutionized human communication like Apple did in 2007. Already the following year we began to see what the change meant for our industry. People started talking about brands, and the principle of marketing changed from ”from the inside out” to ”from the outside in”. To be honest, it took a few more years before we came to realize that we were actually working with brand experiences and with engaging communication. And another few years until we dared to admit to ourselves that we were actually specialists in the field.

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

😷 The Corona pandemic.
In 2020, a pandemic came that completely disrupted the industry and we were forced to think anew just to survive. Again, we had to adapt and we got a new format, the TV medium. During this time, we worked exclusively with messages and content. We learned everything about dramaturgy and refined our skills in creating engaging encounters.

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 made mistakes, but we have also learned from them. 

🤝 We have been fortunate to get to know many wonderful people and have conducted thousands of meetings all over the world.

🍪 We have seen how cultural differences have needed to be adapted to the expectations of a Nordic market. For example, we know that you need to double-check shipments 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 never leaving anything to chance; double-checking EVERYTHING. Documents such as production schedules, driving schedules, and checklists are part of our daily routine. 

❤️ Above all, those of us who work at Contrast have experienced an endless amount. This journey has been absolutely fantastic. 

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 are getting a reliable provider of meetings and events.

We have been working on creativity for 30 years, and I would like to say that we are constantly striving to think in new ways. 

We have always had the will to develop and look ahead (otherwise we would most likely be doing something else today). We have mixed the old with the new, i.e. constantly rejuvenating the organization, while keeping a handful of younger 50-year-olds at the helm. 

And finally and perhaps most importantly – we still think we have one of the funniest jobs you can have. Helping companies create relationships between people and brands, with the meeting as the basis for communication – that feels both smart and important, in our opinion. 

We keep our ear to the track, our eyes fixed forward, but always with a small grateful look in the rear-view mirror.

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

/Ola