2020, we won’t be missing you.

We can definitely agree that 2020 deserves a big old thumbs down! For gig lovers, events organisers and artists, it has been a very tough year to navigate. More than 50 000 artists have lost 85% of their livelihoods. Performance venues and theatres suffered a loss of £74 billion and when their doors can finally re-open, they will most likely be operating at 30% capacity — at least for the foreseeable future. It doesn’t really paint a nice picture, does it?

However, there is always another way to look at a situation! Let’s be ‘glass half-full people’ for a sec and take a look at how the entertainment world is bouncing back from its Covid-19 induced coma! As nations around the world went into lockdown, people couldn’t get together in person and, well, we found new ways to connect with one another. Virtual events have taken centre stage. Their success and growth have fundamentally changed the landscape of the event industry. According to one Eventbrite study, 75 million people across the UK and the US, attended 1 million virtual events this year. That’s 100 million hours of online streaming time — that is mad! It seems like virtual events are here to stay.

The benefits of virtual events:

• Artists can keep on being artists! They can broaden their fan base and create a constant stream of content to engage with their audience on a daily basis. We’re currently seeing a huge surge in user generated content. Artists are becoming more self-sufficient than ever before.
• How does this benefit venues and theatres? Well, the beauty of virtual events is that they do not exclude in-person events. When venues reopen at minimal capacity, an event could be watched in house, by physical attendees, all the while being live streamed to virtual attendees. With that in mind, venues have the potential to expand their revenue exponentially.
• For gig fans and art and culture lovers alike, the shift towards online events has been a saving grace! It has allowed us to keep arts and culture alive and to lift up spirits in a time when we desperately need it.
• For many Industry folks, virtual events have been the only thing standing between them and unemployment; it allows them to continue doing what they love!

Gignify — The new kid on the block.

This year has been a bit of a roller-coaster for many of us but it’s also been an opportunity to think outside the box and challenge ourselves!

Gignify is the Airbnb of the entertainment world: a real marketplace for agents, managers and talent across all genres. A platform for acts to easily find gigging opportunities with our bookers and event organisers.

We began as a platform for in-person events, but then lockdown hit… Like everyone else in the entertainment industry, we freaked! We weren’t sure what we would do at first but we knew that we needed to be there for our artists. We decided to launch a series of online festivals showcasing our acts in music, dance, comedy and magic. We ran those events pro bono to raise funds for our struggling NHS. It was a fantastic experience, we had so much fun! Our events were a huge success; we triggered visibility for our acts — over 5000 performance lovers attended our festivals! From then on, we and our artists started being contacted with demands for private live virtual events, which led to numerous successful bookings.

This opened our eyes to the true importance of the virtual events market. With that in mind, we decided to start hosting virtual socials for business clients! With so many offices now working from home, it was important for us to help as many people as possible keep their morale up during what has been one of the hardest years for our generation’s mental health.

We created our own custom streaming solution and since August, we have successfully organised, curated and hosted many events whilst consistently growing our artist community! We have proudly built up a network of 2000 and growing amazing acts across the UK, Europe and the US.

These successes were heightened by us securing an amazing partnership with Deliveroo For Business, making us their exclusive virtual entertainment provider. It’s exciting for us as a young start-up with a recently launched and much needed product, to have been able to partner with a leading tech company to deliver online events directly to living rooms during lockdown.

To end the year with a bang, we launched the pilot of a series of large scale, ticketed, virtual events with ‘#UPYOURS2020| NYE Comedy Live Broadcast. ’We got some of the best of the UK Comedy scene, with the likes of Simon Brodkin, Paul Sinha from ‘The Chase’ and Jonathan Pie to name a few…. This event was such a success that we are now planning a full-on events calendar for the year ahead! Keep your eyes peeled for our next announcement.

The Gignify Team!

The Gignify Tribe

Our success this year would be nothing without our amazing artist community. Their willingness to adapt to this new age of virtual events is astonishing, and their hunger to keep performing and raising spirits in these dark times is truly inspiring.

Let’s go back to the beginning and look at some of Gignify’s pioneers…

‘James Brown meets Rodrigo y Gabriela’ a powerful one-man band that will redefine the word singer-songwriter. This man can make you shake it with just his guitar! Apple, BBC and Yamaha agree with us.

Joncan Kavlakoglu (Musician)| @joncan_kavlakoglu

One of UK’s premier magicians, Magic Amit takes you on a ride into the mystical arts of magic and hypnosis. Make sure to check your pockets after his show! 🤣

Magic Amit (Magician)| @magicamit

You’ve got to check out her one woman show ‘What the Frick’ !! An exhilarating and bubbly Germanic take on EU foreigners in the UK.

Alice Frick (Comedian) | @alice.frick

The last additions of 2020 to The Gignify Family.

A true artist, Sylvia merges illusions and theatrical magic though positivity, symbolism and the messages of tarot cards. She will take you on a journey back into Gothic and Victorian times! A real escapist experience.

Sylvia Sceptre (Magician) | @sylviasceptre1

Canadian Comedy Award winner for “Best Stand-up Comic.” In 15 years, he has performed more than 3000 shows in 28 countries, now that is impressive! His stand-up special “Big In Asia” was recently released by Comedy Dynamics. One not to miss! Brian Aylward (Comedian) | @brianaylwardcomedy

‘Make music from music’ that is her mantra! And it’s one we love! She has taken her DJ sets to clubs and events around the world.

Miranda Loy (DJ & singer) | @mirandaloy

This year has been a hell of a ride! But we held on, stayed on the saddle and kept riding… Bring it on 2021 we are ready for you!

This year has reaffirmed that in life, you never really know what tomorrow brings. But on the bright side it also means that nothing is ever set in stone. On the contrary, we have an incredible ability to re-adapt in response to drastic changes in our ways of life. And when we all find ourselves at a difficult turning point we can grow and work towards a better tomorrow together. Culture, arts and laughter are the world’s best healers!

We hope you enjoyed our first blog post! Keep an eye out for the next one! If you want to know more about us, please get in touch, we can’t wait to chat to you.

Written by Mimi.