Why we celebrated 10 years of Digicorp

We completed 10 years in business on 16th January 2014.

We were approaching this milestone and we knew we would have to do something significant. It is certainly not a small feat.

According to the U.S. Small Business Administration, about one-third of businesses survive to their 10th year [unverified claim].

But at the same time not so great as well. A lot of companies are in business for decades. So there has to be a strong reason for celebrating this milestone.

Why should Digicorp celebrate 10 years in business?

This was a very tough question and the “Why?” part was very important to us.

Initially I was looking at this event as a good marketing opportunity to tout our past accomplishments and create more business opportunities with our existing clients. I couldn’t convince others of the same and later on I was also not very sure about it.

Primarily because we don’t think we are successful, at least not by the traditional definition of success. Read “Why grow?” chapter of REWORK to understand more. [OR you can read that chapter in this article]

Finally after a lot of arguments and discussions, we found a right reason to celebrate.

To express our gratitude to all who have helped us reach here.

“You didn’t build that” – it is not so controversial statement for us as a company. Without our family, friends, staff, clients, partners, mentors, and well-wishers, we wouldn’t be here.

So we were done with the “Why?” part. Now comes the “How?”.

Well, for me the one word to define the entire event was “Elegance”

Because guests will judge our company, our products, our solutions, and our people by the way we organise this event.
If we do it shoddily, it does more harm than good.
Elegant does not mean formal but something which is done with “taste”.
It means more care, more preparation, and more time.
It has to be thought through down to the last detail.

So how did we do it?

First, the venue. After doing some research we finalised “Courtyard Marriott” as the venue, one of the most elegant hotels in our city.
We prepared a guest list consisting of our family, friends, staff, clients, mentors, partners and well-wishers.
We designed a typography based minimalistic invitation card
We gave most of the invitations personally to our guests
We hired a professional video production team to shoot a video showcasing our transformation as a company. It also included our thank you message to all.
We decided to come up with some interactive installations in line with our goal of the event i.e. to express gratitude. Secondary purpose was to “WOW” our guests. They should remember something about the event for a long time.
We personally gave reminder calls a day before the event.
We received guests at the entrance and directed them to the main hall after expressing our gratitude.
On the main screen inside hall, Tweet Wall was setup.
Timeline walls allowed guests to write their own memories with Digicorp for e.g. when they first interacted with Digicorp etc.
We premiered the video at 8PM and hosted dinner after that.
And yes, one of the most important thing at the end. We planned to gave away 100 REWORK – the book which has changed the way we run Digicorp.
“Walls of Wishes” were setup for guests to write their wishes / feedback.

Well, it was not perfect. We faced major issues with the book vendor (for procuring 100 REWORK), one of the interactive installations crashed mid-way, we couldn’t meet all guests etc. but overall we consider this event a success. Not because more than 400 people turned up and everybody enjoyed the dinner but because we could express our gratitude to everyone the way we wanted to.

Here is our transformation video. I am sure you will love it.