As a newly founded StartUp, we began our search for suitable office space for our growing team in January and were busy planning the first trade fair festival for the creative industries, which was to take place at Station Berlin in April 2021. The year began, as it does for many companies, full of verve. In February, we organised the Film Festival Opening Party at Haus Ungarn with Filmemacher Deutschland and celebrated the start of the Berlinale with over 1000 filmmakers and film enthusiasts. An unforgettable event for us, because with friends, partners and many creative people, the Film Festival Opening Party also marked the start of many other Comacon events.
Corona CHanged A Lot
Barely a month later, there was a lockdown. We were facing a tough change in our business model. As our newly rented office was still in the middle of renovation work, at least home office was not a real change for us. We quickly decided to postpone the planned date for the Comacon Festival indefinitely. Thanks to our friends at Dafoon GmbH, the platform for the Comacon Magazine was developed very quickly. The content we wanted to share with visitors at the fair festival is now accessible to a larger audience via the online magazine. After moving into our new offices in June, we celebrated the launch of Comacon Magazine in July. In September, we also launched our own podcast. Creative professionals from different industries join us for a conversation and talk about their life’s journey. Each episode is hosted by Timm Lindenau. Digitisation has paid off. In the last six months, we have published 180 articles, 65 of them in English, reached around 17,500 readers from 38 countries so far, achieved over 10,000 podcast streams and reached over 400,000 users in social media with our posts.
Learnings
For a young start-up from the creative event industry, we have achieved a lot this year that we are really proud of. We stay positive and take a lot from 2020 with us. One of the things we learned was that we can reach out to our contacts at any time and also get support outside of our network. Great people who, despite their own hurdles, have always stayed in touch with us and made valuable contributions to Comacon Online Magazine. We have learned that it is important not to lose focus, especially when obstacles and difficulties arise. And that you are positively surprised when you leave your comfort zone.
What is Yet to come
2021 can now come. We are ready and looking forward to new challenges and tasks. Our goal is to build the first interdisciplinary community for creative professionals. A uniform platform for the various sub-sectors to exchange, work, promote and learn. The first events of our own are also planned for 2021 and will thematically cover the broad spectrum of the creative industries. The next 12 months will certainly be exciting for us again.
We wish everyone a healthy and creative new year. Look back at 2020 and try to draw your personal lessons from the hurdles and problems. Together, we will make the creative industries grow even stronger out of the crisis in the coming years.
Happy New Year, your Comacon Team.
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