And just like that, Q1 of 2024 is complete! It’s been a blink-and-you-’ll-miss-it kind of four months here at Don’t Panic, but they do say time flies when you’re having (lots) of fun. January – April has been packed for the team, both in terms of company culture and our awards portfolio.

We’re sure you’ve already heard all the updates on our awards on our socials – if you haven’t, make sure you’re following us on LinkedIn, Instagram, X, and Facebook. So, we’re going fill you in on everything we’ve been up to behind the scenes – and boy have we been busy!

We welcomed three new starters…

At the start of the year, we welcomed three new starters to the ever-growing Don’t Panic team. Lucie joined the Sales Team as an Account Executive, Maia joined the Events Team as a Junior Event Manager, and Zhen joined the Creative Team as a Junior Graphic Designer. All three of the new starters are now fully-fledged members of the team and it’s hard to remember a time without them!

And prepared to welcome two new mini-members

We’ve also had some very exciting news from our Marketing Team. Olivia, our Content Marketing Manager will be welcoming her first child in July, while Lee, our Marketing Manager, will also be welcoming her first baby in November. It’s safe to say baby fever has well and truly hit the office.

We celebrated Mother’s Day and International Women’s Day

March was a big month for the women of Don’t Panic. We celebrated both International Women’s Day and Mother’s Day by making sure all the amazing ladies knew how much we appreciated them and their hard work.

We hit the conference scene

2024 has been the year of the conference so far! Emily and Freya from our Events Team attended International Confex in February, a conference dedicated to creating unforgettable experiences at events.

In April, Lee, Olivia, and Jordan attended Digitaloft’s Digital PR Summit in Manchester to network and connect with thought leaders in the digital PR space. We always love getting out of the office and making new connections, so both of these conferences were a real treat for the team!

We tried our hand at pizza-making

Things became very competitive at our Q1 team social in March. We headed to Pizza Express for a pizza-making class, and once we stopped blowing flour at each other, we made our very pizzas complete with personalised toppings. The fact that they were all edible was a win for the whole team.

The team prepared for the Search Awards

As events season hots up, our Events Team have been hopping around Europe to ensure the venues and menus for the European Search Awards and the Global Search Awards are ready for our finalists. This year, the European Search Awards will be in the stunning city of Prague, Czech Republic, while the Global Search Awards will be heading to Kraków, Poland. We’re all very excited to meet the winners of both awards very soon!

Our founder made her TED debut

In March, our founder, Nicky Wake, took to the TEDxManchester stage at The Bridgewater Hall to discuss how losing her husband pushed her to create Chapter 2, a community built for widows and widowers. If you’d like to watch Nicky on the TEDx stage, you can find the full video here.

And we had our regular company catch-up

Finally, we completed the first quarter of 2024 with our company briefing. In this, the Senior Leadership Team share the progress and plans for the business while keeping the team in the loop about changes in the next quarter. Big things coming soon!