Chris Dodds, Icon Agency co-founder, muses on the six month anniversary of our agency lock-down.
Today marks the six month anniversary of Icon Agency packing up the office and moving to a work from home model.
I remember the day well. There was an enormous amount of uncertainty about what the impact COVID-19 would have on our country, communities, elders and business. Jo and I were incredibly anxious about how the pandemic would affect our ability to keep revenue flowing in and people employed. We had many sleepless nights and long weekends of worry.
And now here we are. Six months on with new clients, a bigger team, and a range of incredible projects that still align with our beliefs and sense of purpose.
Projects that:
Support the mental health of our most vulnerable citizens
Measure the impact the pandemic has had on front-line workers
Promote council waste and recycling initiatives
Create more user-centric digital services for government
Amplify the voices of local tech-sector mavericks; and
Help de-radicalise communities during times of immense change and misinformation.
Times of great change and challenge define who we are as individuals and as a collective, and the next few decades will be ones of immense environmental, social-political and economic change.
During this time I often think back to my grandparent's generation – one that adapted to global conflicts, the great depression, industrial and technological upheaval. My grandfather's idea of long service leave was taking three months off to strip and paint the family home!
They were hard times that defined a generation, and I feel the next few years will define ours. How they are defined is up to us. We encourage everyone to embrace and participate in this change. Help drive it in the direction you feel is for the betterment of this 'pale blue dot' we call home.
We are incredibly proud of the effort every one of our team has put in over the last six months. They've adapted to massive disruption, embraced change and continually looked for ways to improve how we work together virtually. Workplaces will never be the same, and that's OK. People, and how we support each other, must be our continued focus.
With empathy and determination, we're confident of seeing through these strange times and being better for it.
