Goodbye 2021… Hello 2022

IT'S BEEN A TOUGH YEAR SO HERE IS A BIG THANK YOU TO ALL OUR CUSTOMERS AND VFERS!

Despite these challenging times, we've had a great year – our business has grown and we're grateful to be working with some excellent new clients.

GOODBYE 2021… HELLO 2022!

We're coming to the end of the year, and it's safe to say it's not been a typical year for any of us. Despite that, we've had a great year – our business has grown, we have more people in more countries than pre-Covid, and we're grateful to be working with some excellent new clients. We've even opened a brand-new office in Canada this year. So, we'd like to start by saying a big thank you to our team and our customers – without you, it simply wouldn't have been possible to achieve half of what we have, and we’ve done a lot!

We were delighted to hold our first in-person event of 2021, The New World of Predictive Analytics, on the 9th of September in the recently renovated and stunning glass dining room of the Aqua Shard. This event was a great success, and credit must be given to our dynamic guest speakers Adam Jones and David Bloch, along with our host, our Co-CEO Matt Wicks.

Our second in-person event took place in November. This time, we did a deep dive into the Design Sprint process with support from Toby Lewis from Logitech and Rebecca Ferguson, an Adobe Ambassador. Fully booked weeks in advance, we had the pleasure of hosting some of the most innovative companies worldwide. We learnt how to take basic user experience design and transform it into user excitement design using the "Design Sprint" process.

Our events didn’t stop there… We continued our run of educational events and content for our clients and we produced more online resources this year than previous years. We created 10 episodes of our hugely popular TimCast webinar, which covered various topics within Power BI, including dirty data, importing and transforming data, and 'The Hows and Whys of DAX Calculated Tables', delivered in an easy-to-understand format by Tim Volz, our enigmatic Business Intelligence Analyst.

We also launched our Data Day video series on YouTube. Hosted and created by VF’s Ryan Palsho, this series saw Ryan interview data experts across different industries to determine their top data challenges and exactly how they are solving them. You can find the series so far here in our Data Day playlist.

Our client work this year has been incredibly exciting. We've been working with one of the world's largest life science companies to ensure that their life sustaining products can be supplied to their patients at all times, including during the global pandemic. To do this we’ve used a combination of traditional logistics management techniques and digital portals, to ensure their operations continued without disruption. We’ve even assisted in the physical distribution of materials, aided by our data management and analysis teams, to find new efficiencies in fulfilment operations. VF is proud to be doing our part to support doctors and their patients with technical and operational innovations from our beautiful new facility in Hatfield, PA.

In September, one of our UX Designers, Pete Savory, was interviewed by Adobe about how VF uses Adobe XD, why we chose it and some tips and tricks on how best to work with the software as part of their Meet the Makers series.

As you all know we are, of course, dedicated to our work and passionate about what we do, but we're also passionate about our culture and work-life balance here at VF. Whether our team has been working from home (or briefly in the office when we reopened for a short time!), we've hosted social and charitable events, both of which are vitally important for a positive working environment – wherever that environment may be!

But the fun wasn't just had by the team in Lisbon (when the office was open!); we had VF's Got Talent in April – some of our favourite entries included photography, painting, building kayaks, making wreaths, dancing, composing and singing songs about VF, poems, playing the piano and singing and catching really enormous fish, showing that we do indeed have an incredibly creative and talented team. The well-deserved winner was Luis Rodrigues for his incredible aerial yoga skills.

The winner of our Talent competition was Ivo Rodrigues, our Head of Development, with his entry:

In October, we held a Global Food Day at the lovely Glove Factory Studios, where the team made a fantastic effort to recreate traditional Sudanese dishes – which were heartily received! Also, in November, we held our annual Dress Up Day; if you want to see some of The Virtual Forge looking their silliest, check out the video below!

So, although 2021 may have been an unusual year, it's been a great one with plenty of exciting and sometimes very silly moments. To wrap up, we would like to wish you a very Merry Christmas and a happy and healthy start to the New Year. We can't wait to see what 2022 will bring and see how we continue to grow together!

All the very best,

The VF Team