Five Years of Synchronicity
In the fall of 2018, founder Alex Martin, along with a team of talented event planners, launched a new venture. Thus was born Synchronicity Events, a company devoted to partnering with nonprofit organizations to serve their unique event needs.
At the five year mark (but who’s counting!), it feels like a good moment to take a look back and reflect.
YEAR ONE
2019 - Our first year of production. We leaned into a beautiful, very full year of events around town! Building on Alex’s connections from 20 years of event work in Seattle, we started strong, with a wonderfully diverse portfolio of clients and projects.
Festival vibes! Costumed greeters welcomed guests to Pratt’s Annual Art Auction, “Everybody Get Together” at Magnuson Park Hangar 30. Photo by Chloe Collyer
Love is all around. This beautiful crowd enjoys Open Arms’ ‘Labor of Love’ Luncheon at the Westin Seattle. Photo by Michael B. Maine
Team Synchronicity at the end of 2019: Sasha, Rocio, Alex, & Meera.
YEAR TWO
2020 … record scratch!!
What can we really say about 2020? We were handed the biggest challenge of our professional lives, and we went into ‘beast mode’. We pivoted like mad, mastered new techniques and skills, and leveraged PPP money to do a season of pro bono projects for nonprofits. We partnered heavily with collaborators who were also focusing their businesses on building excellent livestream events (Ian Lindsay and Michael B. Maine, we’re looking at you). We pushed all our creativity and energy into fully-remote virtual events … we bucked industry trends and we grew …
In fact, by August of 2020, our team had doubled in size, and we had doubled our projects for the year. We were very busy, and very, very proud to offer a powerful and effective option to many nonprofit orgs who were struggling to find ways to reach their communities during this time.
Digital gala - camera on! Founder Alex Martin enjoys a laugh during a lockdown-style event in Remo software, for Pro-Choice Washington.
Lights, camera, fundraising action! Our livestream broadcast for Food Lifeline - a big stage set inside the Food Lifeline food warehouse, with all the talent safely distanced.
Self-care celebration! Synchronicity enjoying a team retreat, 2020-style, on Zoom: Sasha, Alex, Meera, Kassie, Shaun Wha, Rocio, Lexi, Paige, and Taelore.
YEAR THREE
2021 - We rode the pandemic roller coaster all year in 2021, with many clients waffling between wanting in-person plans, while hedging their bets with livestream virtual events planned as well. This was the year we polished all the techniques that made our virtual events shine: chat engagement, soulful show-crafting, snappy graphics and animations, excellent scripting, fun games and interactions, and surprises galore for the event attendees.
Communities continued gathering, fundraising goals were met, and as our confidence grew, our online events became more textured and more beautiful.
If you’ve ever been a guest at a Synchronicity virtual event, we hope you’ll agree, we found ways of infusing artistry, energy, authenticity, beauty and joy into “the rectangle”.
Studio broadcast event … glam version! Set design for Landesa’s Seed the Change virtual fundraising event at Canvas/Seattle Lives Studio.
A Zoom team photo from 2021 - this was us celebrating Inauguration Day in January 2021. Kassie, Alex, Lexi, Sasha, Rocio, Meera, Paige, and Shaun Wha.
YEAR FOUR
2022 - The roller-coaster continued … and our skills and ability to innovate just kept growing. In 2022, we really enjoyed the sense of adventure we shared with our clients. Realizing that ‘the piñata is broken,’ many clients were interested in switching up the traditional in-person event formats they had inherited, and trying out new ideas.
This was our ‘Year of the Hybrid’, and we were also still doing plenty of virtual events, and these became more truly unique, gorgeous next-level livestreams, often broadcast from ‘on location’ in beautiful places. Through it all, we helped our clients steer their event planning processes through very uncertain territory — with some (dare we say) fantastic results.
Henry Art Gallery’s Gala: Collective Impact - livestream fundraising event from on location inside the Henry, where we worked with some our favorite collaborators: Ian Lindsay Live: Ian Lindsay, Mark Jwayad, Performance Sound/Luke Kerwahld, PB&J Services, and Michael B. Maine.
Our beautiful, magical crew in 2022! From our staff retreat at Metropolist. Clockwise from top left: Jules, Shaun Wha, Jake, Meera, Lexi, Sasha, Rocio, Alex, and Leela.
Winners! Let’s not forget, that time we took home the trophy for ‘Best Nonprofit Event, Budget over $50,000’ from Emerald City Applause Awards. Sasha, Jules, Jake and Alex glammed it up for the awards party.
YEAR FIVE
2023 - This year, we found Seattle-area attendees much more willing to attend in-person events. The events got big!
We’ve created some amazing event moments this year. We’ll be publishing a full report on this year’s productions soon … and here’s just ONE example:
Reconnecting on a grand scale! Keynote Misty Copeland is interviewed by Mona Lee Locke onstage at YWCA’s hybrid Inspire Luncheon. Photo by DIWAS Photography.
In 2023, we’re also happy to report that Synchronicity is holding a fresh new Trademark, approved by the US Patent and Trademark office. Our commitment to staying present and relevant in our community has never wavered, and now we have the legal bona fides to match!
We’re on track to complete 40 events this year. Our work and our team are feeling strong and balanced, and we’re thriving with a truly excellent portfolio of clients. We are thrilled to be partnering with organizations who meet our ‘dream client’ criteria: they are ready to commit to setting meaningful goals for their events (and meeting them), they are centering community, accessibility and sustainability in their plans, and they love a healthy serving of innovation inside their signature event.
Our core team in 2023! We have three bold, brilliant, creative event leads (Carrie, Rocio, and Meera, pictured here in our office, with Owner and Event Strategy Lead Alex). Photo by Tideway Creative.
As we reflect on our adventures, we can't help but feel the energy pulsating through our team. The lockdown threw us a curveball — but we caught it, bedazzled it, and turned it into a sparkling backdrop for our triumphant return to in-person events. There's a strength that comes from knowing we can handle pretty much anything thrown our way. We're humbled by the support we've received, we are strengthened by the connections that weave us into our community, and we are ready to dive into what the future may bring.
Are you still reading? Thank you for following our five-year story, we hope this helps you know us a little better.
Please keep us in mind if you know of any orgs seeking event support in 2024. The future looks bright!
