How the company Adapt adjusted to the pandemic & won big
2021’s recipient of the LLB’s Visionary Award is the Swedish-based audiovisual creation company Adapt. Its founders were honoured by the award, which was in recognition of how they led their company’s adjustment to the COVID-19 pandemic. During a time of uncertainty throughout the event industry, Adapt managed to grow, develop new business areas, and hire more than a dozen new employees.
A well-established company that continues to expand, Adapt was founded in 1995 by childhood friends Viking Grandin and Jonathan Olsson. Back then, they mostly worked school dances. Today, they handle large events and expos with budgets in the millions. The company has had an impressive journey during the last 25 years. In 2018, it was named as “Gazelle” by Dagens Industri.
In October, LLB announced Adapt as the winner of this year’s Visionary Award and cited the company’s development of hybrid studios during the pandemic.
“It was an honour to get the award. It means a lot to us that this award is given by our industry. It’s our colleagues and partners who have recognised our achievements and we are very honoured for that,” says Viking Grandin.
A new area of business with hybrid studios
Adapt quickly responded during the pandemic, when many of its projects were cancelled, and decided to create something new. The company decided to build hybrid studios, where events are broadcasted live with both physical and digital participants. Adapt’s founders built a studio in a venue they already had. The idea was simply to test the market, but they quickly realised that there was a huge demand for hybrid events. Soon after, they developed a new studio, then one more, one more and one more. There are now six studios located in Stockholm and Gothenburg.
“We realised that we needed to develop studios to be able to make it through the pandemic. We did not see it as a temporary solution, rather as a new area of business that would remain even after the pandemic,” says Grandin.
The demand is still high and Grandin doesn’t foresee it slowing down any time soon. He thinks that most future events will have a requirement for a hybrid or digital aspect, to make sure that everyone is able to join — no matter where they are.
“The customers are asking for different solutions for hybrid meetings,” he says. “We think that physical events will have to offer visitors the possibility to join digitally.”
Creating events with a cinema feeling
At the same time that it was developing its hybrid studios, Adapt decided to forge a new partnership with Filmstaden. Under the Cinema Connect brand, they can broadcast events to Filmstaden’s movie theatres all over the world, simultaneously. It gives people the chance to participate locally as a part of a global event. So far, the customer response to Cinema Connect has been positive.
“The cinemas have a fantastic internet connection and really good audio and image quality,” says Grandin. “With Cinema Connect we offer our customers the possibility to join from wherever they are, meet each other locally and still have a very good audiovisual experience.”
Adapt has grown a lot the past two years. Not only has the company developed new business, but its staff has also increased to quite a large team — from 25 to 40 people. There’s no telling what the future holds for Adapt. But it’s certain that no matter what, the company will “adapt”.