Letter from the Founder: Farewell 2018! A Year In Review.

Here at APHQ, December brings many things—my favorite things included. Festive holiday decorations adorn the office while scented candles warm the air with our favorite wintry smells. We gather the whole crew together to celebrate at our annual company holiday dinner. And, of course, there are (just) a few extra days off to spend with family and refresh for the new year ahead. December also brings the annual tradition of taking a moment to reflect on what we’ve accomplished over the last year. Likewise, it gives us an opportunity to consider what we hope to achieve in service to you, our community of event pros, in the year to come. For us, 2018 has been incredible and here are just a few reasons why:

We Celebrated Four (plus) Years In The Making

A little over four years ago, we launched Aisle Planner with just a few simple tools. Behind that humble beginning, though, was a big dream to help wedding pros build better businesses through technology. Before then, we’d already been hard at work for years laying the foundation for what we hoped would change an industry. Looking back after 4 years – and especially these last 12 months – it’s wild to see how far we’ve come.

We Launched New Tools (and some are already our favorites!)

Earlier this year, we adopted “the power of one” as our unofficial company motto. These four simple words reinforced our mission to empower event pros with powerful tools, all behind a single login. More importantly, it reminds us that with the right tools, support and determination, each of us can make a big impact on the world around us—and that’s truly an impressive thing. In support of that mission, we launched a lovely list of new features. Here are some of our favorites:

Looking Forward To The Year Ahead

With these and so many other new additions to our platform, you’re finally catching a glimpse of the full ecosystem we had envisioned from the start—a platform for event pros that pairs our cornerstone planning and project management tools with powerful marketing and client management features, all in one place—seamlessly linked from your first engagement with a prospective new client to the day of the event and beyond.

2019 will bring many new things. We’re excited to unveil some updates to the brand we’ve been working on behind the scenes. We want these changes to better reflect who we are as a company. We’re looking forward to welcoming fresh new faces to Team AP in the new year to help grow and refine our voice, and to better support our ever-expanding global community of pros. We’ll be announcing some amazing new partnerships and collaborations we could have only dreamed about when we started this journey. And, of course, we’re excited for all the new features and enhancements that better connect our tools, fill the gaps and further support our mission to empower you and create positive change for you and your business. We can’t wait for you to see what’s in store for the new year.

Celebrating Our Biggest Success: Our Community

With all that we’ve been able to accomplish in such a short period of time, most people are surprised to hear how small of a company we are. I’m beyond thankful for the small but mighty team that stands behind everything we do here at APHQ. I am inspired every single day by what we accomplish when we share a common love for this industry and, more importantly, a common belief that we can make a difference to our community of pros through technology.

Letter from the Founder: 2018, A Year in Review — Photo courtesy Julie Shuford Photography

As a team, we’ve celebrated many successes in 2018 but these victories, big or small, wouldn’t have been possible without the support of you, our customers. Our greatest success and most meaningful reward is hearing how our tools have changed your work lives for the better. Your unwavering support has been the highlight of our year. We are grateful to have you as a part of our community and hope that what we do continues to create meaningful impact to you, both personally and for your business. Even more, we hope to help you make 2019 your best year yet!

Happiest of Holidays, and here’s to a truly amazing New Year!

Christina Lei Farrow, Founder & President