No-one expected 2021 to be more or less the same as 2020 with regard to Covid: it was another year of working mostly from home. Luckily, exciting things also took place: we’ve been able to grow and develop our platform even further. Let’s take a look at MediaLab’s 2021!
1. Team development
The year for us started in full lockdown: it’s a good thing we were already familiar with working remotely as a team. For a few months however, we were able to meet in the office and (re)connect as a team. We’ve welcomed some new faces to MediaLab: Kas (Account Executive), Onur (Business Development), and Nicole (Design). Rowin will be joining us this year on Front-end Development. A few of them will even be doing their graduation assignment at MediaLab. This concept works well for us: look at Vienna, who started at the company as a student and has been with us for the past few years!
2. Expanding in the DACH region
Originally, the plan was to continue the previous year’s hard work in the DACH region, and we succeeded only to a certain extent. One of MediaLab’s most important values is our personal touch. With our existing clients, we can really make a difference in that aspect. For potential new clients, however, that’s a hard thing to do in these times of remote working and video calls. This has made us reconsider our strategy and focus more on our partner program.
3. MediaLab’s new Partner Program
It’s no secret that MediaLab has big ambitions. So we used 2021 to research the European landscape of digital media tools. We’ve talked to colleagues from neighboring countries like the UK, Sweden and Belgium, and we’ve seen that users across Europe prefer using a European platform. Compared to companies from the US, we offer big advantages in security and data storage. To be able to meet the demand for MediaLab’s unique solution and attend to clients’ needs even better, we will use this year to partner up with likeminded companies.
4. Our first Clubhouse
We did our first – and last – Clubhouse session. We were intrigued by the concept and we were very happy to host a session on GDPR and Data Protection with Tech & Privacy Law specialist Menno Weij. We had a lot of interesting interactions on the subject, but in the end, it turned out not to be the right platform for us.
5. Regional and national broadcasters
In 2021 we welcomed the first regional broadcasters to MediaLab, Omroep West and Omroep Zeeland, further proving the value of our platform within the Dutch broadcasting industry. We were also very happy to renew our partnership with Talpa. We’re very proud of the hybrid platform we’ve set up there, and truly believe this is the future for the broadcast industry.
6. Hosting the US-Russia summit
During the summer, MediaLab hosted the US-Russia summit. One of our Dutch partners, EMG, contacted us to set up the entire environment in a matter of days, including livestream and online pressrooms. We’ve received good feedback from the European Broadcasting Union, and we have been invited for a number of other projects, such as the Invictus Games in April 2022.
7. Hybrid cloud: a game changer
Apart from the Dutch broadcasters mentioned above, we’ve onboarded other new clients, and we’ve noticed some interesting developments. Where a cloud-first strategy used to be the norm for most companies until about 2-3 years ago, we now see a shift to a more hybrid focus. MediaLab differs from others platforms in that important aspect: our solution can accommodate whatever back-end or datacenter a client uses, while maintaining the innovative technology and user experience we are known for.
So you see: a lot of exciting things are coming our way this year! Of course we’ll keep you updated over the next few months, but if you want to hear all the latest news right away, subscribe to our newsletter here: