At Digital Wholesale Solutions, we do things differently. We value each and every one of our partners, which is why, when we rebranded in April 2019, we wanted to make our partners aware of our core message Power in Partnership, increasing our resource to continually improve the partner experience with a variety of events and initiatives to make them feel valued.
Following the huge success of last year’s Oktoberfest, we were planning to hold a DWS SummerFest in July; a huge party in London with networking, great food and live music. Of course, COVID-19 had other ideas and, like many other businesses across the globe, we were forced to put our plans on hold. But even a worldwide pandemic can’t stop us from celebrating our partners, which is why we created an event with a different.
On 30th July, we held our first ever socially distanced event, inviting our top partners to join us for a round of golf. Taking place across numerous prestigious courses across the UK, Big Tee for Two brought partners and DWS team members together for the first time since the country went into lockdown in March, with multiple games taking place on the same day.
In addition to a day out and a round of golf, partners also received hampers with a beer and some snacks for a night at the virtual pub where we caught up on the events of the day and held a mini awards presentation. Our landlord Garry Growns opened the Big Night Inn at 7pm via Teams and all the attendees logged on to find out whether they had won the tournament.
Anyone who has met our CEO Terry will know that he’s quite the snazzy dresser, which is why he chose the best dressed golfer for our Tez’s Threadies award. Stephen Finnegan from Edge Telecom was a worthy winner of this award with his fabulous pink flamingo print trousers.
Our next award, Snap Happy, went to our most active cameraman, James Green from Boxx Communications, who documented the day with lots of photos which feature in the above video, including all the best bits from the tournament and virtual pub night.
It might not have been the Ryder Cup, but the tournament definitely brought out the competitive side in some of our partners and actually resulted in two partners being crowned the Tiger Woods of the Channel. Using the Stableford scoring method, John Forde of Airphone Telecom Solutions and Jon Dunn of Mint Telecom both earned a certificate and bottle of champagne to celebrate.
For those more accustomed to crazy golf, we presented the Better Luck Next Time award. Ricky Bayliss from Leasetech, Dan Cheesborough from IP Exchange and our very own Bilal Khan – all self-proclaimed novices – were our lowest scores of the day, but they all insist they still had a great time, despite coming last!
The feedback we received from our attendees was fantastic and we are looking forward to doing something similar in the near future, involving even more of our partners while still staying safe during these strange times.
What our partners thought:
“Great idea to get customers out and socialising within guidelines. I really enjoyed the golf day, after a nice touch with the hamper. Thank you for organising this and appreciate your invitation.” – Stuart Bloxham, Infrasys
“What an extremely well organised event considering the current circumstances. We were made to feel very welcome and felt very humbled to be part of the day. The Mere golf course is one I’ve wanted to play for a long time and have to say it exceeded my expectations. Met some great people and huge credit goes to Tim and Bilal for their hospitality and welcoming approach. The drinks hamper was a welcomed added bonus too!!! If another one is organised I’ll definitely be the first in line. Thank you again to all organisers and to Tim and Bilal for their company on the day. Congratulations to all!” – Gareth Penman, CMC Synergy
“Great day, beautiful course, great company!” – Jeremy Rose, Ocean Telecom
“A fantastic day which was very well communicated and organised.” – Simon Wort, Arrow Business Communications
