Last month, team members from across DFC’s five offices came together in Birmingham for our annual summer event.

For me, it was my first DFC summer gathering since joining the business eight months ago, so it was a great opportunity to meet people I’d only spoken to on Teams and spend time with the wider DFC team.

We kicked things off with a team meeting, short and sweet (just how we like them!), to hear about progress across the company and the exciting opportunities ahead. As DFC continues to grow, with new team members joining across our offices, it was a useful reminder of how much has been achieved over the last year and where we’re heading next.

After lunch, we took a stroll through Birmingham city centre to our canal-side departure point. It was a lovely chance to enjoy the atmosphere of the city and continue catching up with everyone along the way. It was really interesting learning more about the city’s history and how important the canals were to Birmingham’s growth over the years. We heard stories about the horses that used to pull the boats along the towpaths and, unsurprisingly, Peaky Blinders came up more than once. Seeing the city from the water gave us a completely different perspective and, with the sunshine making a welcome appearance, it couldn’t have been a better way to spend the afternoon. Just as importantly, it gave everyone a chance to chat, catch up and get to know people from across the business a little better.

To round off the day, we headed to Manahatta for a fantastic dinner and drinks. It was lovely seeing colleagues from Birmingham, Leeds, London, Manchester and Sheffield all coming together, chatting away and getting to know one another outside of work, away from project deadlines and Teams calls.

As someone still relatively new to DFC, one of the highlights of the day was meeting colleagues from across the business and putting faces to names. Despite being spread across five offices, there was a genuine sense of connection and collaboration throughout the day. It was a great reminder that while we may work on different projects and in different locations, we’re all working towards the same goals and helping to shape the culture that makes DFC such a positive place to work.

As DFC continues to grow, annual events like this remain an important way of bringing people together, strengthening relationships and helping new and existing colleagues feel connected to the wider team.

A big thank you to everyone who came along and to James and Lindsey for organising the event. It’s always nice to step away from the day job, catch up with familiar faces and meet newer members of the team.