Some experiences don’t just stay with you – they change you. This is a series of personal stories from our colleagues about the moments that shifted how they think, lead, and work. Hear from our Project Coordinator, Charlotte Aries.
Some events shape you; they stay with you for a lifetime. For me, that was working on The Mayor of London’s New Year’s Eve Fireworks 2025.
It’s an event I had grown up watching on TV every year, always in awe of the incredible display, and noticing the way it became a poignant celebration of the year gone by. Desperate to see it for my own eyes, but not braving the crowds on the Southbank, I stood on Parliament Hill in 2024, watching the fireworks, full of admiration at what was being achieved.
At the time, I could never have imagined what was to come, but just 12 months later, I found myself working on the event itself. Playing my part in an event of such global scale is an experience I can’t put into words.
What happened
But what if I told you this all started with redundancy? Twice over, in fact.
Redundancy has a way of shaking your confidence in ways you don’t expect – and I won’t pretend otherwise. But I’ve come to believe that whilst these moments challenge us, they also have the power to redirect us somewhere far better than where we were headed.
The first redundancy led me to my events career, something I’d never planned to go into or even considered as a possibility. In an effort to slowly figure things out, I took on a temporary position and found myself within an events agency. Something, somewhere started to click, and I had found a role that felt right for the first time in a long time.
The second redundancy brought its own challenges, but also a different kind of clarity. It created space – space to reflect on what I actually wanted, and the courage to pursue it properly. Rather than retreating to what felt safe and familiar, I gave myself permission to be ambitious about what came next. That openness is what led me to Identity.
And from the moment I arrived, things moved quickly in the best possible way. Within my first year I had worked on the VE Day 80 Bank Holiday Procession and the New Year’s Eve Fireworks – both moments of genuine national significance, and both experiences that reminded me exactly why I had fallen in love with this industry. There’s something infectious about live events. The pace, the pressure, the team, and that indescribable achievement when everything comes together. It’s hard to explain until you’ve done it.
What I learned
What I know now, that I couldn’t see at the time, is that both redundancies were doing me a favour. They dismantled paths that weren’t right for me and pushed me towards ones that were. That’s not a comfortable process – but it’s a transformative one.
The version of me that stood on Parliament Hill watching those fireworks in 2024 had no idea that just one year later, I’d be on the inside of that moment. That shift happened not in spite of the difficult periods, but because of them.
These experiences will stay with me for the rest of my life. Not just because of the scale of them, but because of what they represented. You don’t always have to have things figured out to end up somewhere truly meaningful.
If you’re in the middle of uncertainty right now, I’d gently say this: the discomfort you’re feeling might just be the compass pointing you somewhere worth going.
Whilst I sympathise with anyone going through a redundancy process, I am oddly grateful for mine, and I wouldn’t have things any other way. Without them, I know I wouldn’t be where I am today. The opportunities, the people, and the moments I’ve gained far outweigh the difficulty it took to get here.
