Press Pillay Rewind: The Year in Review

From new clients, to running conferences, to turning one-year old, Press Pillay has had a chaotic and exciting 2018. We are so grateful to be able to reflect on all our accomplishments and continue building a strong agency. We wanted to share our journey with you from this past year—take a look at our year in review!

January

A new year means new beginnings, and what better way to kickoff the new year than with Press Pillay being named the official agency partner of the Dovetail for their Winter Women’s Summit? For those of you who don’t know, Dovetail is a community of female entrepreneurs who are invited for a weekend away to attend workshops, mastermind sessions, and to create long-lasting business and friend relationships. Our founder, Nesh Pillay, has been invited to attend the last few summits and was more than thrilled to become official agency partners with this inspiring and wonderful organization.

February

February—the month of love and chocolates and content meetings. Press Pillay used this month to focus on developing fresh new strategies for everything from our blog to our socials to client work. Plus, we also started getting some love calls for Nesh to speak at events around the city! Check out our Twitter to stay updated on all of Nesh’s latest podcasts and speaking gigs.

March

Press Pillay had the honour of working with the Toronto Vegetarian Association on the 10th anniversary of their vegan bake-off. The treats were delicious and adorable! Congratulations again to Mindful Macaron and Alli Diskin for winning!

April

Nesh Pillay spoke on the Technology Panel at the Scale Up Conference. Naturally, the Robin Hood of PR, was her natural and confident self. Later on, Nesh appeared on Tyler Wagner’s show, Business Blast Podcast.

We also started working with amazing bike-meets-tech company, Vanmoof, for their U.S. launch!

May

Press Pillay is moving up and moving out! Our agency packed up our things and moved into CSI Spadina—a beautiful building filled with social innovators who are working towards a better future for Toronto. We filled the small office with big ideas for upcoming months.

We also got to work with and attend the Beanstock Festival! Press Pillay had a little reveal for all the coffee lovers out there. Who knew our agency doubled-up as an art workshop?

June

The sun is out, the snow is gone, and we were ready for a summer full of hard work. Press Pillay had a busy month in June—nothing but proposals, meetings, networking, meetings, brainstorming sessions, and did I mention meetings? No sleep for the Press Pillay minions, but that’s what coffee is for, right?

We could not be more proud of the work we were producing in June because it led us to a pretty satisfying victory in July!

July

Three words: Our. Best. Month.

Our work paid off and Press Pillay celebrated our best month as an agency in July! Champagne all around!

Not to mention, we introduced a new intern to the agency in July, Mishka. She is a Rotman Commerce student who handles our social accounts and creates some of our blog posts (including this one!).

Nesh Pillay tackled another podcast this month, Between Two Flags, with the United Nations Association in Canada, where she answered questions sent in from clients and viewers.

August

Another exciting month for our agency; Press Pillay turned one-year old in Canada! Champagne all around...again! We took this time to reflect on how far the agency has come and how far it will go. From working in a shoebox office filled with papers and stress to a decently-sized office filled with papers and stress— that’s what I call improvement! (Plus, only the best kind of stress, of course!)

This agency would not move forward if it weren’t for the wonderful workers who show up every morning bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. Thank you to our amazing Press Pillay team, your hard-work doesn’t go unnoticed for a second. Here’s to all of you!

September

Ah, September. School starts, leaves fall, and we switched buildings again! CSI Spadina moved across the street and our decently-sized office was upgraded to a respectably-sized office with great selfie lighting.

In addition to moving, this month was full of nothing but craziness. We were getting ready for our big event that was less than a month away—we were working on perfecting the final details to create the greatest communications conference we possibly could.

October

Spooky season was finally upon us. Take it from us, October was definitely a spooky month. We were running around like chickens with our heads cut-off in preparation for the big day. Have you ever heard of Comms Week? It’s only the greatest communications conference Toronto has ever seen, hosted by yours truly.

Press Pillay brought Communications Week all the way from New York to Toronto for the first time ever! We would like to thank everyone who spoke on a panel, volunteered and helped make the day such a success. We hope everyone who attended was impressed with the speakers and the SWAG - we definitely were! If you missed it, don’t worry, Press Pillay is working on something extra special for next year—Noted North! Learn all about what’s coming for you and don’t forget to follow along on social.

November

Nesh was on two panels this month: Negotiating to Win by Tamil Women Rising, and Entrepreneurship and Mental Health by Sequoia Content Studio. Amongst other things, Nesh shared her own personal experiences and how she overcame her battle with mental illness and provided advice for others currently going through the battle.

December

As the year winds down and people are rushed with the hectic holiday season, Press Pillay wanted to take this time to focus on giving back to families who are in need. We teamed up with Community Angels for the second year in a row to sponsor families in high-risk communities. Our lovely partners, clients, and friends have been so generous in helping to give back this holiday season.

We are so privileged in our everyday lives that it is easy to forget that even something as simple as food isn’t easily accessible for everyone. A big message that Press Pillay has pushed this year and will continue pushing is the importance of empathy in society! Stay tuned for an empathy project that has been in the making for quite some time now. You won’t want to miss this.

We hope everyone had an amazing year and that next year is filled with nothing but success and happiness. Happy holidays and we will see you all in the new year!

Love,

The Press Pillay fam.