ONWARD, the theme of our 2021 Annual Review, signifies the resilience and results-oriented focus of our community in another challenging and unpredictable year. At the beginning of 2021, there was renewed hope that the pandemic would soon be behind us. Unfortunately, that was not the case, and 2021 truly tested our stamina and endurance in a second year fraught with disruption.
2021 was marked by ongoing public health concerns, supply chain issues, political unrest, a mental health crisis, and financial uncertainties on a massive scale, which have all had significant impacts on the global workforce, international business growth, and overseas investment. With all of these challenges, professional service firms have been busier than ever assisting their clients, leading to other stresses such as fatigue and burnout.
It is impressive how our members continue to deliver excellent service despite impacts on their workforce, office environment, and personal well-being. Our members are not simply enduring the chaos of the past two years. Instead, they continue to innovate and adapt to forge a path forward. We are a strong and collaborative community of problem solvers combining human ingenuity, expertise, and technical information to offer solutions to our clients. The power to generate a steady cadence in an unpredictable world has been an extraordinary strength of the TAG Alliances’ community. Throughout this year’s Annual Review, we share many examples of how our members have successfully collaborated and engaged with each other and selflessly contributed and given back to their communities.
TAG Alliances continues to move ONWARD from strength to strength. We retained our ranking as the third-largest multidisciplinary alliance globally for the seventh year in a row, achieved “Elite” status with Chambers and Partners for the 9th year, and continued to grow as an organization with several prominent new firms added to our membership. It is a testament to our members and the strength of TAG Alliances that we continue to weather the storm, create value for our members and their clients, and have been able to prosper despite the ongoing disruption to the global marketplace.
I am incredibly grateful for our fantastic team at TAG Alliances. Their passion, dedication, and creativeness, combined with their strong work ethic, resilience, and perseverance, have proved to be a winning combination. The last year has also taught us some valuable lessons: how to protect our people as best as possible, the need for constant connection, and how best create a balance between personal life and work to ensure a positive mental state. We learned the importance of creating time for friends and family, to make time to celebrate our achievements, and the health benefits from occasional laughter.
As the global pandemic transitions into the endemic stage of the disease in many countries, restrictions on fully vaccinated travellers have started to ease. It was fabulous to finally get back together at our pop-up events in England, Canada, and Belgium this past October. What was once an activity we all took for granted was an experience that was extremely special and significant. These in-person events created a sense of rejoice, connection, and empathy that cannot be replicated through video. There truly is no replacement for in-person connections in developing relationships. We could not be happier to resume our first in-person International Conference this Spring 2022 in our beautiful hometown of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. We look forward to you all joining us to raise a toast to the enduring spirit of our global community.
