Years of Growing Places
Shaping places, brands, and communities since 2010.
Announcement
Event
Conference
Project
2010
January
The Start!
White Label is born and moved into its first office in Carolyn House.
March
Merton Business Awards
White Label’s first business award contract, held at the All England Lawn Tennis club. It was followed by the launch of eight business award programmes across South London and Kent as well as the Essex Housing Awards.
June
Croydon Built Environment Exhibition (BEE)
White Label ran a series of successful events and exhibitions in the town centre ensuring Croydon would be featured in the London Festival of Architecture.
November
Develop Croydon Conference
White Label founders Katharine and Jo brought the public and private sectors together for the inaugural Develop Croydon Conference to discuss how best to take the town forward. The initiative led to the setting up of White Label’s community interest company, the Develop Croydon Forum, which still represents key stakeholders across the private, public and third sectors who want to contribute to the regeneration and economic growth of the borough.
Croydon Christmas Light Switch-On
White Label first began working for one of its longest-standing clients, Croydon BID, working alongside Basil Brush and a host of local celebrities to support the first of many Croydon Christmas Light Switch-Ons.
2011
June
Big Breakfast in IKEA Croydon
White Label worked in partnership with IKEA to create Croydon’s first speed networking business club. By 2014 the initiative had expanded across the four stores within the London IKEA network and then to Brighton, Kent and Milton Keynes.
August
Croydon Riots
As Croydon BID’s communications arm, the White Label team provided full support for the town centre – working to develop contact with as many high street traders as possible, liaising with all local businesses over police updates, advice, supporting convening meetings and providing a seamless live updates service (despite the closure of our own office on police security advice.)
September
Mayor of London Croydon Riot Recovery Programme
White Label won the Mayor of London contract to lead a major marketing and events programme, playing a crucial role in setting up traders associations in the most impacted areas. The successful rebranding of South End led to Croydon Food & Music Festival which is now one of Croydon’s largest and most popular annual events.
2013
June
Croydon Heritage Festival
Working on behalf of Whitgift Foundation White Label developed an annual event celebrating the past, present, and future of Croydon The festival highlighted Croydon's history, from Roman times to modern developments, and featured open access to historic buildings like Croydon Airport and Whitgift Almshouses.
July
London Mayor announcement
London Mayor Boris Johnson visits Croydon for the second time in a year (he was previously at the Develop Croydon Conference) to announce the town centre JV of Hammerson and Westfield.
October
Meet the Employer/ Your Lightbulb Moment
The first of many White Label initiatives to support youth employment in the borough, Meet the Employer in October 2013 was a joint initiative with Croydon Council and DWP supporting young jobseekers gain 1:1 short interviews direct with employers alongside interview and job seeking advice. The work culminated with The Lightbulb Moment in October 2024 and continues to the present day with our Careers Fairs and our Post-16 Prospectuses.
2014
June
Platform@Ruskin Square
Engaged by Stanhope Schroders, White Label created the ‘meanwhile use’ project of transforming a new walkway in the Ruskin Square development, into a vibrant community events space. The Platform@Ruskin Square served as a catalyst for community engagement. Regular themed events saw the team install everything from a Cheers Christmas Bar to a beach, a giant Wimbledon TV screening, a pitch and putt course and a BMX track.
December
X Factor in Croydon!
Event management for finalist and eventual winner, Ben Haenow, to play a homecoming gig at short notice. With less than one week to the event, White Label worked with Croydon BID and Croydon Council amid tight security. With just five working days to liaise with local authorities, the police, Thames TV, press and make a lot of last-minute decisions, the show went on. A capacity crowd packed North End in Croydon for a safe, family-friendly event which pushed all the right buttons for Ben, for our client and for Croydon. And what can we say? Ben WON - congratulations Ben!
2015
February
Croydon Business Awards
The inaugural Croydon Business Excellence Awards launched at the new Interchange Building with A ‘Going for Gold’ theme throughout the campaign and culminated in a ceremony at Fairfield Halls.
June
Pearl Izumi Cycle Tour
Event management for the Pearl Izumi Cycle Tour through Croydon town centre (which included a new first for us – how to temporarily tarmac over tram tracks so the cyclists could race and then restore the tracks for commuter travel)
August
On the Move!
Moved to White Label’s current home in Suffolk House, Croydon.
2016
September
Nightwatch Conference
White Label event managed and supported the conference from start to finish, raising awareness of Croydon’s charity for the homeless.
2017
June
Kingston Futures Conference
Held in the Rose Theatre shortly after Grenfell where there was a powerful debate on the housing sector.
September
Warhol Croydon
Staged a large-scale, outdoor public exhibition of street art homages to Andy Warhol in collaboratin with RISEgallery, alongside a month-long series of events, talks, screenings, workshops, and guided tours.
2018
February
Launch of Capital West London
The formal launch of Capital West London was held at Wembley. A broader marketing, PR, and communications campaign launch followed in June at the London Real Estate Forum. The first Capital West London Growth Summit was held in October 2018.
October
Uh-Oh!
An unexploded WW2 bomb caused disruption at the Croydon Business Excellence Awards but the team managed to keep the event on track, relocating the drinks reception until the site was cleared.
2019
Shortlisted for a lot of awards!
Inward investment and trade programme Capital West London was recognised with a "Highly Commended" award at the Property Awards for its innovative approach in the Irvine Sellar Award category. The programme, which involved six London boroughs collaborating, was lauded for its groundbreaking initiative and transformative impact.
Develop Croydon was a finalist in the Planning Awards for its partnership working.
White Label was the FSB’s area finalist for both Employer of the Year and
Community Business of the Year.
2020
March
COVID Lockdown
As White Label reluctantly closed its office and switched to work from home, the team re-focused their energies on supporting SMEs, digital marketing and hosting online events.
Daily business bulletins
Shortage of easy-to-access business advice in the rapidly-changing landscape led to White Label creating a daily bulletin for SMEs that reported live on business initiatives announced at the daily Downing Street conferences which became the ‘go-to’ resource distributed across the many regions where White Label operated.
We Mean Business
Regular online workshops and debates to enable Croydon’s SMEs to get free advice and support on how to survive and manage through the pandemic.
Online interactive events
White Label also launched a series of highly successful and interactive online events, including:
Real Estate Live, a highly interactive online industry conference held for a week-long
programme three times annually allowing places to share their investment messaging and
opportunities.
Scotland is Now: Race to Net Zero – commission to support ‘Team Scotland’, a partnership
between the Scottish Government, Scottish Development International and major Scottish
cities hosting their own ground-breaking two-day international virtual conference as
Scotland geared up to host the 26th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26).
Hybrid conference for Hertfordshire LEP broadcast live from Warner Bros Studios with a mix of online and in person guests.
The first Building Garden Communities Conference – which has since been an in-person event, now titled Building New Communities.
2021
June
White Label expands reach
White Label continued to expand its reach, working across the UK from Moray in North East Scotland down to Chichester on the south coast.
October
Return Post COVID
We return to Suffolk House post COVID.
November:
LAST MILE Conference
First LAST MILE Conference was hosted at The Postal Museum.
2022
January
Liverpool Investor Tour
Real Estate Live UK went LIVE. White Label worked with the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority and Liverpool Place Partnership to deliver a two-day hybrid event which saw hundreds of delegates tuning in online while 80 targeted delegates made up of investors, agents and developers joined an exclusive invite-only dinner and the live debates in Liverpool, followed by an investor coach tour of the city region.
November
London Gatwick Economic Summit / Heathrow Business Summit
Worked with London Gatwick to deliver the first London Gatwick Economic Summit as well a project managing the Heathrow Business Summit, including their 25th Anniversary event.
2023
March
Borough of Culture
Appointed as the marketing agency to support Croydon‘s year as London Borough of Culture.
London Stand at MIPIM
First commissioned to curate the conference programme, and later deliver the stand’s marketing.
October
UK Cities and Partners
White Label brought together UK cities, regions and private sector organisations for its first delegation and pavilion at EXPO REAL - Europe’s largest international real estate and investment trade fair.
2024
August
Gatwick Airport Economic Zone
Two years’ of stakeholder engagement across the region’s public and private sectors culminates in the launch of the Gatwick Airport Economic Zone.
2025
January
UK Screen Investment Programme
Launch of the UK Screen Investment Programme in partnership with Hertfordshire Futures.