At a recent event, a client said to me, “it doesn’t matter what the event is, if Beyond Encryption invites you, you immediately say yes, because you know it will be brilliant!”
As far as event management goes, that’s high praise indeed.
But it’s deeper-rooted than just a few drinks - it’s forged within the relationship of the people in our team and the clients we are fortunate enough to work with.
These are long-standing relationships, and when you’re spending time with anybody you should probably try to enjoy it at least, right?
So I started to think about what it is about our business that stands out. Product, obviously.
But if I had to name the thing which makes us unique? It’s our people.
Hardly revolutionary, I know that because I worked in HCM (Human Capital Management) tech before joining BE, and before that, third-party administration, all with a similar angle.
But what I really mean is this specific group of people.
We are collectively weird and wonderful in equal measure.
When people enquire about what it’s like to work at BE, the first thing I would always say is that it’s magical.
Not because there’s anything mystical going on, but because it’s un-formulaic in its dynamic, yet authentic in its delivery.
And that delivery is built on an incredible foundation of trust, but more than that, it’s heart-centred and, by virtue, run on high emotional intelligence.
For us, leading with heart means making decisions with empathy and awareness of their impact on our team, our customers, and our wider community.
It means communicating openly and authentically, creating space for honest dialogue, and making sure every individual feels valued and heard.
It’s not separate from our business success - it’s how we achieve it.
We are evolving in a time where AI is bandied about as the silver bullet to all of our worldly problems.
Where the barrier to entry for these tools is nominal in the grand scheme of things, we all have an opportunity to level up.
And it’s an amazing tool for replicating logic, accelerating decision-making, sometimes just structuring disparate ideas for commonality, or devising a healthy eating plan skimmed from the best of what the internet has to offer.
In the widespread LLM models - like ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini - we see the ability to reflect our thinking back to us, and even simulate empathy as a mimic to our very existence. But it isn’t human.
It cannot replicate the frequency of authenticity, the very human energy which is felt, not programmed.
What we have at BE is the essence of humanity, and it’s not just AI that couldn’t replicate it. I don’t think any other business could.
Jumping back to my claim of being heart-centred, I wanted to share with you an anecdotal story to demonstrate exactly what it’s like to work here, and then perhaps you’ll understand why we do what we do, because of the people around us.
And I feel like I am in good company.
Towards the end of last year, I took my daughter to one of our favourite walks here on the Isle of Wight.
There is a hide in the woods there, and when we arrive, an older lady was sat watching the birds.
As she stood up to leave, she handed my daughter a walnut.
She instructed her to sit quietly and hold it out, and see what happens.
Well, to her surprise a little flash of orange darted along through the bushes and scurried up the side of the hide.
A few short seconds later saw a bushy red tail, beady little eyes, and tiny paws come towards my daughter’s outstretched hand.
The red squirrel took the walnut out of her hand very carefully and darted off to enjoy it a few feet away.
I have never seen her more taken aback and joyful than in that exact moment. And I am so glad I caught it on film.
It was magical to watch. Now, I showed this video to my colleagues who couldn’t believe it either.
But what happened next shows what it’s like to be a member of this special team.
When I came into the office next, there was a bag of walnuts fresh from our CTO’s garden. A gift for my daughter to fuel her newfound friend.
In reply, she wanted to create a thank you video, which she did, and was gratefully received.
That same weekend, completely serendipitously, our families happened to be staying in the same part of the country.
We were off to a wedding; they were visiting family. On the way to their hotel, he was passing ours with his wife. So he stopped off and went in.
He left a handwritten note at reception - from the squirrel - thanking her for being so kind, along with a selection of sweets.
She still talks about this, every time we go to feed the squirrels.
This wasn’t a grand gesture. It wasn’t strategic. It wasn’t performative.
It was human.
In an era where AI can draft our emails, summarise our meetings, optimise our workflows, and even mimic empathy; the one thing it cannot manufacture is genuine care.
It cannot create the invisible thread of trust that forms when people consistently show up for each other in small, meaningful ways.
That thread is what allows teams to move quickly without second-guessing intent.
It’s what makes collaboration frictionless. It’s what turns colleagues into allies and customers into advocates.
At Beyond Encryption, that culture isn’t a line in a handbook. It’s lived.
In walnuts from a garden. In handwritten notes from imaginary squirrels (don’t tell my daughter that!).
And in the way we treat each other when nobody is watching.
In a world accelerating towards artificial intelligence, our competitive advantage is profoundly human intelligence.
Technology may power our product. But authenticity powers our performance. And that is something no algorithm can replicate.
Sam Kendall, 26.02.26