You go nowhere for months and then suddenly three come along at once. In the last few weeks I’ve been to Sweden, Paris and back to Sweden again. Of course this isn’t necessarily a bad thing – I’ve gained a few miles on my airline loyalty cards, but more importantly, it’s given me the opportunity to meet with my peers who I work with on a day to day basis, but have never met.
Although modern technology allows us to communicate easily with our colleagues and clients wherever they may be, there’s still a lot to be said for face-to-face meetings, particularly as a PR working on an international account. I work with agencies based all over the place, from Mumbai to Paris, Warsaw to Dubai and we’re all trying to achieve the same thing for our client, so why not get us all together so we can talk about what we’re doing in each of our regions, share ideas and make some plans? It’s how we used to do things, so why not all get together every once in a while and put a face to a name.
Of course it would be foolish to ignore the environmental and economic issue of getting everyone together for three days of meetings and in a time of recession, this is particularly poignant. However, from a business point of view and personal experience, my last few trips have been particularly successful – not only have I come back to the office armed with ideas and plans, the fact that these people actually now know who I am has meant that lines of communication have been fully opened and we’re all on the same page. Of course, there is a certain investment required from both client and agency, but the alignment created at these meetings pays dividends throughout the year – you could say that these meetings are the gift that keeps on giving, to both the agency and the client. And this, I think is invaluable.
Submitted By Kathryn Cotsworth
