Far too much time has passed since our last Global Meeting, and it was the highest time to meet again. For some participants, it was actually the first personal contact with their GlobalCom colleagues. The agenda of the meeting was packed, and there were quite a number of new partners present: Federico Unnia from Echo Comunicazione d’Impresa (Italy, Healthcare), Michael Patzer from Patzer PR (Germany, Healthcare), Irene Tato from Salud y Comunicación (Spain, Healthcare), Hanna Kleber from KPRN network (Germany, Tourism) and Ingo Harding from Public Link (Germany, Consumer & Lifestyle) took their chance to introduce themselves and their agencies to the PR network.
In the second half of day 1, the competence teams or task forces were “on stage”. It was simply amazing to see how many clients GlobalCom agencies of the first specialised teams – such as ICT – have already shared. But even several members of the more recently established competence teams (Tourism, Healthcare & Energy) have already shared clients – sometimes even without even knowing (yet).
But of course it was not all about prospects, to-do-lists and the like – the meeting also provided insights into various aspects of communication business as well. Cheryl Gale, Principal at March PR (Boston, USA), presented a case study on how Twitter can be used in PR and Communication. After listening to her “learn more about Twitter” was probably on the to-do-list of most participants.
One novelty for our global meetings was the idea to invite potential cooperation partners and network clients to the meeting. Dr. Johannes Niggl, Head of Division “Invest in Bavaria” at the Ministry of Economics in Bavaria, discussed the communicative challenges to present Bavaria as an investment location in an increasingly competitive world. Stuart Hurst, International Market Access Director at Nycomed, introduced his company and the expectations he would have regarding an international PR Network. For him PR partners worldwide are not simply “the voice of Nycomed” in foreign markets. He also expects them to act as “transmitters”, as they have an insight into the different healthcare systems and national healthcare policies.
Well, and after all, it’s not only about learning and listening… sitting together, enjoying a nice Milanese dinner and having great conversations was a very important part of the meeting. Thanks to the great support of our Italian PR partner Prima Pagina, everything was well organized. Thinking about the location for the next meeting, maybe we should integrate a partner agency from the Seychelles or some place like that into the network…
Claudia Wittwer