The LAAM Off-Site

Two weeks ago I was given my own event to organize, which is a great compliment and has been a lot of fun. I've been working with the Large Agency and Advertiser Marketing (LAAM) on their EMEA Off-Site. Basically, a chance for the entire team from across Europe, the Middle East and Asia to come together and discuss best practices, goals, and forecasts for Q4 and into 2012.

I thought this would be a good time to walk you through a Google event from start to finish. Because this is only 20-30 people and 2 days, its only taken me about 2 weeks. But you can imagine the time and man power it takes to put together an event such as Cannes.

Here are the phases of planning:

1. Meet with department head to get list of people to be invited and overall needs of the project
2. Send an email to the team to get estimated number of attendees
3. Look into venues in central London - visit sites, get rates, accessibility, tech availability, food and beverage menus and pricing and photos. Compile all info into a document.
4. Meet with department head to go over the document and choose the venue.
5. Confirm venue with credit card details and deposit.
6. Meet with department head to create agenda for two days - timing of welcome dinner, arrivals, breakfast, daytime sessions, lunch, afternoon team building activity and event dinner.
7. Look into team-building activities. Google is always looking for new and exciting ideas. I looked into several event planning companies. Eventually, I decided to create my own activity with the team at Wahaca Soho (pictured above). I felt that their style and Googley decor would be a perfect fit!
8. Propose team-building events to department head and make final decision.
10. Find appropriate restaurants with capacity for 30 people for Monday welcome dinner and Tuesday evening dinner.
11. Confirm details and numbers with each of the venues.
12. Compile final budget for approval.
13. Come up with ice-breaker suggestions
14. Assemble a Project Handbook which you can view here with all details!

These are very simplified steps, but as you can see even with a small number of people, the details become extremely important and can truly make or break an event.

In the end, this event was very successful and the team gave me great feedback. Unfortunately I was on holiday and was unable to attend!

Networking - The Key to Success

On Monday I was assigned a new project called the YouTube NextUp Creator Camp. The camp will be a 5-day intensive production program designed for 25 winners of YouTube's Next UP contest which will be held over the next month in order to find the best and most creative YouTubers across Europe. We will then bring them to London to produce their own videos with professional editors and filmmakers.

I was brought onto the project because of my experience in the music industry and for the sole purpose of finding appropriate studio space for the videos to be shot. I found it extremely interesting that it was automatically assumed that I would have contacts at studio locations because of my music background. I never worked on music video sets or productions and certainly have no experience or direct contacts at locations within London.

This is a clear example of the importance of strong networking skills and the ability to maintain relationships for a long period of time. My team here at Google expects a lot from me, and they expect that from my contacts in PR in the music industry, I would be able to network my way to finding some studio spaces in London. It proved to be a rather long network of referral after referral from an old PR rep at Universal in the NY offices, to a video department rep at Universal in NYC, to a video department rep at Universal in London, to a locations scout at LocationWorks in London. Finally, I met with Andy from Locationworks and scouted some great venues.

This is a lesson learned that keeping in touch with contacts from former companies is ALWAYS a great idea, and that pushing boundaries to make connections and network is a vital part of success in the CCIs!