Global Recruitment Marketing Agency Summit: A Recent Trip Across the Pond

 

I recently knocked out a bucket list trip that blended some amazing personal and professional adventures I’ll never forget.

 

This trip to the UK, destination London, was supposed to happen in May of 2020, though for obvious reasons it didn’t. I’d been looking forward to the annual OneAgent summit since our Portugal trip in 2019, so I could once again join our entire network of international recruitment marketing (RM) agency partners from all over the world. The planned agenda was rich with discussion topics about further strengthening and elevating our global project collaboration, exploration of tech solutions, and creative ideation around delivering global strategies at local scale. Finally we collectively chose the dates and put it in the books.

Before the meeting, I decided to use some vacation time to visit some yet-to-be-seen areas of the UK.  First on that list is the Welsh city of Cardiff where I couldn’t wait to explore my heritage; My great great grandfather left the small town of Pontlottyn (just 30 miles north of Cardiff) to emigrate to the U.S. in the 1860s. In and around Wales, we took in the sights, sounds, and suds (ivy-laden promenades and limestone castles, medieval church bells and pubs aplenty). I could go on and on (it was all so divine), but we bid Cardiff a “hwyl fawr” (a big goodbye) and headed into London for the long-awaited summit.

On the first night we convened for drinks and soaked in the view at the top of The Shard, a spectacular 72-story skyscraper, formerly the London Bridge Tower. I joined employer brand and recruitment marketing leaders from Denmark, Sweden, The Netherlands, France, Australia, Singapore, Shanghai, Poland, Turkey, Germany and of course, Great Britain. We all discussed our respective labor markets and ways we were partnering with clients to combat such fierce competition, which is prevalent across the globe.

The next couple of days, we immersed ourselves in conversation about process, efficiencies, specialized offerings, and construct development. I participated in a think tank exercise with employer branding and recruitment marketing leaders from a half-dozen different countries, who all spoke English as a second language.

 

 

It reinforced what a privilege it is to have partnerships built on trust and the shared vision of serving our clients ever-better.

Back in Chicago I shared details of the trip with colleagues, and more specifically with our client services teams who are overseeing projects for our global clients alongside our global partners. Being with our OneAgent team one day, and our Shaker team the next, made us all seem so connected.

I still marvel at the difference between the start of my career and what we’re doing now. I couldn’t have imagined that when I started my career in a small four-person recruitment ad agency straight out of college, that 29 years in the future I’d be the representative of an international agency within an amazing consortium of employer branding and recruitment marketing leaders from across the globe. Nor did I imagine I’d eventually roam the hillside where my great-grandfather spent his childhood. But, the twists and turns of life landed me in both places, all within a trip that will remain unforgettable.