Last Thursday marked the second annual Felicity Urban Retreat at the wonderful Artscape Wychwood Barns. It was a great opportunity for our expanding virtual team to get to mingle and network over delicious treats, great workshops and our first-ever client panel.
To start the day, we went back in time to create a low-tech social network. Each team member drew our social profiles – on paper – and then identified our connections with each other based on similar experiences and interests.
Our first official presenter was HR specialist Lis McClean from Rushlight. Lis led a dynamic and energetic session about how Felicity can enable our associates to improve from project to project and flourish in their professional careers.
After a delicious lunch, we all went outside to take a Felicity team photo. It was the perfect weather!
Next up on the agenda was our client panel. Thank you to Steve Kee (Insurance Bureau of Canada), David Kincaid (LEVEL5 Strategy Group), David Moran (Coca-Cola Canada) and Kathryn Fitzwilliam (Breakfast Cereals Canada) for taking the time to come speak with us. Our four guests shared their insights into the ever-changing world of communications and allowed our agency team to gain a deeper understanding of some of the challenges of working client-side. We were also privileged to have a Q&A with our panel, where topics such as the value and challenges of working with an agency, industry trends and performance measurements were at the forefront. Importantly, though, we came away with some concrete ideas of what our team can do to ensure we are being our clients’ best business partners.
Following the panel, our keynote speaker David Kincaid from Level 5 Strategy Group gave an engaging talk on the powerful role emotions play in driving brand perceptions.
Finally, this day would not have been complete without a little (or big!) wine tasting, thanks to our wonderful client, Nova Scotia’s Benjamin Bridge. Our team experienced the East Coast’s most acclaimed wine, Nova 7. “Slightly bubbly and completely splendid” indeed.
From coming face-to-face with our virtual associates, to discussing ways to make the way we do things at Felicity even better, our team had a productive and enjoyable Urban Retreat!