As part of The PC Agency’s membership of the global agency network TLN (Travel Lifestyle Network), we offer an exchange programme for our team, which enables some of our rising stars to travel to a sister agency around the world and experience a week working with them. This immersive experience allows our teams to learn from one another, discover other key markets and exchange all-important knowledge face-to-face.
Towards the end of 2022, Ellie Lowry and Rosie Burrill from The PC Agency were fortunate enough to embark on trips to two of TLN’s fantastic PR agencies: Zapwater Communications in Chicago and Big Ambitions in Cape Town. These week-long visits were a wonderful opportunity to meet the faces behind these agencies, as well as learning about alternative ways of working, and exploring the iconic cities of Chicago and Cape Town.
Zapwater Communications, Chicago
During October 2022, Rosie Burrill was awarded the excellent opportunity to spend a week at the Chicago-based offices of Zapwater. Zapwater focuses on hospitality, travel and design, with a myriad of clients across these categories. During her week in the Windy City Rosie attended the annual Golden Trumpet Awards, as well as joining a selection of client calls, internal meetings and plenty of delicious lunches including Chicago-style pizza! Rosie also managed to visit one of Zapwater’s clients - SkyDeck - and took part in capturing social content, and assisting the social team. During her visit, Rosie had regular meetings with the Zapwater Chicago team, as well as partaking in team brainstorming sessions.
Whilst outside of the office, Rosie took the opportunity to experience all that Chicago has to offer, with a visit to Chicago’s many landmarks including the famous bean-shaped Cloud Gate and the Willis Tower. The week also consisted of a Chicago Bulls game at the United Center and a boat-ride on the iconic Chicago architecture tour. All in all, the trip to Chicago was a huge success, it was a truly unique learning experience, providing Rosie with tools and knowledge which can later be used to help her further develop at The PC Agency.
Big Ambitions, Cape Town
Then in November 2022, Ellie Lowry had the invaluable opportunity to visit the sunny city of Cape Town and spend a week learning as much as possible with Natalia Rosa and the whole Big Ambitions team. Getting stuck into work with Big Ambitions, a specialist content, communications, and marketing company, Ellie had the chance to attend an in person client strategy session with Giltedge, attend an ILTM Africa event, and work on the Flight Centre South Africa account. Ellie spent the week learning about PR, social media, and marketing in the South African market, listening in on team catch up calls and client overviews as part of the experience. Ellie learned integral aspects of how the team works, creating fresh ideas to take back to The PC Agency, as well as sharing information and advice on how her London based team operates.
Out of the office, the team at Big Ambitions really went out of their way to welcome Ellie to Cape Town, with a cable car ride up Table Mountain, a trip to Boulders Beach to see the penguins, and the chance to try some early morning wild swimming at the Bantry Bay tidal pool. Ellie also managed to visit Robben Island and even squeezed in a trip to Stellenbosch. Overall, it was an amazing opportunity to travel to Cape Town and spend the week with Natalia and the team, allowing her to build upon a great network of connections and take home a wealth of PR, marketing, and social media knowledge from South Africa.
With both Rosie and Ellie sharing their separate learnings with the team at The PC Agency, it is clear that the Travel Lifestyle Network exchange programme is an excellent perk of the network, a fantastic opportunity for employees, and for all of the agencies within TLN to learn from one another.
During November, Justine Kaeser also spent an immersive week with the GroupExpression team in the beautiful city of Paris. Justine spent the week connecting with her counterparts and catching up on common clients. Justine’s blog post on her experience with GroupExpression is also available to read on the TLN website.
Overall, all three employees had a fantastic time on their separate exchange programmes and were able to broaden their PR skills and gain experience only available to members of the network.
