A wonderful shot of the boys’ Speed Budapest ‘Reservoir Blog’ team snapped by Speed’s Neil Carter (@coq_au_ginge) and edited in the cloud using Picnik.
Economy underwater? Speed meets in a Budapest spa
As part of the Speed Budapest search challenge, this is one of many posts you’ll see on my blog today that may be written by me. Then again, it might not be.
Speed Budapest began this morning with the boys holding a campaign plotting meeting in the bar of the Mercure Budapest Buda, within earshot of the girls, already busy putting up some half-baked content so they could enjoy the rest of the morning at a spa.
But for the boys, spas don’t just mean relaxation, they mean business. Deep in the recession’s bowels, we’d decided to spend our lean Christmas party budget on taking the whole Speed company to Budapest rather than pay London prices.
Speed Budapest is partly a training session, partly a party, partly a company meeting and very definitely a ‘team motivational experience’.
Speed’s boys did our search campaign planning meeting this morning at the Széchenyi Bath Spa in Budapest. Here’s Steve Earl and me at the spa, ready for the off.
Speed Budapest #speedbudapest
The Speed team is in Budapest for its annual off site and planning meeting.
In addition to the business of the day we’ve been set a challenge that sees the boys pitted against the girls in an old fashioned battle of the sexes.
The competition couldn’t be simpler: create content on our site that ranks as high as possible on Google for the search term “Speed Budapest”.
Dan has had the first crack on behalf of the boys. You can follow our antics via #speedbudapest on Twitter.
The winner will be declared at 6pm local time. Google will be the final arbiter.
Speed profiled in Rare Business; new book on relationship economy
I caught up with Adrian Swinscoe @adrianswinscore this morning. He’s just written a book called Rare Business. It’s a call to action for managers in the post-industrialised economy that makes the case for the relationship economy based on customer service, people and leadership.
I am chuffed to bits that Speed is one of the companies profiled in the book, in great company alongside Beales Hotels, Brandhouse, Firefish, Happy and Weboptimiser, and others.
Ellie and Freya on agency life, PR and their influences
Do you remember your very first time in an office? The realisation that you wouldn’t get another six-week summer holiday for 40-odd years. I digress.
For ten youngsters aged from one-to-13 years, today has been their first taste of what working in an office is like. Here are the views of my daughters of what the Speed workplace is like, and what sort of thing I actually do all day, in their own words.
Freya (age 10)
The thing that surprised me about this office is that it’s not like lots of other offices. This office is bright and cheery I love the office board – it has lots of pictures and cool stuff on it. What didn’t surprise me was that all the people in the office are usually at computers or on phones, but I still love this office.
What I think PR companies do is get journalists to write about them to make them more popular. The PR company can do this by computer, telly and lots more.
I think the thing that makes me buy things is mostly my friends, they buy it then tell me about things, so I want to go and buy them.
Ellie (age 11)
The thing that surprised me the most about the office was that the office wasn’t just rows of computers. The office has a reception, meeting room, kitchen and then came the rows of computers.
Speed helps lots of different companies get publicity. The people also help companies get more customers.
The office is in some ways very different from a school and in others not so different. The office is quieter then a school and more intense. It is like a school because everybody knows what there doing and you have to be in by 9am.
What influences me the most on what to buy are usually my friends. My friends recommend things to me but I also look at what they’re wearing and what they talk about.
Speed’s big bring-your-kids-to-work-day experiment
The nervousness in the air at Speed is palpable. Tuesday next week is bring-your-kids-to-work-day.
Those with children are worried about how they’ll behave and those that don’t are concerned about the impact that ten new faces between 1- and 13-years old around the office will have on their working day.
I will almost certainly be the first person to have a tantrum.
It seemed like such a great idea when it was originally planned. Having just sat on a call to run through what we’re going to be doing during the day I’m not so sure.
But that’s the point. It’s an experiment. It’ll be an opportunity for us all to see a difference side of each other, whether child, parent or colleague.
We’ve media workshops planned, mood boards to create, social games to test and the launch of a new game to plan.
I am sure that it’ll be great. My daughters will be joined by some of the other Speed offspring to blog about their experience here.
Mucking about on the river
The Speed crew escaped London to spend a day on the river in Cambridge yesterday during which:
- one of our number took the nautical fancy dress theme a little too far
- we sneaked into a item that a BBC crew were filming for BBC Breakfast
- we narrowly avoided a five-punt pile up as we navigated the Fen Causeway
- but eventually, with the addition of paddles, we all got to grips with controlling a punt and managed to line up our flotilla of six punts under the bridge behind King’s College
- spent a glorious afternoon enjoying the hospitality of the Granta, a very splendid river side pub
Company away days are variously billed as team building exercises or bonding sessions. But for us it was simply an opportunity to spend time together and kickback after working bloody hard during the first half of the year.
Thanks to Abbie and Sonia for first class organisation.
Loewy welcomes Will Whitehorn as chairman
We’re pleased to announce that Speed’s parent company Loewy, has appointed Will Whitehorn as its new non-executive chairman.
Whitehorn is known primarily for his role as president of Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic and his 20-plus years working within the Virgin empire, mainly in a PR and corporate affairs capacity.
Kate Magee has the story here for PR Week.
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Speed joins the PRCA
Steve and I fell out with the PRCA in 2000, when 18-months into starting our own firm we went knocking on its door seeking help. At the time PR firms that were less than three-years old weren’t allowed in. It was seemingly bonkers when as a start-up we needed to make as many friends as we could.
But all that has changed under the management of Director General Francis Ingham who I’ve got to know through his campaigning work opposing the NLA’s web licensing scheme. His proactive campaigning efforts are impressive.
The PRCA is truly modernising and is moving faster than the industry that it represents. The decision to broaden the membership to include client organisations makes sense and the Association is wholeheartedly embracing digital communications.
We’re delighted to sign-up as a member and be welcomed so enthusiastically by Ingham and his team.
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Speed Easter treasure hunt takes inspiration from the Apprentice
Thursday afternoon saw the Speed crew spread head to the corners of Covent Garden tasked with a series of challenges that would have made Sir Alan Sugar proud. Thanks to Sophie and her team for organising the tasks and taking charge in the boardroom. Here are the highlights.
