First days at the Office.

The first days at the office, were not spent at the office, as I do not have one. It is a deliberate choice fuelled by the novel feeling of liberty and independence. You know, the romantic thought of hanging out at cafés and working from hotel lobbys. Well, we'll see how long that lasts...

The romantic notion of spending my first day in bed, sleeping in, munching Pain au Choclat and reading the morning paper, before falling back to sleep, did not materialize. I was bright-eyed and bushy-tailed at Sveriges Annonsörer already at 8:30 on Thursday morning, October 1st.

This is when my jury work for "100 Wattaren" (the Swedish equivalent of The Effies) commenced. I am part of a great bunch of people who are in place to judge the category "Charity". Usually an interesting category with great creative expression, not seldom managed and executed with a small budget, as it should be. As I signed an Agreement of Confidentiality as soon as I stepped in through the door, I cannot reveal any details, other than that the jury had great discussions and reached decisions on the first part of the judging - which entries have well-reported and successful results and which don't. Next week we meet again to look at creativity. What I like about Effies and "100 Wattaren" is that the jury looks at both results and creativity and that the jury is made up of both ad people and business people/clients.

For lunch I met up with Hans Sydow, the Grand Gentleman of Swedish Advertising. We were colleagues at Hall & Cederquist in the 80's; Hans at the New York office and I in Stockholm. It is always a pleasure to meet. Hans recently founded the agency Graviz and he was eager to hear about UKnight. The day ended with a visit at Spotify and not a minute had been spent in an office of my own!

Friday brought lots of great energy right from breakfast which was held at Vision Take-off, previously unknown to me. They are a culture and branding agency who help their clients to develop their culture and their brand in line with a clear set of core values and other fundamental business objectives, to drive sustainable behavioral change and optimize communication. I really liked their vision and also their special guest of the day - Linda Björk who runs Björk business (www.bjorkbusiness.com). I participated at her course on Leadership and Mindfulness about a month ago and would strongly recommend it to anyone in a leadership position; Linda is a great stress-reducer and inspiration. We continued with lunch at Komm (The Swedish Association of Advertising Agencies)in the company of Jessica Bjurström, to discuss the need for leadership training within the comms industry.Great plans ahead!

Another excellent day spent outside the Office. Have a great weekend all of you!