January 30, 2018 – Setting targets, committing resources, learning from external experts, ensuring alignment on digital advances, and bonding – a recipe for the year ahead to be refined in the Catskills next week.

A quick start to 2018 with client work across our offices, coupled with a highly competitive but inspirational inter-office wellness challenge, brings us to a point in the year we wholeheartedly cherish and that has become part of our company DNA. For the past three years we have convened every team member from across our offices at the beginning of February for our annual off-site meeting. The hosting of the meeting is rotated through each office and the venue, structure and all elements of the meeting are developed by the team in that office. This year we are headed to New York, specifically to the Catskills. The meeting itself is a healthy mixture of company prioritization and strategy for 2018, focusing on our clients’ needs and priorities, identifying areas for growth and putting plans in place to bolster our capabilities. We will hear from external experts to further our education and examine how we are operating internally. We will reflect and openly discuss the results of our employee and client surveys and make plans to improve our offering, remove any impeding internal barriers to our workplace and prepare ourselves to be the best healthcare agency we can be for our clients and team members in 2018. Unsurprisingly, digital will be a red thread throughout our time together and coming off a growth year of 60% in 2017, team development and increasing investment in media, analytics and creative in-house resources will also be a focus. There will be hiking, team-building activities and socializing added for good measure and we will come away ready to co-create a better workplace that continues to attract and retain amazing talent.

While next week will bring new ideas, increase education and awareness on important topics and help us commit resources to improve as we grow, I have a feeling it will also serve to remind us of who we are. It will encourage us to stay true to our core mission and our approach to health communications and advocacy – making the work we deliver for clients and partners better and more impactful. At the heart of our company, we believe communications can be a powerful health intervention and can help improve and save lives. Our core strength is in engaging external stakeholders from a position of trust and authenticity. Whether patient advocacy groups, community leaders, global public health or government agencies, foundations, social influencers, scientific or consumer media, we will work to focus their attention on the unmet health needs we are seeking to address. Bringing partners into the fold early, co-creating solutions and delivering the most creative, targeted content delivered by trusted sources is what I know we will deliver. We will measure the impact of our work and course correct as needed, but most importantly, our employees and our clients will achieve something real in 2018. It will have impact and the time we have dedicated to the our client’s cause will have made a tangible contribution.

Although it is early February and freezing in New York, this is a week I look forward to all year. It is where the team and I reaffirm our commitment to this company and our mission, improve our workplace experience, and at the end of the day set ourselves up to drive impact for our clients in the coming year. I can’t wait to get started.