As an Account Director here at Access, I look after the Actuant accounts which includes Hydratight, Enerpac and Cortland. They are all valued clients of Access’s and as an agency we have got to know the teams and their businesses very well in the 8 years we’ve been working with them.
The marketing function for all three operate out of an office in Milwaukee, so in the four months I’ve been working with them, we have heavily relied on conference calls and email.
So when a trip was suggested, I jumped at the chance to accompany Access’s MD Simon Landi to Wisconsin to meet with the team for an annual planning and strategy meeting - an opportunity to put faces to the voices, see where they work, chat about the year ahead and explore a bit of America we wouldn’t normally get to see.
It’s so important to me as an Account Director to have a good relationship with the clients I work with on a day to day basis and to know a bit more about them as people as well as being the marketing contact. The opportunity for a spot of after work team socialising is always a bonus and often so beneficial to the relationship. It’s sometimes difficult for your enthusiasm and personality to fully come across in an email.
So, early on Sunday 10th of November, off we went from Manchester to Chicago then on to Wisconsin arriving to a crisp, sunny winters day in Milwaukee…..snow was clearly on the way. Colder than normal for this time of year we were told – typical!
Situated on the south-western shore of Lake Michigan, Milwaukee is a lovely city, great to wander round with a fantastic lake front and mix of architecture old and new. Much of the older, more ornate buildings showcase its German heritage as well the abundance of real ale pubs being evidence of this! The beautiful (and locally famous) Pfister hotel was a treat and we were taken by our client one evening to its jazz bar with panoramic views of the city on the 23rd floor – he however assured us he was far more at home in a proper pub watching soccer!
There’s no escaping the fact Miller lager is brewed in Milwaukee, Miller Park is an impressive sight – the locals are sport mad and culturally there seems to be a lot going on. Their Art Museum is a great piece of architecture and their annual lakeside Summerfest - by all accounts - is brilliant. Our client was kind enough to give us a guided tour on the way to the office one day and show us the sights.
Time difference induced grogginess aside (!) we fully made the most of every day, with three days of really productive meetings and so many ideas came out of being round the same table with the time to get into the detail.
The great news is that there is lots of work to get stuck into in the coming months and the changes to process that we intend to make further to the meet up should really help communication going forward. Simple things like using Skype for our weekly calls will go some way to enabling an element of face to face contact and having several clocks in the office set at the different time zones of all our global client partners will help us to be so much more aware and considerate of deadlines and the availability of our contacts across the world.
During our stay we can also say we ticked off the following:
- Ate pancakes
- Visited the Milwaukee Public Market – sounds uninspiring but that place is foodie heaven – Manchester needs one
- Talked about Manchester United (a lot)
- Ate pecan pie (grotesque portion size obviously)
- Took too many pictures of clouds out of plane windows
- Found we were unable to say the word ‘Milwaukee’ without using an American accent
- Struggled with crossing roads (wide roads + unclear rules = terrifying).
- Decided to adopt the Green Bay Packers as our American Football team (or ‘Green Packers’ as Simon kept referring to them trying to sound like a local)
- Confused everyone by calling dinner tea
- Drank awful tea with Creamer. Eugh.
- Were reminded how rubbish customer service generally is in the UK
- Ate HUGE sandwiches
- Got annoyed at over attentive waiting on staff in restaurants (YES MY FOOD IS GREAT)
- Couldn’t sleep past 5am
- Were amazed at what Milwaukeeans consider ‘rush hour traffic’ (their motorways still move quite freely at 8.30am)
