Oystercatchers Club: Risk and Reward
Following on from being super charged on my personal development this year, I was lucky enough to be invited by our MD to go along to an Oystercatchers networking event in London.
I’d heard about Oystercatchers via Tom within our development discussions (they are also part of Xeim). Tom and I had been talking about influential people I could meet for my monthly blogs on seeking advice from successful people and Tom had suggested meeting Suki Thompson, Co-Founder of Oystercatchers. Tom had heard her speaking at events in the past and had found her very passionate and motivational and felt I’d feel the same. This is when Tom had suggested I went along to the next Oystercatchers event with the chance to potentially meet Suki.
Membership by invitation only, The Club comprises of the most influential senior leaders from Agencies, Media and Technology businesses alongside CMO’s CTO’s and C-suite leaders of brands. They meet more than six times a year and discuss issues at the heart of the industry and have a senior panel of speakers. The event being held was on Risk and Reward and was exploring the following topics:
- What is the first decision in taking the risk?
- How do you create a work culture where it’s safe to take risks?
- Strategies for successful risk marketing
- Who is the risk-owner? Client or agency?
I was really excited to be at an event with lots of senior, influential marketing professionals. Suki opened the discussion and introduced the key speakers who were:
- Bruce Daisley – EMEA, VP, Twitter
- Sharry Cramond – Marketing Director Food & Lifestyle Marks and Spencer’s
- Helen Calcraft – Founding Partner Lucky Generals
- Ben Kay – Founding Partner Pablo, Ex England Rugby International
The group discussed Risk and Reward for an hour. It was captivating hearing them discuss their experiences within different brands and agencies.
Key take away’s from the session:
Bruce discussed that he’d learnt we underestimate the power of boredom because we are a generation that have learnt to ‘plug this gap’. For example, if you are in a retail store and you are in the queue, historically you’d stand and curse the shop assistant for taking too long. These days, we get our phone out and check Twitter for the latest news, sport or celebrity gossip.
This means, as hard workers, we don’t regularly get any ‘time’ to just sit and reflect, ponder or think. Which is exactly where great ideas are born.
The second point was one made by Sharry, who I felt I could very closely relate to. She discussed how she had come from a similar background to me and had grown up on a council estate and today is a Marketing Director for one of the biggest household names, Marks and Spencer. She got to where she is today because she always had the mind-set to look at the positive in every situation that arises – showing again that there really is no ‘science’ behind being successful- it’s just down to hard work and effort with a dash of self-belief and positivity.
Finally, I found out that Bruce has written a book called ‘The Joy of work’ which has been rated as a number one best seller. The book shares learnings from his hugely popular podcast; Eat Sleep Work Repeat, and takes readers on a quest to probe experts on about how to make their jobs happier and more fulfilling.
I’ve added it to my ever growing list of books and will be my next read!
For more information on the Risk and Reward event and Oystercatchers, visit www.theoystercatchers.com
By Jodie Goodchild-Gwyther
Tags: Event, Marketing, Oystercatchersclub, Risk and Reward