We’re fortunate to have offices in two of the world’s most famous cities: Cape Town and London. Our weekly team meeting – enabled by the wonders of modern business technology – is a good laugh. The Capetonians tease their London colleagues with tales of sun and sea, and the Londoners quip back with, well, that they live and work in London. Let’s be honest, this great global capital does sort of speak for itself.
This good-natured banter, periodically flavoured with some dry British sarcasm, helps bridge the geographic divide and forge a well-working team. As a technology PR agency, we walk our talk and use clever digital tools and software to keep our people connected and our processes transparent at all times.
At some point though, you want to meet that colleague with the weird accent on the other side of the planet who works on the same accounts as you, in-person. No matter how often you Zoom or Skype or WhatsApp, it’s just not the same as eye-contact and a handshake. So, we hit on a brilliant plan.
Let’s bring the Capetonians over for the London Christmas party!
From sun to snow
Tickets were booked, desk space was cleared and thermal underwear was bought. As summer arrived in Cape Town, the South African team boarded their plane for a soon to be snowy U.K. The cold weather was thawed by the very warm welcome the Capetonians received from their London colleagues as they walked into the TopLine Comms office on Rathbone Street. There were little cupcakes embellished with the South African flag and fresh coffee!
It’s quite something to finally meet people who you feel you already know so well. And to the entire team’s credit, a real effort was made to get to know each other even better. It wasn’t hard, we’re a bunch of rather nice people. It was a whirlwind week that culminated in a big fat end-of-year party at Tobacco Dock in London’s East End. We ate, we drank, we danced the night – and the year – away. It was a lot of fun and justly deserved; 2017 was a busy year. The team has worked incredibly hard and delivered some great results for the business.
And then, as the snowflakes fell on the streets of London for the first time in many years, the Capetonians packed their bags and made for home. It may sound a bit twee but there is no doubt that bringing the TopLine team together has created stronger professional relationships and even, made a few new friendships.
Of course, the Londoners are now clamouring for Christmas 2018 in Cape Town! We’ll see….
If you like the sound of that and could see yourself beavering away happily in either Cape Town or London, please check out our recruitment page.