Recapping Our 2023 Resonance Retreat – Alignment, Innovation, and Looking Ahead

As the desert dust settles from our annual retreat to Morocco, we’re taking time to reflect on the discussions we had and the meaningful progress we’ve made towards the goals we set – ambitious as they were. Three months have gone by in a flash, but it's important we keep sight of our aims and continue holding ourselves accountable to meeting them.

So, what did we discuss during our time together? I'm sure you’re curious. And how are we implementing quantifiable actions to improve our processes and output, both internally and for our clients? Let's recap.

Thinking About the 'Why' 

Our Managing Director Claire Williamson held an impactful session on placing one critical question at the heart of everything we do. For both our internal operations and external client work, we start by asking: ‘Why?’

If we pause before tackling any task, strategy, or campaign – stopping and devoting a few moments to ask ourselves why we’re doing this, what we aim to accomplish, and why it benefits our client – we can make sure we’re approaching our work in a way that best achieves the client's goals.

By thinking this way, we can craft successful Inbound campaigns, media commentary, and other deliverables tailored precisely to clients' needs. Most importantly, our clients can trust that we understand their objectives and motivations – and we’re on that journey with them.

How are we continuing to work toward this aim? Our Account Managers are running workshops to ensure the "WHY" is clear on all accounts – all the way from Managing Director to Junior Account Executive. For every comment, press release, or article we generate, we start by identifying the purpose.

We may as well print ‘Why’ on our office wall (although our landlord might not love that idea).

Leveraging AI and Automation

We constantly see coverage in the media (trust us!) about the expanding role AI will play in our daily lives. Will it save us invaluable time? Or be our doom? It’s far from certain, but it’s safe to say we’re unlikely to see Arnold Schwarzenegger rolling down our driveway anytime soon.

From our perspective, we know AI can help streamline certain processes to better serve our clients. AI shouldn’t be used to pump out informational content. It's a strategic tool to stand out from the crowd and connect with your audience on a deeper level. Wondering how to use AI for your own content marketing? Learn more here.

Here are some ways we discussed implementing AI to boost our internal efficiency:

• Research and strategy: AI tools can analyse competitors' comms approaches; monitor print, broadcast, and online channels; and identify emerging themes and potential issues.

• Media lists: Media lists can be hugely time-consuming to manually compile. While some tools exist, none are perfect and still require heavy human scrutiny – especially when you’re taking care to make sure every target is labelled and relevant to your pitch. AI could help assemble the most relevant press lists for client goals, based on target audiences, messaging, and more.

• Pitching: Eventually, AI may help PRs research their targets so they can create tailored pitches for journalists based on interests, past coverage, personalities, and trends.

• Transcriptions: Though imperfect for technical conversations, automatic transcriptions already work well for press conferences, interviews, and casual discussions. They help capture quotes and questions and provide a handy reference for thought leadership and commentary.

We are constantly exploring new ways to tap into AI whilst protecting client data. Our (other) MD and leader of all things tech innovation, Tom Fry, is pushing our focus in this area. Just recently, our team attended INBOUND 2023 in Boston, hosted by HubSpot, which provided insights into the future of AI adoption and implications for the industry.

We are continuing to focus on using human time for human tasks – delivering top-notch work to our clients. Want to learn how we're committing to upholding the highest standards of AI application and transparency in our work? Click here to read Resonance's AI policy.

Working on Our New Brand

During our retreat, we spent time working on our new website: giving it an updated look whilst retaining our core values. We want to showcase all we offer: strategic communications support, including PR, content, social, inbound marketing, and more. Though our look is fresh, our team is the same as ever – just a little wiser! Maybe you've already noticed our new look on social media.

As we continue rolling out our new branding, we are honing in on impact – translating client needs into tangible outcomes. And that ties back to always asking ‘WHY’ we do what we do.

We also opened the floor to our full team to discuss what our Resonance brand means on social, our site, and to clients and media. How do we want to be perceived? Stay tuned for more on our new brand.

Wrapping Up Our Desert Debates

And so, we close the book on another successful company retreat. The meaningful discussions, innovative ideas, and strengthened connections will stay with us as we plan for the year ahead. Though hopefully not as long as the sunburns.

We’ve recapped some highlights here, but many more conversations filled our days abroad – expect to hear more from us as we roll up our sleeves to implement the ideas and tools that will boost our efficiency, creativity, and service.

Until next year’s retreat, expect great things in 2024 as we act on the vision we shaped in the sand. We can’t wait to see where this year takes us!