2011 EB#1: London – Dubai – London

The seven-hour flight to this year's first Executive Board meeting in Dubai provided me with an opportunity to reflect on what we had achieved for BBN over the past year, and whether change really was on the way. It's always a difficult exercise because in a network of our size it takes time to implement anything and 12 months is a short timeframe to be able to witness the effect of any concrete initiatives you have taken.

First of all, I had to admit that my first year as Executive Director had gone past incredibly quickly. This had been compounded by the fact I had spent the first six months working from our old office in Bollington before relocating BBN's HQ to Saint Katharine's Dock, a stone throw away from London's Tower Bride. Luckily, this coincided with the time Polly Draganova joined BBN to work with me as Executive Marketing Assistant.

The move to London was the most symbolic sign that BBN was in the process of re-inventing itself once again (and for the better). The role of HQ was shifting from being a predominantly administrative one, to generating business opportunities for all of its members. And with a network that covers over 16 times zones, creating a sense of belonging is a daily challenge!

We decided to hold our annual Management Meeting in London, with the intention of getting the message across to all our members that we were poised for change, for growth, for expansion and for delivering a consistent and reliable level of support, in other words, that we were open for business. It was a success and we recruited two new agencies in the process in Canada (Toronto and Calgary).

In November, we held our annual BBN Academy at our new offices. Over 40 of BBN's top practitioners from 10 of our member agencies attended two days of networking and training in brand asset management, digital, creative and PR. Again, we had a unique opportunity to get our message across about BBN's spirit: we are a network that offers exciting international opportunities and delivers tangible added-value to those who get involved.

The new year saw a flurry of activity and new business wins for a number of our member agencies in the UK, France, the USA, Germany and the Middle East. This was a marked improvement on the same time last year when the activity had been pretty flat, and it shows no sign of abating with an exciting number of opportunities in our pipeline. The first quarter of 2011 is being used to focus on delivering a new offering with our digital contact strategy model and the launch of BBN Energy, our first ever vertical proposition in the field of oil and gas.

And last but by no means least - judging by the huge amount of interest and discussion around the topic, especially in the field of B2B - we have successfully entered the social media sphere, and we are using this to help create synergies between our member agencies and to interact with the market.

Our plane eventually touched down in the early hours of the morning and despite a sleepless night, I was confident we were on the right track but that a lot more should still be done. Our meeting was going to provide us with an opportunity to outline the priorities for BBN for the next twelve months. And I was really looking forward to discovering what Dubai had to offer.