The mood
End of the calendar year feelings. We started the month with a team trip to Hua Hin. After being confined to China since 2019 it was just so good for us to be elsewhere - winter sunshine, local fruits, the Andaman sea, and long chats over breakfast or late night drinks. We try not to work for these trips, but if you have to then sitting by the pool is at least a pleasurable way to do it. Another win from the team trip is to allow people to extend their travel - whether for family holiday, spending the weekend enjoying Bangkok, or heading off to a music festival with your friends, as we did. Each year, we've thought about running these as Field Trips - taking an ethnographic approach, spending time in a local community, coming away with field recordings and documentaries - but every year it feels like rest and retreat is needed. Perhaps we should do both trips next year?
The work
Between our holidays and our clients taking holidays we managed to work on a four continent project, get involved in seasonal work planning strategies for the year ahead across many sectors, including several pieces that touched upon China in the world. Perhaps most telling on that front - we ended the year working closer than ever with our US counterparts on global pieces for clients with a worldwide perspective.