About creativity and the perfect environment.
I love to contemplate the working environments of creative minds. For example, earlier this year I visited Hemingway’s house in Key West, Florida. The place is so gorgeous and it was in this house that Hemingway did some of his best work. He moved out after eight years to Cuba, not too bad. Today, as a part-time tourist in Paris, I went to Monet’s property in Giverny, also a beautiful place (fortunately for Monet, he had the whole place to himself). In his garden he found the subjects which occupied him continuously for 20 years of his life.
So, these two creative minds built attractive surroundings as their workplaces. And, regarding their oeuvres, it must be more than “nice to have”. And then there is the BETC, with this fantastic, modern building — a mixture of concrete and wood, and a stylish interior. In my opinion the nicest place is the rooftop with a stunning view over Pantin.
Here people meet, brainstorm, or just work by themselves. I am very into this agile working method at BETC and it seems so easy to implement. All you need is a laptop, a mobile phone and several options of working spaces. A very familiar picture at BETC are people with a laptop under their arm, on their lap or somewhere near them. It is like an additional body part! That’s why you can easily grab your stuff and head to the rooftop to work. In Düsseldorf we are not that flexible right now, but this will change. Havas Düsseldorf will move to another building next year, to change the working place system and create more attractive surroundings. I really look forward to unshackling ourselves from the chains of fixed working places to help enhance our creativity and ability to collaborate.
As mentioned in my first blog entry, the atmosphere at BETC is very relaxed. After 1 week, I can now confirm that the work going on here is fairly relaxed too. It’s all about the idea, and people aim to find the best one without allowing deadlines to diminish the process or to build pressure. They are also self-confident, hardworking and focused to find this fabulous idea — and they will, as they have often proved in the past!
To finish this entry, I want to mention that BETC does a lot to stay ahead of the curve. There are often speeches from experts, and I had the chance to watch the final presentation of the BETC Academy. Three teams of six interns each prepare a presentation for a client (mostly start-ups, but in this case Google Assistant). During six weeks, they are mentored by experienced colleagues. It was very impressive how invested and passionate they were in the projects they had developed. As each group finished their presentation, they immediately received feedback. In the end, Stéphane Xiberras was awarded the best project. While it is a competition, it’s set in a positive atmosphere and is a great opportunity for interns to show their talent and hard work to leadership!
So enough of praising for this week. I will continue next time ;-)
