CHICAGO: WHAT AN EXPERIENCE!
Well, now it comes the difficult part. How can I summarize this fabulous experience in a few lines? Same situation as when people asked me what I felt when I did parachuting… I cannot explain it, you need to try it. There are feelings that are difficult to explain. So, this experience is one of those. I can only say it has been SUPER AWESOME! I definitely don’t want to leave!
It is said that a picture is worth a thousand words, so a video is worth a million words…?!
Without knowing anything about the experience, if I would have to come back and be able to choose the destination and the team, I would definitely have chosen exactly the same!
My 10 highlights that made it such an intense and unbeatable experience:
The city. Chicago is a beautiful city where you feel very comfortable. It is a city with its character and personality. This charming city offers a great variety of restaurants, art, musical performances, events, beautiful monuments, amazing sunsets and enjoyable weather during 9 months.
The uniqueness of the office´s atmosphere. Anyone who comes and visits this office can say that it has its own personality. People can like it or not but it is definitely different and unique. Furthermore, the people make this office what it is. It’s full of talented people, always smiling and having fun working together.
The Annex concept. I was shocked the first time I heard about The Annex. How these people are able to build such an amazing way of working, mixing skills and passion together. Its employees, a part of media background are influencers, photographers, artists. Hence, they know how to do a successful campaign because they are what the client is looking for.
Chicago Bulls. In order to have the full immersion in the city, one day I decided to do a very ¨American plan¨ I went for lunch to Kumas´Corner and then to watch a match of Chicago bulls. I was surprised because this is not only a basket match, but a SHOW. Definitely, Chicagoans are master in entertaining people. It is a continuously show encouraging the audience to participate at their games; they have the¨kiss camera¨, the DJ does a good job encouraging the people to make noise, there was even a dance competition with a few children and teens’ teams.
¨The Bean¨ I love it, especially when the sun reflects on the Cloud Gate. The more I see it, the more I like it! It is definitely, my favorite monument here. Some days, when it is sunny, I just walk by the Millennium Park to see it for a bit and then go to the office. I never thought I could do this in Spain! But I guess this is normal when you go to a foreign country.
Beautiful skyline. I went to the Sears Tower, and was amazed to see the city through the glass floor. It feels like you are flying! Both, during the day and night are good moments to go and see it.
Weekend getaway. We traveled to Toronto. We went out with our Toronto Havas colleagues and the other ¨lofters¨ to the Museum party. This is another incredible concept. During 2 months in Toronto, they make a party within the Museum where you can have a drink, eat some food and hear good music while visiting the museum. This might actually attract young people to museums! It was great to travel to another country and feel the vibes. The following day we went to visit the Niagara Falls, such a beautiful thing that the nature has done!
Full weather experience. I arrived with 20 degrees Celsius and I’ll be leaving with -5 degrees Celsius. I even had the opportunity to see Chicago covered by snow one day.
Bring your dog to work policy. I love having dogs around. People may consider that it´s distracting but not at all, you can have a few minutes of distraction playing with them some days. Both, employees and clients love them.
Monthly first Friday meeting. The key members of the teams show what they have done during that month, they highlight some specific projects. They nominate around 4 people per month to recognize their job and they are given some cash. Something that I like is that they mention the actual projects and anyone from any discipline can help on the project. For example, a media planner person who loves Coke brand can help the creative team to work on the next Coke campaign even if the actions are very different than what that person does on a daily basis.
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