Have you ever wondered how creative teams, such as Abode Worldwide, stay inventive? And how do their people stay connected as a community through remote, hybrid, and flexible working?
Sometimes it’s as simple as a video call to bounce ideas off of one another and catch up virtually over coffee. But, you can’t beat the relationship-building and team energy that happens when meeting face-to-face.
Here at Abode Worldwide, we value the time we have together as a team and use these opportunities to produce the best ideas for our clients. In January, the team came together for a full day of bonding and future planning. This was a great chance to catch up after the Christmas break and to start the year off with enthusiasm.
Our Founder and Managing Director, Jessica Gillingham, kicked off the brainstorming day with an inspiring presentation about the agency’s growth and roadmap:
Who is Abode Worldwide?
Abode Worldwide launched in April 2017, with a focus on short-term rentals. Since then we have expanded into hospitality technology, proptech, and hotels. In 2021 alone, our business grew 400% and we continue to source new talent to enrich our team as we grow.
Our mission is to provide expert public relations and content marketing to technology solutions operating in our niche sectors – short-term rentals, multifamily rentals, student accommodation, senior living, co-living, and hotels. Using our high-level industry expertise and strategic thinking, we help customers develop their reputation, gain influence, build trust in their purpose and grow sustainable businesses.
We are the only global PR firm that focuses solely on our sectors and this niche industry focus means we provide clients with unparalleled expertise, access to meaningful relationships, insight, and strategic direction so they can build better, stronger, and more sustainable businesses.
‘We are the only global PR firm that focuses solely on our sectors.’
We embed our four values into everything we do: partnership, integrity, flexibility, and vision. By 2025 our mission is to be the leading global PR agency for hospitality/property technology solutions with a team of 30-45 and operating across these six pillars: short-term rentals, multifamily rentals, student accommodation, senior living, co-living, and hotels.
How we expand our creative approaches
We’re aware of the value an external perspective can bring to our team. So, we had a successful session with a coach who works closely with Abode Worldwide employees, Helen Campbell.
Helen is extremely knowledgeable of PR, with a background in this sector herself, and is skilled in teaching ways to work creatively and effectively. With various activities, she taught us how to let go of self-editing to speak freely and to see from the client’s point of view.
These activities taught us to look at things from outside the box, but through being more open with our creativity they also surfaced inventive content ideas we could use for our clients.
Staying connected as a community
It’s the small moments that you miss out on when working remotely, like asking your colleague about their holiday or hearing a funny story from their weekend. This is why, despite being ‘remote first / hybrid’ at Abode Worldwide we aim to come together face-to-face when possible to keep our relationships strong.
During our agency planning day, we were able to have lunch together as a team where we could talk about non-work-related things (as well as more ideas for the business).
Productivity in hybrid working
Abode Worldwide has moved over to a hybrid work model, allowing employees to work flexibly between remote and office working. Effectively working in a way that suits each individual member of the team. So, it was super useful to have a presentation from our new PR Account Director, Lauren Mills, on productivity.
She supplied us with a toolkit to overcome overwhelming situations and work efficiently. Some of these include: writing to-do lists, tackling the challenging/most pressing piece of work first, and avoiding multitasking.
Wellbeing in hybrid working is another vital factor. Did you know that taking regular breaks can actually boost your productivity?
Brainstorming as a team
We finished off the day with a creative session, run by our content manager, Helen Wedgewood. In this session, we focused on individual clients and worked in teams to propose pieces of content with only two keywords as prompts.
Throughout the session we switched up our team members and worked intuitively, to keep things fresh and creative. We were amazed at the results that were gained from working in this way, and how our collaboration can make us stronger. Sometimes another person’s opinion can make all the difference.
So, what’s next for Abode Worldwide?
Feedback from the agency planning day shows the team enjoyed and benefited from the sessions – and we plan to continue holding these days for the benefit of us and our clients.
Over the next few years we are increasing our team, and therefore clients, so that by 2025 we are the leading global public relations agency for the proptech and hospitality tech sectors.
About Maryann Holmes
Maryann is a Content Writer at Abode Worldwide. She uses her studies and experience with blogging and social media to help clients become thought leaders and improve brand awareness in the proptech sector through writing industry-led content.
