Ciao from Roma! July 2024 was YAP Global’s third annual offsite and 24 team members flew in from around the world to gather at an Italian chateau. What followed were four days filled to the brim with learning from one another and bonding over food, drinks, song, and football.
Our Goals
With team members working from hubs in New York, London, Cape Town, and Singapore, Offsite 2024 provided a unique opportunity for the entire team to work face-to-face and in the same time zone. Accordingly, we set clear goals going into offsite to get the most out of our limited time together.
- Boost the quality & standards of our PR quality & clientele.
- Grow & build team culture – create stronger bonds within the team.
- Strategise the next stage of growth for the year and set targets & actionable goals to hit the target (Aim high!)
La Dolce Vita
Every morning we woke up to the loveliest Italian trees you’ve ever seen, and our days were spent below them at the pool, playing table tennis, or just lounging and chatting while people played guitar or piano.
The Italians demonstrated their culinary expertise during the rest of the day with three-course lunches AND dinners. All the food was phenomenal and we were so stuffed that I regret not smuggling some of the tiramisu or panna cotta back with me so I could eat the amount of dessert it merited.
Workshops
As an Account Executive (AE) this was my first offsite and first opportunity to work with much of the team in person. With so many incredibly talented people on the team, I was excited to learn from the strengths of my other colleagues’ years of experience in crypto and PR. Working across different time zones can be challenging, but teaching moments like these are incredibly helpful for sharing skills and tricks of the trade more effectively than online. Some workshop highlights include.
Understanding Our Personality Types and How We Work Together: Rita Mallinson (Head of People and Culture) had everyone on the team take a 16-personalities quiz going into the offsite. We then looked at the personality types that make up our team and how we can make sure everyone is supported based on how they work together.
Crypto Narratives: Saad Qureshi (Director) prepared a workshop about the top narratives in crypto media right now, giving the team an opportunity to discuss where crypto is headed and how we can place our clients at the forefront of the conversation.
Writing Skills Workshop & Creative Writing Brainstorming: Debra Nita (Senior Account Manager) and Chris Fay (Senior Account Manager) ran a workshop on how we can think outside of the box and write pitches that are both relevant and creative. This ended with an entertaining workshop where we split into three teams and took on another identity (Donald Trump, Kim Kardashian, Steve Jobs, or Ryan Reynolds). We then brainstormed in the mindset of our new identity to create a unique product development launch experience.
Award Ceremonies
With such a talented group of yappers (Proof of Yap above) there is lots to celebrate so this year everyone received two awards. The first award celebrated how each team member individual embodies one of YAP Global’s five core values: Care, Excellence, Integrity, Adding Value and Elevate. The second award was a more creative award about how we uniquely add color to the yap global team. I was awarded ‘Yappiest yapper’ for this award and it doesn’t get any yappier than that – so arguably I did best.
Ciao Bellas
Much like Audrey Hepburn in Roman Holiday I will long cherish the memories made in Rome. I loved meeting new joiners at YAP as well as getting to know the larger team in person. Not only did I get to learn more about the incredible team I work with, but I learned a lot about how to improve my PR skills from ideation to pitching, and more about the crypto industry as a whole. Offsite gave the team time to align our goals and we are leaving as a stronger team ready to achieve big things in the future.
