Philip Preston
Six months ago I left my job in publishing to become The Institute’s new Regional Director for Greater London and the East of England.
It’s a great job with the added advantage that I now work from home. I have everything I need in my home office including a Dilbert desk calendar, a state-of-the-art staple remover and a record player so that I can play my old LPs as I work.
There are only two slight drawbacks to working from home. One is that I get to hang the washing out every morning and the other is that sometimes I can go all day without seeing anyone apart from the postman. Fortunately this has turned out to be the exception rather than the rule.
One of the plus sides of this job, and it’s a big plus, is that I get to attend all of the “Meet with drinks” networking events that take place across London organised by our fantastic team of volunteers.
For example on Monday I was at the Old Nick in Holborn chatting happily to marketing folk from the Central London branch, all enjoying a bowl of chips, a glass of wine and good company.
Then on Wednesday I had the pleasure of doing exactly the same at the Hop Poles Bar and Pub in Hammersmith, demonstrating my support for the West London team of volunteers. It’s a hard job, but someone’s got to do it.
Now call me old fashioned if you like but I think it’s much more fun to meet people in the flesh than spend several hours a week in front of a screen glued to Facebook, Twitter or any other online social network.
Don’t get me wrong, they have their place and even I’m on Facebook, but for anyone who really wants to exchange ideas, network and make friends with other marketers at all stages of their career then “Meet with drinks” is the answer.
So let’s start a new social networking revolution, one that doesn’t end in dot com. You never know it might catch on. You can find out more here on the GLR website
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