AAR @ Bam-Bou



Thanks to the fine folks at the AAR, a bunch of us got together at Bam-Bou for a very nice night out.

I met up with some people I know and met a whole bunch of folks from the digibiz here in London.

• Had a great chat with Mark Hancock about US politics, doing digital the "right" way, and our shared obsession with client evangelism and education. Mark recently left Proximity for Agency.com to join as their new strategy director in the UK. Bravo Mark!
  
  
• Fresh from her return from the States, Dare's Lee Wright is getting married! Lee has been in Philly taking a course at Wharton. UPenn is a fab school, and it was cool to hear that my old mentor Pete Fader is still at it. More importantly, we got to hear all about the proposal on the beach. We're all thrilled for Lee and know it will be ... a Grand Union.
  
  
• Had a spirited and gossipy session with Raz Embleton and Gia Mills about a Sherman. 'Nuff said.
  
  
• Hooking up with Nigel Vaz was a lot of fun. The man behind Sapient's 600-person team is out from behind the developer integration curtain! Amongst other things, we geeked out and talked about Jersey City in the late 90s, Tibco's first XML feeds, Clement Mok, and Alan Wexler. London is a better place with this guy in town.
  
  
• Meeting and hanging out with Tom, Ellie, Andrew and Ali ... and the foggy haze that still hangs over my head as a result ... was a nice way to end the night. Must. Repeat. Soon.

News from the AAR: The evening kicked off with a short talk by Paul Phillips and Juliet Blackburn who gave the group a heads-up on all the wonderful goings-on at the AAR. They've redesigned their website (Paul was like a proud papa telling us about it), and they've also re-branded themselves as "The experts in client:agency relationships."

In addition, they've launched a new service off the back of some research they presented last year. Centered on "keeping the relationship successful", it is basically a honeymoon and annual review service. Both clients and their agencies pay for the service, so everyone has buy-in. I'm guessing they spoke to someone at Sotheby's, as they're very good at generating fees and commission from both art buyers and sellers. Smart.

I think it is a pretty good idea, especially for what my friend George Parker would term BDAs. Most next-generation agencies focused on delivering best-practices to their partners already have this built into the relationship, so it may have less appeal to them. At iris, we call it "All Ears", our annual, formal, transparent, and confidential way to listen to and understand our partners.

Those agencies who don't do something like this should really consider it. I'm sure we'll check it out as well.

Let's see, what else? Well, here's a tip: If you're clever, you'll find a way to get invited to Albion's 6th birthday party later in November.

Don't hold it against me if I missed something. If you were there, it would be great to hear your thoughts on the evening. Just add 'em in the comments.

A big shout to Juliette and Nisha at the AAR for making it happen. Those AAR folks really are good at bringing people together, aren't they. ;-)

See y'all at the next one!