Fireside Chats, Frozen Custard and the Future of Financial PR

• Fireside chats with a journalist and a client gave us fresh perspectives on reporting, AI and what makes a great agency partner. 
• Team visioning focused on how we keep evolving to meet client needs in the age of AI. 
• Cooking, custard and a rainy boat ride reminded us that our best work comes from working together.

Last week, we wrapped held our annual team retreat. Our goal each year is to continue to develop as a team, to sharpen our counsel, to generate new ideas and to share best practices for our financial services clients.  While we get together at least weekly as a team and collaborate on client works daily, at least once a year we try to spend extended time together incorporating professional and skill development sessions combined with forward-looking planning and evaluation.  We mix in downtime and have a lot of fun. 

Each year I think, “Wow, this was our best retreat yet.”  And that is mostly because it is such a treat to have everyone together building off each other’s ideas and enjoying each other’s company.   

We started as we always do, with a year- in-review session—– sort of a state of the union for the Lowe Group.  We then invited a journalist for what we call a fireside chat -- —a guest Q&A about her career path, sourcing and reporting stories, the stories she finds most interesting and how AI is shaping her reporting.  We also got her advice on what she finds the most (and least) helpful from PR pros. 

Similarly, we invited a client for another fireside chat to share his financial industry experience and advice.  Our guest shared some very helpful insights on what has worked for him over the years with other agency partners … and what hasn’t. These media and client guest discussions are among the most popular and richest parts of our annual retreat. Our thanks to both guests for their candor. 

We also spent time as a team visioning— – talking about how we need to show up for clients in the age of AI and how we need to continue to evolve and change in order to meet our clients’ expectations as well as be a great place for communications professionals to work.   

We left plenty of time for fun activities including an Asian cooking class followed by dessert at Kopp’s (Milwaukee’s iconic frozen custard stand), fully loaded bagels for a team breakfast and a rather rainy boat ride and dockside lunch that, despite the weather, we all agreed was a highlight.   

A few of many takeaways: 

• It has never been more true that our clients value industry knowledge and strategic insights.  As AI takes away routine tasks, helping clients get their differentiated voice into the world is our number- one objective.  

• When you work with a variety of people from different business cultures facing restructurings, acquisitions, and changes in business strategies, you must employ diplomacy, patience, adaptability, and informed judgment. 

• Identifying the skills you can bring to ameliorate any challenge is an important skill.  The best way to make yourself indispensable is by understanding pain points and offering meaningful solutions.   

• The best story pitches are current and include multiple perspectives, concise framing, credible sources and realistic expectations. 

• Journalists selectively use AI for finding sources and doing research. Our guest said she does her own writing and deletes pitches that appear to be crafted by AI. 

• There is a Lowe Group way in terms of who we are and how we work, and that way is collaborative. We are better together in visioning what the future holds and how we plan to embrace it.   

I am eager to put year’s insights into practice including a project to get our “Lowe Group Way” more clearly articulated for our growing team. I can’t wait to get together next year to see how we did. Our retreat is one way we try to be a great place for communications professionals to work, and we invited talented pros to reach out!  

Here are a few pictures of our team on retreat: