Earlier this year, our UK team got together for the Spring GateAway, this time held at an exciting new venue in Northwest London, Loft Studios.
Our GateAways are a core part of Gate One, acting as a regular opportunity for us to come together as a team to collaborate and have fun.
This year’s Spring event was focussed on entrepreneurship, one of our core values, and was packed with high energy, interactive sessions designed by our in-house Incubator team to stimulate creativity and entrepreneurship within everyone. The day started with an inspiring talk and Q&A from Mark Whelan, Chairman & UK Group CCO of Havas UK, who shared his fascinating career story showcasing the importance of creativity and being bold.
Other elements of the day included exploring how we can collaborate further with Havas and hearing success stories from fellow Gate One Incubator entrepreneurs, plus a transparent business update from our Managing Partner, Tim Phillips, sharing how the business is doing in an open and empowering way. We also heard from Gate One’s leadership team on why entrepreneurship is crucial to Gate One’s past, present and future.
Towards the end of the day, we took some time to reflect and share our personal commitments, considering how we would take what we’d learnt and feel empowered to put it into practice in our individual roles.
The day ended on a high with a surprise reveal and teaser video sharing what to expect on our upcoming annual GateAway taking place in June, when the entire team will set off on a trip away to set the strategy for the year ahead, celebrate success and come together as one.
Bozena Birt, our senior lead for the Spring GateAway, said:
“Our quarterly GateAway’s are always fantastic events, but this one really stood out with the level of creativity and collaboration that I saw, reflective of the entrepreneurship environment that is so crucial to our company culture. It’s also really important for us to feel connected, not only within Gate One but with the Havas Group too, so having our sister agencies involved in the day was a brilliant way to showcase this in action and ensure everyone left feeling part of the bigger picture.”
Earlier this year, we held our first Gate One Spring GateAway for our Ireland team. With a theme of ‘connections,’ we considered how to better connect as a team, to our priorities and with our networks and environment, to achieve our goals.
The morning session was inspired by Simon Sinek, author and visionary thinker, to understand each other’s ‘why’, which included an insightful and open conversation around impact, doing things differently, the importance of community, inspiring others, being happy and having fun! Anthony Gaffney, partner at Gate One, shared a transparent and open business update, reflecting on performance to date and key priorities for 2023.
We also held an interactive session reviewing our marketing strategy and how we can drive brand awareness in Ireland. We challenged ourselves to think about how we can further utilise Havas Village to support our business growth.
To close the day, we shared insights from a recent project, looking at Gen Z trends and the implications of these for our clients today and in the future.
The opportunity to take time out and connect was hugely valuable. We have come away better connected as a team, aligned in understanding key priorities and the role we can all play to shape and drive these forwards, continuing to progress Gate One in Ireland.
The theme for this year’s US Spring GateAway was ‘becoming an elite climber’, in line with our overall strategy. Building a new company takes mental endurance, discipline, and focus – coming up with ideas is fun, but turning those ideas into reality takes time and effort.
Topics covered included mental toughness and keeping ourselves mentally sane, our definition of sustainable growth, further defining the unique culture and values of our team, ninja selling, James Clears’ Atomic Habits book, a friendly Jenga competition, breakouts on onboarding, internal communications and the Gate One US marketing plan.
The fun started the day before with a team lunch and drinks at North Bar. Day of, we ate a lovely lunch together from Dig Inn where we discussed all sorts of fun facts about each other, dined on tapas at Boqueria, and learned exactly how good Nayaz Khudabux is at golf at a golf simulator!
The day was hugely valuable, and we feel confident for building up our US team and office for the rest of 2023.
At Gate One, we tackle your toughest challenges and accelerate your boldest ambitions. Our mission is to deliver meaningful change.
At Gate One, we tackle your toughest challenges and accelerate your boldest ambitions. Our mission is to deliver meaningful change.
At Gate One, we tackle your toughest challenges and accelerate your boldest ambitions. Our mission is to deliver meaningful change.
