Over 350 DRPG team members from across the organisation’s global offices came together for its annual global summer conference last week at the Hilton Metropole, Birmingham.
The spotlighted theme of the conference was wellbeing, developing resilience and retaining positive mental health during this busy period for the global creative communications group. Placing a strong emphasis on people, the group’s newest colleagues attended from The Special Event Company from the USA and Birmingham-based OWB Creative, acquired by the group earlier this year.
The DRPG team were introduced to renowned guest speakers Rebecca Mander and Nick Elston, who delivered keynotes focused on mental resilience in times of adversity. The presentations focused on practical and mental wellbeing skills that can be applied both inside and outside of the workplace.
Group CEO, Dale Parmenter commented, “This conference was an opportunity to put our creative tools down for a day, to take stock of our successes and acknowledge the great work we’re pushing out for our clients globally. Most importantly it was to look inward as a team and build our resilience for another busy half-year.
“We’re doing as much as we can within our own workplace culture at DRPG, but we also want to ensure that our team feel suitably equipped to deal with the various stresses of everyday life – including the present economic, environmental and socio-political current affairs that are happening across the world. It was fantastic to learn of numerous ways to look after ourselves and one another.”
The group’s Next Gen board comprises eight team members aged between 18 and 24 from across the wider business. The young team announced a relaunch of the in-house learning and development function, ‘The Academy’, initiating a new range of tools to help with team development and growth. There was also an update on the newly adopted ‘My Performance’ programme, which was launched at the beginning of the year to help the team monitor their personal career progression.
Alicia Wilson, Head of People at DRPG added, “Our team’s skills are varied and often niche to the different creative services that DRPG offer its clients, from event project managers through to digital developers. It was important that the new phase of The Academy was constructed to accommodate a tailored learning model that is far more than isolated, online training. The Next-Gen Board threw themselves into this challenge and we are proud to launch the new initiative.”
The team were then invited to test their advanced resilience skills at The Bear Grylls Adventure, located within Birmingham’s National Exhibition Centre. After a drinks reception on the lawn overlooking the lake hosted by the NEC, it was back to the Metropole for dinner, ending the event with a colourful Drag Bingo experience courtesy of Berry Productions Ltd.