Last week I shared some thoughts related to the experience that clients have when engaged with a PR and social media agency that has a national presence – and this week I had the opportunity to spend some time with my dynamite crew of professionals in one of our offices on the West Coast. Here are a few reasons why I get pumped when I visit Portland, and in particular, when I spend time with the smart, savvy and hard-working gang from Matter in that city:
First, Good Lord – what a town. Portland has a terrific blend of people, culture, hobbies, and happenings. It’s a city that supports an active lifestyle – and please see our gang getting recognized for being so healthy! –while also offering more eating, drinking and merriment options than all other cities of comparable size and scope. It’s a vibrant community that’s fueled by solid and honest people.
Second, speaking of those people, our office is jammed-packed with a group of outstanding locals – and those who are quickly becoming locals. There’s a great blend of local knowledge, balanced by perspective from the East Coast. Half of our crowd are born and raised in the great Northwest, but a number of staff have moved to this great city from Boston, Atlanta and other hot spots on the eastern seaboard. As a result, it’s so nice to be here in person to meet new people – but also to see some of the familiar ones who made a great life choice to add to their career experience by spending time in Portland.
Third, it’s special to sit with the team here in Portland in person and be reminded about their capabilities and their PR savvy. I love hearing first-hand how they are working creativity into their client programs – in terms of imaginative pitch ideas for media relations, or highly visual content produced by the creative team. It’s terrific to hear them overcome media challenges, and celebrate successes. While improvements in connectivity have changed all of our lives for the better, nothing really compares to talking shop in the office or catching-up on life during a visit to a pub.
Fourth, this town has a steady and growing technology buzz. Beyond its thriving start-up scene, in which Matter client Urban Airship is so active, a constant stream of established players, such as Google, Intel and eBay, have moved people and their gigs to the region in the past few years. There’s so much energy that results from having credible, thriving and opportunistic technology players side-by-side, and the buzz can be felt while walking in the Pearl District – or glancing quickly at GeekWire.
I like spending time here in our Portland office – can you tell?