At the beginning of every month, I upload all the scheduled projects and campaigns in our time management tool - and before I know it, another month rolls around. Perhaps it’s because I’m getting older, or from the continual juggle of multiple campaigns and projects, but I’m always amazing by how time flies.

The beginning of a new year brought us new clients who wanted our input as they look to build stronger strategies. And we saw the kicking off of new projects that needed our creative planning too.

We’ve facilitated interactive workshops with clients in a room, kept the energy levels high with clients during intensive virtual sessions, and have also run our own internal workshops; pulling our ideas together to build marketing plans to present back to current clients.

Whether taking place with clients, or run internally on their behalf, marketing workshops are an effective way of benchmarking activity and unlocking future opportunities - a chance to reflect and consider thoughts and activities in a dedicated setting.

It’s likely that you’ll have your own experiences of workshops; whether in your own work settings, or perhaps thinking back to your school days. The Oxford English Dictionary defines a workshop as “a meeting at which a group of people engage in intensive discussion and activity on a particular subject or project”. The word that stands out to me in this definition is ‘intensive’.

I’ve had the interesting opportunity of being on the receiving end of a workshop over the last month too, as part of my role as a local charity Trustee. It was in this session that we were asked what we intentionally invest in as Trustees. It was a moment of clarity for me to see that the intentional investment I encourage in workshops relates to my work as a Trustee too.

When we commit to being present in just one thought or activity, the outcomes are invariably hugely powerful. All the workshop sessions I’ve held and participated in over the last month is certainly a reminder to me that I need to ensure I intentionally invest in my day to day life outside of formal workshop settings too.