The whirlwind of work

Hanging out at WeWork office before my first meeting

Facebook's new London headquarters

With Elena at The Wallace Collection

We liked the look of this blue door
and thought it was a good spot for a photoshoot

Kicking off the awards session

Mark from Lloyds Bank
sharing his award-winning work

The happy winners, from London to Moscow
and everywhere in-between

Heading to work with Jane
have not done that for many years

Raining! forgot my brolly, so had to buy one,
rookie mistake!

So happy with thank you chocolate from Nigel

Final session doing my thing

Entry to the new rooftop garden
 at 120 Fenchurch Street

Finally a decent view of the Gherkin

Working and holidaying is an interesting adventure, but here I go….

Day 1 let's head off for a stack of meetings. The DLR is my chosen mode of transport, arriving at a bank and into the throngs of people. Google maps save me, which way do I go? I think its this way lets get out of this peak hour throng. Eventually, I find my rhythm and manage to get to each meeting on time.

The standout has to be at Facebooks London Headquarters, lots of cool stuff here including:

• the building sits on the old Royal Mail headquarters and the rail mail train goes underneath!
• old post boxes and nods to the heritage of snail mail vs using Facebook are everywhere
• they have regular artists in residence and there are crazy installations on every floor
• posters, colour and breakout areas everywhere, my kind of psychedelic, most of the communication is by posters, interesting twist in a digital organisation
• a big canteen with free food and micro kitchens on each floor, they say you put on 15 pounds when you join Facebook, the magnum doughnuts looked amazing
• a big red bus full of lollies, called a pick and mix
• there is a whole floor with meetings rooms named after ' things the British don't like' eg. 'rail replacement bus' or 'MM/DD/YY' they are very funny
• the roof is all exposed cables, and this is on purpose to send the message that Facebook is only 1% created, its a visual reminder to aim higher and do more
• wont bore you with the actual meeting details, but I did learn a lot about Workplace for Facebook

17,000+ steps so far I am now ready to return home to Ladywell Lodge answer a million and one emails from tomorrows winners who are speaking and burn the midnight oil on agenda changes and presentation updates.

Day 2 after lots of preparation the day has finally arrived, today we celebrate the UK and European winners of 2019 Intranet and Digital Workplace awards and share insights on new ways of working. I am a bit bleary-eyed, but let's check emails first - oh oh Steve from Edinburgh is unwell and can’t get on the plane, let's just rejig that agenda, again. Hair done, makeup on, trophies packed let's go. First up is a lunch with my willing bands of helpers, Adam (host), Elena (a friend from Moscow), Steve (UK colleague) and Lisa (photographer and organiser extraordinaire). Then setup, then the big event starts, on-time (well done us) each winner is glowing, sharing great insights and getting trophies, with 10 speakers in 2 hours we managed to wow the crowd and finish on time. We all deserve a drink and some hangout time.

Day 3 another presentation, for a different audience. Thankfully this time I am not organising so I can just rock up and do my thing and enjoy the day. They are a great crowd with lots of questions and are pretty keen on the Caramelo Koalas I brought along with me. Pleased with my session, all questions answered and lots of good contacts made. Now its time to escape and fit in a little tourisitying.

Just across the road, a new rooftop garden has opened at 120 Fenchurch Street. The line is empty, win. Straight up in the lift and I am here, its only 15 floors up so actually gives much better views than the taller buildings, I can see Skygarden, the Tower of London and Tower Bridge. What's this? Around the corner is the best ever view of the Gherkin. I have tried to get a decent photo of The Gherkin for years.  Now its time to get home to Ladywell Lodge, hang out with Jane discussing Sicxit (a new nickname for Brexit), poltergeists and the Royal Family, oops its 10pm time to finish pack for the next adventure.

Normal programming how now resumed, I am writing this post on a train heading to a new (for me) part of the world, a demain.