Brands and partnerships

Today turned out to be a really long day, but very interesting!

Deputy Strategic Partnership Director Anna got in touch with Ben Leon from Bravo Lima, who met us for a drink and to talk about branding, clarity in branding, and partnerships. The meeting turned into two hours of passionate discussion about anything from entrepreneurship to the Israeli-Palestine conflict. Ben had lots of smart things to say about how JCI London can promote and profile itself, and lots of ideas for partners and partnerships. Both Anna and I had a lot of realizations during the discussion, and are both inspired for Monday's council meeting which will be themed on partnerships.

One outcome is that we need to be clearer about our message. JCI can be so many things to different people, and have so much to give, that when we want to communicate it all it does not enforce but dilute our message. Who our partners are and how we feature them also contributes to our message, or our brand, so that's something we should rethink. Finally Ben gave a range of suggestions to how we can add value to and contribute with the different partners. Lots of great ideas, lots to dig into, and lots to discuss on Monday!

After the meeting with Ben I met with Anne, and discussed the role of International Director, and how she can use JCI to promote her career. We talked about the opportunitie JCI gives to learn about and create contacts in the EU, our relations with the UN, how JCI UK/London profiles itself internationally, and just in general all the international opportunities with JCI London. And with at least 25 nationalities among our members that's not few!

Anne will present her ideas for the position at the council meeting, and hopes they will elect her as the new international director (but she might have competition...).

We're trying to do the council meetings this year less admin and bureaucracy, but more strategic; leave the directors to do (more or less) what they want with their areas, and use the monthly council meetings to decide where we want the organisation to go; what we want it to be; exchange experiences; contribute to each other through sharing synergies and ideas. Monday will be the third meeting..so its still a pretty new concept...we'll see how many shows up!