This year’s Dan Award winner Angeline Putnickovich recaps her week-long visit to Zeno’s London office, 3 Monkeys Zeno.

Every June, I look forward to the annual Zeno Fiscal New Year celebration. Zenoids from across the globe gather virtually (and physically pre-pandemic) to reflect on the previous year and get a look at what’s ahead.

One of the most anticipated moments is the announcement of the Dan Award winner - an annual honor presented to one fearless Zenoid who has done extraordinary work for our clients and demonstrated their commitment to our Zeno values – ambitious, kind, collaborative, inclusive, entrepreneurial, and fearless. The winner is nominated and selected by Zeno’s Global Leadership team and wins a variety of exciting perks including a paid trip to any Zeno office around the world.

2021 marked my fifth Fiscal New Year celebration with the company. Like any other Zeno celebration, I dressed up in green, dialed-in and enthusiastically followed along. When it came time for the Dan Award announcement, I was more than shocked to see my name on the screen as the winner. I was speechless, which doesn’t happen very often, and many tears were shed.

Fast forward to early September, following local travel guidelines, I made the decision to travel safely from Toronto to London. It was my first time visiting the U.K. and I was excited to become fully immersed in the culture and happenings in our London office.

Here are a few highlights from the trip:

Learning from the Consumer Team: Since I mostly do consumer-facing communications in my role in Canada, I was able to spend time with various members of the consumer team in London at all levels – from account executives and directors to a lead of the consumer/brand PR team. I learned a lot about campaigns they’ve recently executed in the food and beverage space.

One that resonated with me had a strong focus on diversity and connecting with the Jamaican community. The team was able to execute a highly authentic, COVID-safe event that highlighted the client’s product by engaging members of the Jamaican community to be a part of the planning process. The event was a huge success and even recently won an award – great key learnings for me to take back to Canada!

Learning about Boardroom in the Bar: The Zeno London marketing team brings together professionals that work in the same industry (tech or healthcare, for example) for virtual networking events to discuss current industry issues. These can be existing clients, vendors or general industry contacts. The team sends out beautifully branded food and drink packages to attendees ahead of time to add a little extra fun to the night.

Since I lead the marketing team for Zeno in Canada, I thought this was such a cool idea! Not only does it demonstrate Zeno’s ongoing commitment to our current clients but allows us to be a catalyst for important conversations and change that is happening in industries relevant to our clients.

Getting to Know My British Colleagues: Although the office isn’t operating as it normally would be due to the pandemic, I was still able to spend time with those who did come into the office during my stay. Between lunch and coffee breaks, and dinners on pub patios, I was able to get to know people on a professional and personal level. Plus, it was just nice to be in an office environment again!

Being a Tourist in a New City: I was able to make the most of my free time in London and see some of the city’s most historic sites including Buckingham Palace, Tower of London and Windsor Castle. I absolutely loved walking around and checking out the beautiful architecture in all the different neighborhoods (hello Chelsea and Mayfair!) that make London so iconic. I capped off my trip with a night at the theatre watching Cinderella – what a dream!

I am very grateful to Zeno Group for giving me the opportunity to safely embark on this once-in-a-lifetime journey. And thank you to Zeno London for their hospitality. Winning the Dan Award has been one of the most memorable moments of my career thus far.