On the road to Nashville
This week I have been in Nashville with Melanie Hayes (CPO) and Nick Lonsdale (CEO, NashTech). Finally being able to travel to meet our colleagues in the USA has been such a fantastic experience
I have spent so much of the last two years meeting people virtually through Teams, and although video conference technology has allowed us to do so many amazing things, there is absolutely no comparison to sitting down together and having a really interactive discussion. The time we spent together in person has probably leapt forward our understanding and decision making by a factor of 10!
Nashville as a location is amazing. It’s a thriving city with many start up and scale-up businesses, and almost everywhere you look you see building construction sites. It is also, of course, famous for its Country music scene. We did get to experience an evening with NashTech and Harvey Nash colleagues at the local NHL hockey team, the Predators who put on a good game for us scoring and winning in the final minutes of the game. Really exciting evening with our colleagues.
Whilst we were in town we had NashTech USA and Harvey Nash USA kick-offs take place which brought to life the successes of last year and the plans for this year. The collaboration between these teams was high, they are already referring clients and now have a targeted plan which they jointly own. At the same time Jim Tiller, our CISO, was in for the meetings and took both businesses through the value and plans for our new vCISO practice. He is already working with the local NashTech team on a client proposal / RFP which was submitted this week.
On Tuesday Harvey Nash Group supported by colleagues around the world hosted a very successful International Women’s day throughout the day event with clients, award winning speakers and Harvey Nash Group colleagues participating. It was both energising and inspiring.
We left Nashville knowing our colleagues personally and above all else with such respect and pride in the quality of the people we work with across Harvey Nash and NashTech. A massive thank you to Jason Pyle in particular for architecting this visit and helping it to be a huge success.
We have always in our thoughts our Ukrainian national colleagues as we go through the days and I am proud of the work our Polish teams are doing to provide practical on the ground support as people arrive across the borders. In the UK we are in contact with the government and Ukrainian embassy to offer career support and jobs to Ukrainian refugees.
As we head towards the weekend I wish everyone some rest. Keep safe and well.