The Power of Peers
I just returned from my bi-annual Agency Management Institute (AMI) conference in New Orleans. AMI is an organization that is a resource to advertising agencies in many ways. It provides seminars on everything from account service to agency operations. It also puts together peer groups of non-competing agency owners from all over the country. I’ve been a member of an AMI group for just over a year now. This means that every six months, I get to go to a different nice location (so far it’s been San Diego, San Francisco, and New Orleans) and meet with other agency owners from markets as diverse as Albuquerque, San Francisco, Chicago, and Philadelphia to discuss our industry and some of its opportunities and challenges. They say that whenever you attend a conference, it’s good to come out of it with at least one good idea. Well, I just came back from New Orleans with at least half a dozen! So, whatever industry you might be in, I highly recommend participating in any peer groups that might be available to you. It’s enlightening to meet with people who are facing the SAME issues you are and getting their take on things.
