Seven years ago I set up Let’s Do Lunch Network, a networking platform with the aim of creating meaningful connections through the sharing of food. It’s finally having a revival (check out our Christmas Lunch Network event at Gunpowder), so I’ve asked three PR executives I admire to share a memorable ‘let’s do lunch’ moment, and its impact…
JORI WHITE, CEO & FOUNDER JORI WHITE PR
As a hospitality PR of nearly 30 years standing, business lunches are a fundamental part of what I do. There are however a couple that stand out. Without doubt one of the most memorable is the meeting I had with the Marketing Director of legendary camera brand Hasselblad, at the iconic Groucho Club. Over coffee she offered me a global campaign for the brand and I didn’t even have to write a proposal!
Over the next few months Jori White PR retained affiliate agencies in Hong Kong, Tokyo, Milan, Paris, NYC and Singapore, coordinating amazing launch events in each city. We even got to work with astronaut Buzz Aldrin, who used a Hasselblad to take pictures on the moon!
Not only did we create an award-winning campaign, but it also led to us being retained by luxury lifestyle clients around the globe, from Mykonos to Dubai.
FRANCES COTTRELL-DUFFIELD, MANAGING DIRECTOR OF TONIC PR AND COMMUNICATIONS
One of my Directors at Tonic, Raff, and I went for a lunch a few months ago just to catch up and make some plans for the future. During that lunch we talked in such detail about our personal aspirations and how best to support our growing client base, that we decided there and then to set up another agency together, Tonic Studio, specialising in Digital Marketing for the restaurant industry.
We were at our beautiful local bistro, The Laundry in Brixton, and the setting was just right to help encourage creative thinking and get us connecting in a way that just isn’t possible in an office scenario. We’re good communicators and we speak really openly and regularly with one another, but there is something about breaking bread and catching up over lunch that can really move a conversation along and help deepen the connection.
Fast forward a few months and we’ve set up the agency and are already looking after our own client base, so that lunch really was an important catalyst to this exciting new chapter.
SARAH LEWIS, FOUNDER OF SALT PR
Whether it’s lunch with clients, with journalists, new business partners or colleagues, daytime dining is a very useful way to get the measure of someone. There is no substitute for a face to face meeting and nothing more bonding than a meeting of minds over lunch, even more so today!
It feels decadent, which gives it a frisson all of its own! Is this really work? Of those lunches, and I have had many, some have proved to be pivotal in my life. Lunch with Aldo Zilli catapulted me into the heady Soho scene and restaurant PR, as well as the world of celebrity with memorable encounters as wide ranging as Tim Roth and Harvey Keitel to Chris Evans and Barbara Windsor. I’ve had lunch with my food and drink heroes Ken Hom CBE and Richard Corrigan.
But probably one of my most significant lunches was with my friend Lucy Mitchell at Balthazar with Gok Wan MBE to discuss a new idea for The Golden Chopsticks Awards… five years later, as we celebrate our latest awards, I can look back and see how important that particular lunch was. I can safely say lunch has given me my best friends, fantastic business partners and more!
CONTACT ME to collaborate… I’d love to hear from you!
Kai 🙂
So, when are we doing lunch?… or coffee?
p.s I’m “delightfully dyslexic“, so pls read past any typos, unless they’re embarrassing then, in that case, flag it up to me!)
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