Well, as I'm certain is the case in offices everywhere, our PR contingent is slowly dwindling as our guys and girls start to break up for the Christmas holidays. Yesterday we had our last team meeting for the year, which was sort of a review of the year, sort of a thank you, sort of... well, you know - its Christmas and it's all a bit reflective :)

So here are the ten reasons we're all heading home with smiles on our faces at the end of a bonkers year!

1. We got clients excited about our vision of integrated insight, PR and marketing.  And they wrote some POs to back it up.

2. We put people first. We invested in fantastic HR experience that encouraged us to listen and embed our values even more.

3. We held our own music festival, again.  Our house band played until the wee small hours, in a field, in Essex, until the nice policeman told us to stop.

4. We won one of the biggest pitches in the industry in 2010.  The whole of Octopus was involved and we nailed it.

5. We delivered amazing work consistently.  We brought it all together for so many clients in so many sectors, and did stuff you wouldn't expect from a PR agency. Or any agency for that matter.

6. We broke into consumer, properly. After flirting with consumer for many years we went big, made key hires and now we can work with absolutely anyone.  We are just getting started.

7. Octopedes returned to the company.  Sure people leave us to do other exciting things, but they leave with a heavy heart, always miss us and sometimes they come back.

8. We did our bit for the industry. Our Future 5 initiative with PR Week showed we knew what we were talking about.  We raised a debate and probably a few eyebrows in the process.

9. We went bling in our offices.  We doubled our workspace and made it even cooler. Our clients love coming to spend time with us here.

10. We are part of a Group that's really motoring.  Our sister agencies make us stronger, we are ACE at working together to get the right outcome. Mainly because we like each other.

So to my fellow Octopedes, I salute you for being truly awesome.  You surprise me every day with your ideas, graft and vicious sense of humour. Brave, hungry, astute, true and very together you are indeed.  

Enjoy the break, for you have earnt it.

- Jon