| I recently read a that going for 50 coffees with people you've never met is the entrepreneurs equivalent to the that doing anything for 10,000 hours will make you an expert on it. While I get the idea, 50 coffees is far easier than practicing something for ten years, and while I'm far from lazy I've decided to set out on a fairly simple mission: over the next 50 weeks I'm going to invite 50 interesting Vancouverites, most of whom I have never met before, to go for coffee. I'm going to use this as an exercise in networking for myself and for V.I.A. while also using it as a platform to introduce you to some people who are doing really cool stuff in the city you live in. |
Meet Margot White. Vice President of Weber Shandwick's Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»office, a senior communications strategist, media trainer and presentation coach.
If you're anything like me you might have read the description of what she does and still had no clue of what her job entails. The worlds of ad agencies (which Weber Shandwick is not) and PR/communications agencies (which they are) are often swirling mysteries to me and I often can't tell the two apart from each other at first glance, which is why it was super cool to be able to sit down with Margot at Everything Cafe on Pender and ask her point blank "What is it exactly that you do, anyway?" and have her explain it to me in words I understand.
What Margot does day-to-day is still a bit cloudy but I do know that one of the things she specializes in is crisis communications. Like let's say a celebrity or someone who heads up a corporation is accused of doing something that could damage their reputation - the whole ordeal where Justin Bieber was accused of fathering that baby a little while back is a perfect example - well, Margot specializes in training folks how to manage a crisis situation like that so they don't come out the other end looking like a dumbass and tarnishing their brand. Weber Shandwick is a huge, award-winning agency with offices in 81 countries around the world, and they are known for delivering the exact opposite of what might make their clients look like dumbasses, in all respects. In fact, their Canadian offices won over 15 national and international awards in 2011 alone, so they are certainly doing something right over there. All of what they're doing still eludes me but I am certain that they're making brands look good to us Canadian consumers, in large part due to Margot and the work she does right here in Vancouver.
Learn more about Weber Shandwick Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³» and follow .
