Earlier this year I spent an exciting week in Berlin with amazing conversations, new experiences, and many ideas and impressions that took me some time to process!
I posted about them on social media, but I want to share some of them with you here as well because they relate to language, learning, and running an online, people-centred, freelance business.
I had fun!
I met up with 5 clients and friends for the first time face-to-face.
I went to my first LocLunch event that was kindly moved so that the two visitors in town could be there! LocLunches are events that are organised for people working in the localisation industry to network and share ideas. Technically I don’t work in the localisation industry, but as many of my clients do nowadays, they are useful events for me to attend and learn what’s going on!
I spoke a lot of German, which felt so good and reminded me that I rarely talk about that these days – more on that coming soon!
I always feel that doing something different helps us to refocus and gain a new perspective about what to do next.
I had all kinds of plans about how it would be a working holiday, but to be honest, I did very few of the tasks on my fairly ambitious to-do-list! Instead, I spent quality time with people, got to know them better, and did some tourist activities too!
My business is pretty much all online. This gives me so much freedom to work with people throughout Europe and across the world. But there’s something to be said for getting the chance to have a real coffee with and be in the same place as people with whom you’ve been working for years!
If you are a freelancer or business owner and you work with clients that are mainly elsewhere – do you often go to spend some time in that place and have some face-to-face meetings? If so, when was the last time that you did it and how has it helped you?
The last time I was in Berlin was about 14 years ago. I definitely don’t want to leave it that long before I go back!
The picture is of the Berliner Dom. I didn’t go into the cathedral, but we passed it on both the boat trip and the Berlin food tour.”
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