My first BBN Academy, and what an incredible experience! In his closing remarks Rob Morrice claimed it was “the best BBN event ever”, which I totally believe but I am also sure that Richard Brelet and Polly Draganova will have accepted this as a challenge to create something bigger and better next year.

The true essence of BBN’s international network was highlighted as members from the US, Canada, UK, Finland, Sweden, Germany, France, Dubai and Hong Kong gathered at the fabulous La Finca El Bosque in Madrid. In the beautiful surroundings of the Spanish countryside, our hosts made sure that we got a cultural experience to savour, from the fantastic food and wine to the excellent tapas and flamenco evening that brought the Academy to a close.

There was a lot of eating, and perhaps on occasion a slight over-indulgence in wine, which fuelled two intense days of learning about the BBN toolkit – BAM, TECS and the Big Long Idea – delivered by some of the best minds in the network. World leading processes that undoubtedly position BBN and its member companies as global leaders in B2B marketing communications, we were also lucky enough to have Rick Stoner from Bader Rutter share some extremely interesting insight into social media strategy, a taster of Gordon Brown’s Brain Juice creativity training, a demonstration of a really neat digital sales app developed by Dennis Elfstrom of A plus M and a master class in pitching to win from Ian Ord.

While all this was going on, we also found some time to get to work on the development of BBN’s PR offering…so watch this space!

I was sad to leave La Finca El Bosque, but I have come home completely inspired and truly motivated. I’ve made some fantastic friends and even learned a little bit of flamenco for myself! It was an absolute privilege to be part of it all – here’s to BBN Academy 2012!

Wow...how excited am I! On my way to Madrid... First time visiting Spain and more importantly my first BBN Academy. Expectations are high and I'm absolutely certain I won't be disappointed. Richard and Polly have done us proud with the planning and organising and the venue looks stunning. Having had bits drip fed to me on BAM and BOSS, I'm now really looking forward to getting a more in-depth understanding of these fundamental processes from the very clever folk that created them... 

I consider myself very fortunate to not only have been invited to attend the Academy this year, but to have the opportunity to meet and network with fellow BBNers, putting faces to names can never be underestimated and it really helps strengthen the relationships and collaborations within the network.

So, as I sit back and relax on my Emirates flight EK 141, staring in awe at the cumulus fluffiness, I look forward to two days that promise to be the most memorable of my time at Fifth Ring and vow to be wisdom's apprentice...