This week I was in Florida planning and hosting a Global Market Head Summit for the Travel & Lifestyle Services (TLS) Division of American Express. I had 28 colleagues from across the globe come together to speak about best practices and leadership about the global servicing for TLS.

The 3 day summit was one of my first big projects I have taken on as Manager of Strategy & Business Planning aka Chief of Staff of the entire global organization AND the first time a global event like this had been held. In fact, many of the team had not met one another in person, which added to the impact and influence this event could bring. This conference was very high stakes and high pressure as it overlapped and followed the senior leadership team conference of my company - however I thrive in pressure and was up for the challenge!

The Summit was a lot of work, but it was worth it and we managed to accomplish and learn a lot from one another. It was great to meet everyone and eye opening for the team to have a true global perspective in person.

While I can’t say what we discussed some global takeaways I would like to share for global teams:

• Meeting in person vs online can really unite a team

• What may work in one country may differ in another, keeping a global perspective is key

• You are not alone, a challenge you have may be shared globally

After many late nights and hours, I am happy to say the event was a success! A 9.3/10 according to my survey, I’ll take it for my first global event! If anyone needs an event planner, let me know!