Eventful’s Kerry Coburn​​​​, along with Pat Hodgkinson at Venue Choice, Accor Hotels’ Nicola Bryne and Lois Wallis from Destination Vancouver, recently headed out of the meeting room and down to the seaside for a spot of wild swimming and lunch in her new hometown of Folkestone.

Here, Coburn shares how getting outside (and out of their comfort zones) was not only a fantastic way to share business updates and industry news, but also to recharge and reconnect on a whole new level…

After a day being knocked over by waves, discovering new places and discussing with industry colleagues all the things there is just no time for usually, it got us all to thinking how valuable time away from the office is. We work in a challenging, busy, highly stimulating industry where constantly being ‘switched on’ can become exhausting.

We are brilliant busy professionals, running events, searching, budgeting, entertaining, organising yet do we make the time to reconnect? Not just with each other but with ourselves, with nature, and ultimately back to the industry. Of course, we can’t all just nip off to the beach on a whim, climb a tree or walk barefoot through a park to do so.

But it is worth considering that the conversations had while laughing at the fact that only half an hour before you had been knocked off your feet by a rogue wave are conversations with fewer boundaries, with more heart. After sharing a moment being playful, experimenting and pushing our comfort zones, the invigoration is inspiring. You step out of the work whirlpool and into a wave and suddenly you can breathe.

The resulting ebb and flow of discussion about our industry allows us to speak as sounding boards, having the time to properly discuss industry issues, dilemmas, successes, and more. These conversations are constructive and reinforcing, yet not always easy when considering the noise of the events we attend to connect after a busy day onsite or at the office. Too often you miss the person you wanted to speak to as you’re busy speaking to the hotel rep you really wanted to meet or ducking out on a call.

To step away and spend time together whatever your circumstances is beautifully relevant. A person new to the industry, or a person suddenly seeing it from a new perspective, learning how to navigate can do so with time and space, away from a laptop for a few hours. That advice and sharing is made all the easier and more natural when you take a pause.

Wellbeing does not have to be something that ticks a box entirely separate from our jobs. In fact, surely it becomes more valuable, more effective even, if we combine the two. Incorporating wellbeing into working is something that we could all try to do. And we certainly recommend that you should. Our day was rich with warmth and discussion, all of us leaving feeling invigorated and reinspired by the industry we all enjoy being part of. So much so that this is to become an annual event. Working Wild – when wellbeing and work combine and inspire.

A note on wild swimming:
Wild swimming is becoming a more popular activity and can help one to get to know themselves and the environment better; easily accessible and with benefits of liberating, soothing, cleansing and being meditative. Precautions should be taken, and recommendations adhered to but it’s worth looking into. If not, maybe take a stroll across the park with a colleague, shoes in hand. Try it and bring some industry heart into your day.