Throughout the year, the Profile team travels worldwide to catch-up with clients as well as capture new multimedia content for their profiling activity.
On our recent trip to New York and Washington DC, Multimedia Producer Lisa Atsikidi was responsible for planning shoots, capturing footage, and ensuring all our equipment made it back to London in one piece.
We sat down with Lisa to discuss the trip, the challenges she faced shooting thought leadership videos, and her advice for others working with global clients.
Q: How did you feel when you first heard about the trip?
LA: When I heard we were heading to the US, I couldn't contain my excitement.
It's an iconic place you hope to go and work one day. So, having the chance to spend a week in New York and Washington was a dream come true.
Having only communicated via video calls, I was most looking forward to meeting our clients in person to get to know them better and capture excellent content to enhance their profiles.
I also knew this was a chance to prove to senior management that I could handle the pressure of managing and delivering high-quality shoots overseas.
Even though I was nervous, I was confident the experience would be invaluable for my development.
Q: How did you prepare for the trip?
LA: Preparing for the trip was much more considerable than I’d imagined. I had to consider:
Cameras, lenses, and lighting equipment
Flying restrictions for equipment
Outdoor shooting locations
Booking rooms for client meetings
Day-to-day shooting scripts
Any mishaps would have led to disaster.
Imagine meeting an entrepreneur for the first time, both of you have travelled a distance, and you discover your camera has no battery!
I remember staying up late into the night before our flight to New York, checking whether we had enough spare batteries about three or four times.
Thankfully, when we arrived at JFK airport, everything was in check. From then on, we were all pumped to do a good job.
Q: What was New York like?
LA: Every day in New York started with morning meetings to discuss our objectives, pack our equipment, and confirm the locations for our shoots.
After that, we’d jump in a taxi to meet the client, hoping for light traffic, before preparing for their arrival.
We would set up the cameras, audio, and lighting equipment, and plan how the session would play out by testing everything. We wanted to minimise any chance of anything going wrong.
Once the client arrived, we'd then spend two to three hours capturing a mix of photography and video content for media coverage and LinkedIn.
We would interview clients about their industries and how they're driving innovation to set themselves apart.
All of our shoots were enjoyable, thanks to how confident and easy to direct each client was.
We did encounter various situations where rain led to delays, or spaces we booked appeared smaller in person than advertised.
But this was simply a case of us not being able to plan for everything. It probably benefited us for the remainder of our trip since we became used to thinking on our feet.
Q: Can you share a brief run-down of your time in Washington?
LA: After hauling around heavy gear in New York for almost three days straight, I thought I knew the meaning of exhaustion.
But then came the 4 am alarm for our train to Washington D.C, where coffee became my best friend!
We had just a day and a half to wrap up two shoots before heading home.
On the first day, we must have worked for a solid fourteen hours to ensure the CEOs we were working with had a good time filming and that we nailed every session.
Keeping up energy levels was tough.
We were pushing even harder on day two, with our final shoot taking place the morning before our flight back home.
Luckily, our experiences over the week helped us make the most of our time and get the footage we needed since I had a good idea of the shots I wanted to capture.
After just making our flight, we were not only happy with how much work we'd managed to squeeze out of those last few days but were thrilled to have signed a new client!
It was the perfect end to an amazing trip.
Q: What did the trip teach you?
LA: My time in the US opened my eyes to how mentally and physically demanding being a Multimedia Producer can be, especially when working with high-profile CEOs and even celebrities.
You're working back-to-back in an unfamiliar place, so you're always very focussed.
You want everything to be perfect, and mistakes are bound to happen. But pushing yourself past your limits and beating yourself up when you make errors never helps.
You've got to take a break to mentally reset.
I ended each day by checking out iconic spots like Times Square or digging into the local cuisine to soak in the culture. On other days, I went for long strolls to de-stress.
Besides, these trips don't come around often. So, it's important to make the most of them.
Q: What advice would you give to others going on a business trip?
LA: I'd tell anyone heading out on a business trip to prioritise communication with their team.
Without my colleagues' support, stress would have beaten me on numerous occasions, and my work would have suffered.
Staying on the same page, tackling challenges together, and always having each other's backs made a big difference.
My team gave me that extra boost of confidence that helped me avoid any major slip-ups and get to the finish line.
Now, wherever I go, as long as I'm with my team, I know we'll do a great job no matter who we're profiling.
Q: Is there anywhere you would particularly like to go next?
LA: I'm itching to explore more of the US, but I'd also like to head to Africa and East Asia.
Hong Kong, in particular, would be great. It's an amazing city, rich with culture, great food, and an insane skyline that I'd love to capture on camera.
Wherever it is, I can't wait to get back on a plane and add more locations to my CV.
As a Multimedia Producer, these experiences are invaluable.