Melanie Howard, Chair of the Futures Foundation, led CCA Industry Council's Future Workforce session this week hosted by Serco in London with senior reps from 20 leading brands. What became very obvious is just how difficult it is to escape from the 'rabbits in the headlights' reality of today's huge operational challenges, and instead open our minds to visualise a different future. We got there however; ably assisted by some terrific techniques and now have four really exciting scenarios to motivate delegates on Day 1 at CCA Convention on 6 November in Glasgow.

The event was preceded the evening before by a fabulous dinner at Malmaison in London, supported by Platinum Sponsor Partner Verint, and I can't resist sharing an interesting wee experience which dispells a myth about young people and customer service skills...

Our waitress for the group of 20 was called Amy who provided a great service with a smile all evening to the entire group. At the end of the evening she approached me with a few envelopes. Amy had been listening to the discussion around changing consumer expectations and she herself loved customer service. Would I mind asking if any of the organisations would like to receive her CV? Needless to say everyone did!