From Wednesday through Saturday, CharlestonOrwig is serving as host agency for a meeting of the Transworld Advertising Agency Network (TAAN). Principals from agencies around the country and from as far away as Sydney will gather to share successes and failures, discuss financial performance, interact with experts such as Jason Falls on social media, Jim Locatelli on managing the numbers, Blair Enns on winning new business and John Feldman on the latest legal decisions affecting our industry. Of course, we will also commiserate, swap stories and enjoy the company of other agency owners.

In many ways, the interaction is the best part of these meetings. It was in casual conversation that Mark Vitullo (DigitalDay) and I formed the relationship that resulted in our collaboration on http://www.smithfieldfoods.com/. It was over a beer that Donovan Hawker (Opinion Valley, France) and I learned enough about each other to provide, over the years, critical support and ideas to each other regarding new business and client business. At a coffee break at the TAAN International meeting in Copenhagen earlier this year, John McCallum (Levy McCallum, UK) and I began to retweet each other and cross-reference blog posts.

The benefit of these meetings to our clients is a vast expansion of resources, including legitimately functional global reach, along with the assurance that their agency (for all agencies who belong and attend) truly is aware of cutting-edge thinking from the world over. Through getting an inside view of other agencies, you simply learn things unavailable in any other forum.

It’s going to be a good three days.