The Typo

In adland, we have a document called the Conference Report. Sounds grander than it is - it's pretty much the key decisions and actions from a meeting distributed to all and sundry to ensure there's no misunderstanding.

As an Account Manager, my life was ruled by Con Reports - they had to be written, typed, checked by my boss and physically sent within 48 hours of the meeting, preferably 24. These days email has taken the pressure off a bit as not only can you distribute faster, but most of the back and forth is already captured in writing. Never-the-less, old habits die hard and if it is a significant meeting and the team are under the pump, I'm more than happy to bang out the report.

The handy thing about a Con Report is that if you need evidence of what was decided, especially when there's money involved, there it is. Nothing sinks the heart of a junior advertising exec faster than when their boss asks 'We'd have that in a Con Report wouldn't we?' and they know that on that occasion, they didn't get to it. Ouch.

It's not hard to see why they get overlooked. Rumour has it they're never read, even by anyone who happened to be at the meeting, client or agency. I subscribe to the position that it doesn't matter - we've done our due diligence, read or not.

So earlier this year, when a question was raised about a client approval, I proudly suggested to my colleague Mel that she dig out the Con Report I vividly remembered writing. And dig it out she did before falling about laughing, uncontrollably - and proving the theory that they go unread. I had signed off the report:

Mother Who Works
GROUP ACCUNT DIRECTOR

Distributed to about 12 people weeks ago and not a soul had noticed. What a difference an 'O' makes!