The Open Door Policy

June was officially Roadmap Europa´s maiden month in operation, the dawn of a new era! So while the party balloons gradually deflated we hit the autopistas of Galicia to knock on doors and meet our new neighbours in the tourism, fashion and service industries.

As one of the regions with more traditional family businesses, we found significant variations in the resources dedicated to marketing, research and communication in different companies and organisations. Many businesses and public sector organisations still struggling to be comfortable with investing in research and marketing; at the same time there are more progressive companies with significant experience implementing dynamic marketing strategies to compete effectively at a national and international level.



Our first client was the regional government for whom we researched and developed a guide to help the public servants who assist new immigrants with setting up their lives in Spain and finding work. A very topical issue as there has been enormous debate over how to respond to the waves of immigrants currently arriving in Spain via the Canary Islands. We initially conducted a series of indepth interviews in order to establish a good base of knowledge for the development of the guide. We met some great people and heard stories of the sacrifices, hardship and success of immigrants from places such as Argentina, Venezuela, Ecuador, Ivory Coast, Senegal and China. Working on this project also led to an invitation to share our own, very different experience, at a seminar on immigration trends, policy and practice in Galicia.
Since then we have continued our business development travels, relaying back and forth between A Coruña and Vigo with side trips to Lugo and Ourense. We have also delivered some website evaluation consulting work and continue working on a marketing plan with one of the local wine regions.