I've just returned from an exciting trip to Amsterdam where I was visiting PR agencies in advance of a study visit to the city with my second year PR students in November. It's a fabulously beautiful city (largely due to being strategically unimportant and therefore avoiding bombing raids during WWII, I was told by a Dutch taxi driver who also, impressively, referenced 90s BBC sitcom Keeping Up Appearances to describe Amstelveen, the city suburb where most of the PR and advertising agencies are based).
Other than this historical titbit, I learned a lot about PR in the Netherlands. It's a thriving industry though the country is a few months behind the UK in terms of feeling the effects of the recession.
Most of the major international PR agencies have representation there: I visited the Netherlands offices of Edelman, Porter Novelli, Trimedia and Pleon (recently merged with Ketchum). In fact, the only independent company I visited was Coebergh, a consumer and business-to-business agency in the city centre with what has to be the most desirable office premises I have ever seen: a double fronted, 18th century canalside house on four enormous floors.
But the main thing I learned — somewhat to my dismay — was that despite Dutch PR practitioners' almost universal fluency in English, for foreigners, a good grasp of Dutch is necessary to work there — as is a good understanding of Dutch culture and society. There go my dreams of relocating, but for Brits wanting to work abroad a crash course in the language and culture of your desired destination isn't a luxury, it's a necessity.
