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I’ve had a photo of the Italian Alps saved on my phone for years. It lived there quietly in the background of busy weeks, Teams calls and construction notices - a “one day” dream I kept promising myself I’d get to when life calmed down.
This year, “one day” finally turned into a boarding pass.
Thanks to Media Profile's Work Away Program, I spent four weeks working remotely from Europe, wrapped inside a 5.5-week backpacking trip that took me through Denmark, Italy, Slovenia and Austria. Instead of choosing between my career and a long-held travel dream, I got to bring my laptop along for the ride and do both.
Somewhere between Copenhagen’s bike lanes, Milan’s tram tracks and the trails of the Dolomites, I realized this trip wasn’t just about seeing new places. It was about seeing my work and the world of PR through a completely different lens.
My Work Away started with a map and a time zone. As long as I worked 9 a.m.–5 p.m. EST, the “where” was up to me. So I pieced together an itinerary that looked like a slightly unhinged travel moodboard: Copenhagen, Aarhus and Odense in Denmark; Milan, Florence, Tuscany, Venice, Bolzano and Ortisei in Italy; Ljubljana in Slovenia; and Vienna and Graz in Austria.
My “office” changed every few days. One week I was dialing into team meetings from a tiny Airbnb kitchen, the next from a hostel common room with mismatched couches and surprisingly strong Wi-Fi. I slept in hostels, Airbnbs, pod hotels, and mountain refugios. I learned the exact number of espresso shots required to feel awake for a 3 p.m. local time call that was actually 9 a.m. in Toronto.
In between meetings, I squeezed in small pieces of the cities around me: a canal-side coffee in Aarhus, a quick museum stop in Vienna, a sunset walk along the river in Florence. I also got to reconnect with old friends I hadn’t seen in nearly eight years scattered across Europe. We met after work for very late dinners and long walks that stretched into the night, the kind of conversations you can only have when you’ve both lived a lot of life since the last time you saw each other.
All of that would have been enough to make the trip memorable. But the highlight of my Work Away wasn’t a city at all. It was the mountains.
I’ve been dreaming about hiking in the Italian Alps for as long as I can remember. The Dolomites always felt like a screensaver, too beautiful to be real, too far away to be practical. I told myself I’d go “one day,” when I had enough vacation days, when work was less busy, when timing magically aligned.
Media Profile’s Work Away program took away all those excuses. I didn’t need four weeks off. I just needed to be organized, have a decent internet connection in the valleys and be willing to trade a typical evening routine for something a bit more chaotic and a lot more fulfilling.
During my week in the Dolomites, my days followed a rhythm I still think about now that I’m back at my Toronto desk. Mornings started early, with laced-up boots and cold air biting at my cheeks as the sun slowly lit up the jagged silhouettes of Seceda’s ridgeline. Some days I walked through rolling green hills and wildflower meadows near Nova Ponente; other days, I climbed higher along rocky switchbacks, surrounded by peaks that looked almost too dramatic to be real.
By early afternoon, I’d be back in my room, sometimes a mountain refugio, sometimes a simple guesthouse, quickly showering, making a coffee and logging online for the workday. My camera roll filled up with alpine views. My calendar stayed full of meetings, internal team calls and the usual flurry of emails.
It was demanding, yes. There were dropped connections and nights when my eyes felt heavy by the time Toronto’s 5 p.m. rolled around. But it was also the most alive I’ve felt in a long time. For once, I wasn’t waiting until some vague future moment to do the thing I’d always wanted. I was doing it right now, with my work woven into it rather than standing in the way.
That’s what struck me most about the Work Away program: it doesn’t ask us to choose between being whole people and being dedicated professionals. It gives us permission and practical support to be both.
Copenhagen was my first stop in Denmark, and it set the tone for what “working away” could really look like.
I met Christina Rytter, Managing Founder of Scandinavian Communications at a harbour-side spot called Seaside Toldboden. Over coffee, we compared notes on PR and Christina told me about their work across the Scandinavian markets, but she was quick to push back on the idea of “Scandinavia” as a single, interchangeable region. Denmark, she explained, has its own political and media culture, its own public debates and expectations of how companies should show up. A campaign that resonates in Sweden or Norway can’t just be dropped into Denmark and assumed to fit.
What really stuck with me was how similar some of our challenges are, even an ocean apart. Her team, like ours at Media Profile, spends a lot of time balancing what clients want to say with what audiences are actually ready to hear, and treating trust as something you build slowly, not something you buy with one big hit. Walking back to my hostel that day, it dawned on me, that there are people doing versions of our work all over the world, wrestling with the same questions in slightly different contexts. That feeling stayed with me as I moved on to Aarhus and Odense, still answering emails and drafting copy, but now seeing every new street asking myself, “How would a story land here?”
That question followed me all the way south, to Italy.
A train ride and a few cities later, I found myself in Milan at Sound Public Relations, where I met with PR Manager maria giulia SERAZZI, Managing Partner Alessandra Malvermi, and their team. They welcomed me into their office like an old colleague, with coffees poured, stories exchanged, everyone genuinely curious about what a normal day looks like in my world.
One of the most interesting differences we unpacked together was the role of influencer marketing and sponsored content. In Canada and across much of North America, influencer partnerships and user-generated content have become central pillars of many campaigns. Even at Media Profile, we’re seeing more and more briefs that hinge on micro-influencers and creators who can speak credibly to their engaged audiences.
In Italy, those tactics are growing, but they’re not yet the default. Traditional media like broadcast, print, longstanding editorial relationships still carries significant weight, even as newsrooms continue to shrink For many clients, earned coverage in a respected outlet remains a key marker of success. It was a good reminder that “innovation” in one market doesn’t automatically overwrite what’s already working in another. It became clear to me that every city I passed through had its own rhythm and values. Of course, their media cultures and audience expectations would too.
On paper, Denmark and Italy could not be more different. One is often used as a shorthand for progressive Scandinavian policy with a high-trust, data-driven media landscape where public service outlets and digital platforms set the tone. The other is rooted in tradition & history, where trust is more fragmented, relationships and creativity carry extra weight, and the market is thoughtfully slower to embrace new media practices.
Despite these differences, the PR pros I met lit up when they talked about the relationships they’ve built - with journalists, clients, and other agencies. There was a shared understanding that while tools, platforms and media habits evolve, trust remains the currency that matters most. In both agencies, there was a deep commitment to understanding not just who you’re talking to, but what matters to them and how local realities shape their responses. The streets of Milan and Copenhagen might look different from Queen Street in Toronto, but the fundamentals of thoughtful communication felt strangely familiar: listen first, then speak. In both conversations, I could see the throughline: at the end of the day, we are communicators who obsess over angles, care about doing right by our audiences and are constantly trying to balance creativity with responsibility. The Public Relations Global Network is not just a directory of agencies, it’s a living network that lets us learn horizontally, across borders, in ways that make all of us better at what we do.
By the time I was on my last train back to the airport, my camera roll was full, my backpack was stuffed with dirty laundry, and my heart was carrying more memories than any suitcase could ever hold.
Personally, this trip reminded me that my travel dreams do not have to live in the margins of my career. The Dolomites are no longer a dream I doomscroll past on Instagram, they’re a memory I can return to when I need perspective. So are sunsets in Venice, quiet walks along the river in Ljubljana, and early morning swims in Copenhagen before the city fully wakes up.
Professionally, I came back with a sharper understanding of how local context shapes the work we do, that adopting new media tactics looks very different depending on where you are, how people consume news, and what they value.
Most importantly, I came back feeling more connected. To Media Profile, our culture, to our Public Relations Global Network partners and to this bigger, slightly invisible community of PR & comms pros who are all trying, in their own corners of the world, to tell better stories.
The Work Away Benefit made it possible for me to explore the world without stepping away from my role. PRGN made it possible for that exploration to include real learning, real exchange and real relationships.
If there’s one lesson I’m holding onto, it’s this: the further we step outside our usual bubble, geographically, culturally and professionally, the more our worldview expands and the more grounded and resonant our work becomes. Sometimes, the best way to move your career forward is to take it up a mountain, across an ocean, down a cave, and into someone else’s office for a little while, even if that world is stitched together from cafés, public libraries, hostels and overnight trains.