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SUPERFANS – STEP THIS WAY…..

This was an email in my inbox a few weeks ago. WOW, I had been invited to my first annual Superfans event since joining O2 just under a year ago.  These nights are legendary in our history, it’s one of the things that makes working here such great fun.  I had heard about previous hosts, James Cordon, Tess Daly and wondered what delights and treats were in store for everyone this year.

Nominations were over, judging had been held in secret rooms around our sites and the finalists selected to attend the big night itself – excitement was growing and the outakes of the video booth nominations posted on our intranet were hilarious – it was all a great build to the event! Showbiz glamour was the theme – what to wear? – would everyone make the effort? – just some of the thoughts racing through my mind.

We all gathered in the hotel ready to hop on our coaches to the Athena in Leicester – Showbiz glamour was in abundant supply – every one of the 400 lucky employees invited to attend looked great.  Our hosts gave us all VIP wristbands and as we arrived - photographers, magicians, circus acts greeted us and our Board members gave us a great O2 welcome with champagne.  The atmosphere was electric as our opening act took to the stage – Spellbound! Our CEO, Ronan bounded up soon afterwards to introduce our compere for the evening – the place erupted – none other than Uncle Bryn from Gavin&Stacey, Rob Bryden,  he was brilliant and raised the competitive elements amongst our sites with  400 O2 fans singing our own rendition of Tom Jones – Delilah! Great food was served, wine was poured and the tension grew as the awards drew near – the sense of camaraderie was great – as winners were announced – the cheers grew louder whilst cameras flashed madly! Winners sitting proudly with their trophies soon changed into everyone hitting the dance floor or catching up with long lost friends – coaches safely back to hotels, everyone off to bed and this morning as I was leaving I was impressed to see that the team had huge tables with water, chocolate, eye masks and newspapers all lined up, ready for everyone heading back to work on the coaches…. That’s typical of working in O2 – we like to remember the small treats to make your day special.

Abi

Wow! What a busy couple of weeks!!! Just finished wrapping up the “Get Up For England” campaign and it has been . . . emotional!

This past week it’s been less of the overly exciting stuff and more head down and work. I thought the time would never come but to compensate for being so busy a while back I overloaded on cool things - twice out of the three times I have been to The O2 when we have had a professional sports star guest going to a gig. Can’t say who I took to the last gig I went to (which was to see Katy Perry - for whom I have now taken a massive liking too) but it is great fun!

Anyway, it’s quite hard not to talk too much about the social side, so I hereby present a short splurge on my the day to day stuff recently:

With wrapping up our RWC campaign and Christmas drawing closer everyone is starting to focus on finance. I have spent a lot of time trying to fully get to grips with the financial systems and budgeting. I actually feel a lot more confident with it all, especially now I know the people at O2 who can help out whenever I have a problem.

Other than rugby budgeting I have become heavily involved in looking at the year ahead and what activity we can do or amend at Arsenal in the winter months, so looking forward to some exciting stuff with that.

So, there it is, my last couple of weeks in a nutshell, speak to you soon, Jonny

O2 Money was launched in summer of 2009, since then they have launched the O2 Money card attracting over 800,000 customers. But this is all changing…

People expect to use their smartphones for more, with increasing numbers using them to access retailer websites and compare prices. To keep up with this growing demand, O2 is looking to bring you a mobile wallet - taking everything you carry around in your wallet and putting it on your mobile. This will cover everything from online shopping, sending money to a friend, topping up your mobile, loyalty offers and much, much more. Making shopping easier, quicker and more hassle free.

To get ready for the launch, we have been busy expanding and developing the O2 Money team with expertise from the Financial Services industry; bringing in a new marketing team, a variety of product managers, business planners and sales people over the last nine months. We’ve extensively grown our Commercial and Business Support teams too, creating an upbeat culture and environment which is driven by knowing what the end goal is and how we can achieve it. The O2 Money team is still small, retaining the flexibility and impetus that you would not necessarily find within a corporate of Telefónica’s size.

Here is what two recent starters have had to say about their time at O2 Money:

David – “I’ve been at O2 for 5.5 years, and I can honestly say that I’m having the most fun here that I’ve ever had! Not something you might naturally associate with financial services, but the opportunity that O2 has before it is equally exciting and compelling.

There is a very positive feeling to working in O2 Money. There are some sizeable hurdles to overcome but the mood is upbeat. The management style is relaxed yet focused – O2 Money is everything that High Street banking isn’t!”

Nathan – “For me, it’s all about the opportunity to work on a cutting edge product within Mobile Payments. O2 Money really is becoming a pioneer in this space – not just for mobile network operators, but for everyone else that is trying to take part. It’s easy to see how much the company supports this new endeavour by the quality of the team that has been brought together”

Find out more about O2 Money including our current vacancies