Cross-Pollinating Ideas: An Inside Look Into Noble’s International Team Travel Program

Like bees cross-pollinating flowers, great ideas thrive on movement. 

That’s the genius behind our International Team Travel Program — a bridge across the Atlantic that enables our brightest minds to share insights directly between our Reno & Las Vegas teams and Bristol team, Noble Performs, creating digital honey that’s sweeter for the journey.

The program allows our team to immerse themselves in different approaches, exchange methodologies and bring back fresh insights. When our U.S. strategists experience firsthand how our U.K. colleagues tackle challenges, or our developers share techniques across time zones, it creates a ripple effect of innovation that impacts every project we handle.

This cross-pollination of ideas has already yielded impressive results. Our U.S. team has gained valuable insights into European privacy regulations and cookie consent practices, while our U.K. colleagues have benefited from our U.S. team’s established processes in website launches and technical SEO. These exchanges strengthen our global capabilities and ensure our clients receive solutions informed by international best practices.

To be selected, team members must have at least two years at Noble Studios and commit to spending time in our Bristol office. The program represents a significant investment in our team but definitely fulfills on our promise to “Be Better Every Day.”

What’s the Experience Like

Five Reno-based team members traveled to Bristol recently, so we asked how it went. The experience transformed how they work, how they think about collaboration and how they discover their own ah-ha moments.

Jeff Deikis, Vice President of Strategy and Insights:

“After three weeks in tourist-packed France, Bristol hit differently. It was electric. Students and professionals packed the streets at all hours, and the whole place had this killer blend of old-meets-new energy. I’d start my mornings with a run through Old Town, across the Clifton Suspension Bridge and out into Leigh Woods, wandering around Iron Age settlements from the first century. An hour later, I’d be in our office, jamming away. That’s Bristol for you.

The UK office reflects that vibe, and it’s all thanks to Kate Sikora, Noble Performs Managing Director. She’s built something that feels less like a satellite office and more like Noble’s cooler British cousin. 

The team she’s assembled is a bit younger on average than our U.S. crew, but they’re incredibly smart and driven — hungry to “Be Better Every Day.” During my time there, I watched them absolutely crush client work and then head out together for beers. They actually hang out because they are actually friends. They have a solid sense of community that feels really genuine and welcoming. It’s classic Noble culture, just with a British twist.

I spent half my time with Noble and half at Mr. B and Friends, a partner agency that specializes in brand, strategy and creative. That experience blew my mind. After two years of learning the Noble way, seeing how they approach brand strategy really opened my eyes. They bring big ideas to their clients and sit them right in the center of all of their client service lines. They are incredibly strategy-centric and strategy-driven. It’s smart work and it lit this fire in me to push our own processes further, to think bigger about how we approach brand work and how deep we can go with it.

But here’s what really got me: being there, sharing pints with colleagues I’d only met during their jet-lagged Nevada visits, completely changed how I saw our global team. 

I left Bristol not just feeling closer to our U.K. family, but fired up about evolving our approach to strategy and brand work. Sometimes you need to cross an ocean to realize there’s more than one way to solve a problem, and that’s exactly what this exchange did for me.”

Faith Delfin, Senior Client Engagement Manager

“This was my second trip. The growth I’ve witnessed in our U.K. team over the past two years is incredible. They’ve literally tripled in size — from a handful of people in 2022 to a team of 15 now. It’s gotten to the point where if everyone’s in the office, there aren’t enough seats for everyone. That rapid scaling makes what they’ve maintained culturally even more impressive.

A big part of my time there focused on helping Kate Sikora establish their sales foundations and organizational structure. We dove into different tools we use in the U.S. office, explored how AI could boost their workflow efficiency and worked on improving knowledge transfer from sales to accounts. 

They’re really starting from scratch with some of these processes, which actually gave me a great opportunity to reflect on and refine our own systems. Jegor is now championing this effort — I even just had a working session with him over Zoom yesterday where we got to dig into these foundational pieces.

What really stands out about the U.K. team is how they’ve built this genuine camaraderie that mirrors what we have in the U.S. The culture of meaningful connections is so evident – they all hang out personally, they pick on each other like siblings and they genuinely enjoy being together. 

I got to sit in on some client calls too, and it was great to hear that same Noble DNA: they’re incredibly communicative with clients and truly invested in their success. 

One highlight was attending the British Business Leader Awards — a pretty posh affair that showed just how they’re positioning themselves in the industry. 

Kate somehow manages to juggle a trillion things while leading their growth trajectory, and the whole team is passionate about evolving their structure to better support their accounts. They’re definitely putting in the work to punch above their weight class, and it’s exciting to see both their internal growth and how they’re being perceived in the industry.”

Kelsey Audas, Associate Director, Client Experience

“I was so excited to visit the Bristol office for four days in October. Over my four years at Noble, I’ve gotten to meet and visit with quite a few U.K. team members on their trips to visit our Reno office, so when the opportunity presented itself to be immersed in their office, I was so excited. 

Over 2023 and 2024, we’ve had a few moments of joint learnings and workshops between our U.S. and U.K. Client Experience and account management teams. I planned my trip to Bristol with the intention of spending time with their team shadowing client calls, talking about B2B best practices and spotting opportunities for account growth. 

What I particularly enjoyed about the Bristol office was the way that immediately upon entering the doors, you could feel the Noble culture in the air. Noble has really gone transatlantic! Each member of the team brings diverse thought and experiences to the table, loves to get in heated debates about the best place to take guests to lunch and really get to know their peers — I felt right at home!

While I was working U.K. time, I definitely spent less time in my own client meetings, but it was great to get to see how the team touches base internally, hosts their standups and prepares for and runs through client reporting calls. 

It was really special to bring my husband along for the trip. We were able to explore Bristol, London and take the train over to Paris. One of the most memorable times of the trip was getting to spend Sunday Roast with Amanda and Steve before we started work in the office — it was surreal to have U.S. pals in Bristol on the perfect fall afternoon. A close second memory is the Paris St. Germain game my husband and I caught while in France — a thrilling 4-2 victory over Strasburg!”

Stephen Erdelyi, Senior Web Developer

“Over the course of just under two weeks, I had the awesome opportunity to connect with our U.K. team, exchange ideas and experience the rich culture of the U.K. 

The trip was packed with memorable moments, from grabbing ciders with colleagues to enjoying classic British meals like pie and mash, fish and chips and a traditional Sunday roast. 

One of the highlights was presenting a collaborative two-hour session on Performance Marketing and Technical Services with Amanda, which brought our teams together to dive deep into our processes, share insights and further strengthen our cross-functional collaboration.

The U.K. team, known for their friendliness and hilarious banter, welcomed us warmly, and I was thrilled to see how much the team and office had evolved since my last visit. The new office space in the Clockwise Generator building is truly inspiring — an elegantly renovated historic space right on the river, with large windows offering stunning views. 

We shared best practices on topic clustering, website launches, tackled new questions and strengthened our bonds, making sure we continue to grow and innovate together as a team, even if there’s a pond in the middle of us.”

Amanda Tietjen, Associate Director of Performance Marketing

“Getting to experience Noble’s U.K. operation firsthand was eye-opening. 

While I’d collaborated with many team members virtually for months, stepping into their Bristol office completely transformed those virtual relationships into real connections. The intimate office space, with music playing in the background and desks positioned close together, created this incredible collaborative energy that reminded me of my early days at Noble — just with a distinctly British flair.

Our days were packed with knowledge-sharing sessions. Together with Steve and Kelsey, we led workshops on everything from technical SEO to B2B strategy, helping the U.K. team navigate website launches and sharing our U.S. team’s processes. But the learning definitely went both ways — their expertise in areas like cookie consent brought fresh perspectives to our technical approaches.

What really struck me was the team’s tight-knit dynamic. Almost every evening, we’d find ourselves at a nearby brewery, unwinding with at least one team member. These weren’t just colleagues who happened to work together — they’d built this genuine community that seamlessly blended work and friendship.

One unexpected perk? The time zone difference created these magical pockets of uninterrupted focus time. I’d tackle U.S. communications in the morning, dive deep into project work during the quiet middle hours, and then sync up with our team as their day began — a rhythm that, while temporary, felt surprisingly productive.

The exchange program is more than just working from a different desk — it’s about experiencing Noble’s culture through a different lens. Whether we were troubleshooting technical challenges or sharing post-work drinks, every moment reinforced that while an ocean might separate us, the Noble spirit remains uniquely consistent on both sides of the globe.”

Building Bridges, Breaking Boundaries

What started as an ambitious experiment in global collaboration has evolved into something far more profound. Through the International Team Travel Program, we’re not just bridging the 5,242 miles between Reno and Bristol — we’re creating a seamless creative digital performance marketing agency that harnesses the best of both worlds.

As our team members’ stories reveal, the impact extends far beyond professional development. 

Whether it’s sharing pints after work, solving technical challenges together or discovering new approaches to strategy, these exchanges forge lasting and meaningful connections that strengthen our capabilities.

This program embodies Noble Studios’ commitment to ‘Let’s Be Better Every Day’ in the most literal sense: by learning from each other, challenging assumptions and bringing fresh perspectives to every challenge we face. 

As we continue to grow on both sides of the Atlantic, these cross-cultural collaborations aren’t just enriching our agency culture — they’re fundamentally reshaping how we deliver world-class digital solutions.

Ready to work with a digital agency that thinks globally and acts locally? Get in touch to learn how our international perspective can benefit your business.Looking to grow your career at an agency that invests in its people? Check out our current openings in the United States.