A CREATIVE and digital agency is looking to get away from the meeting room and the whiteboard to talk about business outdoors.

Bournemouth-based Bare Collective is introducing itself to customers through free “walkshops” – and meeting other businesses through “netwalking”.

The agency creates brand identities and e-commerce websites for clients such as the style magazine The Jackal, sportswear brand PlayBrave and restaurant Apres Food Company.

Jo Cruickshanks founded the business last year and was previously co-founder of marketing agency folk. She said Bare believed it could have better conversations in the open air.

“The first meeting we have with people, we’ll give our time, go out for a walk and ask them these questions about their brand or business – but we’ll do it outside,” she said.

“At a key point in that walkshop, we will ask a question that requires a broader perspective and we’ll stand in front of the sea.”

Bare aims to remove “clutter” from the process of working with a marketing agency, offering a “lean methodology” which starts with the things a business stands for.

The agency’s early walkshops have focused on Bournemouth seafront. Ms Cruickshanks said potential clients had been better able to focus on the reasons they were in business.

She said the thinking done on the walks could save time and money later in the process.

“The more we can go along with that kind thinking, the faster we can go and the better we can understand the message and story that needs to be told,” she said.

The agency’s free netwalking sessions for entrepreneurs are held on the first Friday of each month and have so far taken place at Purbeck, Bournemouth’s Redhill Common and St Catherine’s Hill.

“They’re small at the moment but I think the relationship you build in walking and talking is stronger than if you were in a room having the same conversation," she said.

She pointed to research suggesting that 84 per cent of people are not happy at work, 77 per cent of workers have experienced symptoms of poor mental health.

“Going out in nature has been proven to increase quality and decrease stress,” she said.

“When teams walk together, it really creates good communication between them, different conversations, more empathic conversations. It’s good for problem solving, creative thinking and de-stressing. The benefits are so simple when you think about it.”