Agency Growth Summit January 2025 – event post-mortem

2 weeks ago

After every conference, we ask for feedback. And every single time, I dread it.

We send the request the morning after the event. I do it manually, for some reason. (I have a weird superstition about sending this one email by hand.) I’m usually slightly hungover from post-conference drinks, and the last thing I want to do is hit send on an email that I know will highlight our mistakes.

But we always do it, and I’m always glad we do.

Swallowing that bad-tasting medicine has been one of the biggest factors in our growth.

We’ve been capturing feedback religiously for three years now, and the benefits are starting to show.

In January 2025, we ran Agency Growth Summit at the British Library, and the feedback was among the best we’ve ever had.

The last time we ran this event, in March 2024, we received an average satisfaction score of 7.7 out of 10. Back then, the main criticism was the content:

  • Attendees made comments about wanting more specific, actionable insights rather than general success stories.
  • Some speakers leaned too much on “luck” rather than sharing concrete strategies.
  • Certain sessions didn’t fully deliver on their promised topics.

But this time we got a satisfaction score of 8.8 out of 10 – much better!

This year we got a satisfaction score of 8.8 out of 10 – noticeably higher than last year’s score of 7.7 out of 10.

What We Changed This Year

The biggest shift was ensuring every speaker shared practical, actionable advice. It’s not that people ever turn up to our events and say boring stuff. But sometimes we haven’t gone the extra mile to really draw out the lessons in what they’re going to say.

So, we made sure our contributors were fully briefed. We put in more time preparing speakers, walking them through their topics, and ensuring their sessions delivered real value. We also brought in more “big hitters” – Ian Millner from Iris, Tamara Littleton from The Social Element, and Joeli Brearley from Pregnant Then Screwed.

The result? A massive improvement.

Our average score jumped to 8.8 out of 10 – one of our highest ever.

Getting feedback from people never seems to get easier, but the things they tell us we’d never have spotted by ourselves.

People Notice When You Listen

Several attendees who came last year told us they appreciated the improvements:

“This was a really good event. I got so much from it. It was great to hear from and learn from some bigger agencies. Feels like you’ve really listened to the feedback from last year. This was my favourite Agency Hackers event yet, and I’ve been coming since the early days!”
Clare Lydon, Eleven Agency

In the early days, we got feedback about basic logistical issues: sessions running late, unclear instructions, speakers going off-topic. We’ve mostly ironed these out. Now, the criticism is more about minor annoyances, like coffee queues and sandwich quality.

People also appreciated how smoothly everything ran:

  • “Really well organised. Great venue and sound—everything felt high spec.”
  • “Good organisation, good venue, strong speaker lineup, relevant issues covered, good tempo—worth the ticket price.”
  • “The running order and lineup were very well curated and thought out.”

That’s a much better place to be.

The Tone Matters

People consistently tell us they appreciate the open, friendly atmosphere:

  • “Great openness and bonhomie between participants.”
  • “You create a real communal vibe, and it’s clear you genuinely care about your members and audience.”
  • “Like all your events, there’s an open level of transparency from both attendees and speakers. It’s so refreshing.”
  • “Ian, you make a great host. Relaxed, funny, always on point.”

(Okay, I had to include that last one.)

We take pride in creating a warm, engaging environment. Some conferences feel like shareholder meetings—too formal, too stiff. Others go too far in the opposite direction:

  • “GOOOOOOOD MORNING, AGENCY ROCKSTARS! Who’s ready to CRUSH IT today?! Give me a WOOP WOOP!” (*Dabs*)
  • “Before we start, let’s all stand up and do our special conference dance!” (*Macarena starts playing*)

We try to strike a balance: lighthearted, but not cringey. A few jokes at the start, a bit of audience interaction, and a relaxed, conversational tone.

That said, not everyone agreed:

“Ian, being totally honest, you didn’t seem quite your usual sparky self. And I found it a tad lazy that you reused slides from last year.”

Fair point. Noted.

People often comment on the friendly tone at our events. It’s something we definitely want to protect as we continue to grow.

Other Feedback

The Networking Hour

People told us they wanted more time to connect, so we introduced a dedicated networking hour. It’s tricky to coordinate – grouping people logically, guiding them to specific locations, and managing no-shows – but overall, it worked.

Some felt it was unnecessary:

“I felt you didn’t need the networking hour – there were enough opportunities to connect in the breaks, lunch, and drinks.”

But for the most part, people valued it.

Some Agency Hackers events have 70% women, but Agency Growth Summit is our lowest – 30% of attendees were women. (In our industry, 25% of agencies are owned by women.)

Women at the Event

We had one or two comments about our breakout session on women balancing agency growth with family life. This session was introduced after a female agency owner told us she found it frustrating hearing men’s success stories without acknowledging the different challenges women face.

Some attendees wished more men had been present in the discussion. While the session was open to all, it naturally attracted mostly women.

Another comment highlighted the overall gender balance:

“I enjoyed the day, but it felt male-dominated, both in the audience and on stage. I spoke to several people who agreed it would’ve been nice to see more women.”

We always aim for balance, and generally, Agency Hackers is close to parity. At this event:

  • 38% of speakers were women.
  • Around 30% of attendees were women.

For context, only 22% of agencies are female-founded (30% if you include mixed-gender founders). Some of our other events are actually mostly women (e.g., Clockwork and Happy Clients are 80% and 70% female, respectively), while others attract more men (e.g., Pipeline, our sales conference, is 70% male).

Ultimately, we focus on making great events rather than engineering specific audience compositions.

Some people don’t like sandwiches

We upgraded our catering recently, but some attendees still weren’t happy:

“I am not impressed with the lunch—it’s too vegan/vegetarian focused. Soft drinks would also be great.”
“If the food had been better, this would have been superb.”
“The food was quite bland—just a whole lotta wraps.”

Noted. We’ll take another look at the menu.

We take 45 minutes for lunch so handheld food tends to work best for speed, but we’ll look at whether it’s getting too carby.

Final Thoughts

The feedback we get – the good, bad, and the brutal – is why we improve.

If you attended, thanks for coming. And if you sent feedback, thanks for helping us get better.

If you liked Agency Growth Summit, our next event is Dopamine – it’s a conference for creative directors and people leading teams in creative agencies. You’ll hear from other leaders about how they’re balancing creativity with commerciality.

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