🚀 Meet other growing agencies
🚀 Learn from agency leaders who’ve scaled to £1m, £5m, £10m and beyond…
🚀 Share your vision, make new friends to join your quest for growth

Thursday 23rd January 2025 – 9.30am to 5pm
The British Library, Kings Cross

Small agencies always seem more frazzled than big ones.

In the early days of your agency you are like a bandaged-up kamikaze pilot with missing teeth. You are tired and dirty, always being dragged in 100 directions – taking off on random missions at a moment’s notice.

But as you grow, things become smoother.

You become a team of handsome BA pilots. Starched uniforms and perfect smiles. You operate on a schedule, taking off and landing exactly on time.

Agency Growth Summit is a conference where you can meet people who have transitioned from scrappy start-up to scaled agency – as well as other folks who are currently somewhere on that journey.

​Getting to £5m requires a different kind of dice-rolling 🎲 than getting to £1m. Kamikaze missions will never get you across the chasm. Join us at Agency Growth Summit to find the inspiration you need to take you where you want to go.

Meet your speakers…

Learning from the Giants

“The big issue that most agencies have as independents is they don’t have a plan. We did have a plan early, not in detail but, directionally, about diversification and going global.”

Ian Millner, co-founder and Chair of Iris, is one of the best in the biz.

He has built agencies from the ground up – from a startup with a single client, to running a global agency with over 1,000 employees.

At Agency Growth Summit, Ian will be taking the stage as part of the Learning from the Giants panel, with Tamara Littleton, Social Element, and Sam Gregory, Tangerine. He will share the lessons he has learned – from balancing growth but maintaining core values to fostering an adaptable approach in the ever changing industry.

If you’re looking for advice on team building, managing client relationships as you grow and the art of sustainable scaling, this session is not to be missed. [Read more]

Bigger, Better Clients

Why bother with fifty £10,000 clients when you could have five £1m clients?

In this session, Anant Sharma, founder of Matter of Form, will be sharing his agency’s strategic approach to client selection and growth.

He will discuss why the business transitioned to targeting C-suite level stakeholders at larger companies, and how this client strategy has secured larger, more strategic projects and established long-term, multi-million dollar relationships.

If you’re looking at switching up your client strategy, come along and hear what Anant has to offer. [Read more]

How We Service and Scale 100 Clients at Once

As your agency gets bigger, so does your client roster. The processes you had in place to serve ten clients, won’t work for 50+.

So how does your organisation need to change to factor in more clients?

In this session, Francesca Bennett, client and growth director at Radley Yeldar, will share how her agency has developed a growth-focussed approach that ensures every project, whether a major brand initiative or a smaller sustainability strategy, gets the attention it deserves.

Francesca will also discuss how RY fosters collaboration across client services, new business, and marketing – and why NPS scores aren’t the be-all-and-end-all. [Read more]

Successful Founder Exits

In this session, Trenton, David and Bachir will be busting the M&A myths – sharing how they successfully exited and sold their businesses, and some of the secrets they learned along the way. If you’re looking to take a step back but are concerned about how to do it right, this is not a session to miss. [Read more]

What Can Agencies Look Forward to in 2025?

Steve Parks has become known as an ‘agency prophet’.

He uses research into the agency world, as well as his own agency expertise and intuition, to predict what agencies will face in the near future. (Like a less terrifying ‘Ghost of Agency Future’.)

And he brings only good tidings for 2025.

“We’re heading towards another golden age for creative agencies, much like the 1960s,” says Steve. “There’s been a multi-system shock to the world, and we’re now emerging into a new future. This is when clients need agencies most. It’s a boom time for the right kind of agencies.”

Hear that? Boom time.

Steve will be joining us to deliver his agency advice for 2025, delivering insights and practical action so you can gear up for what’s to come.

[Read more]

Agency by Agency Growth Report 2025 📈

What does growth look like for agencies in 2025?

In this session, the creators of Agency by Agency unpack the key findings from their latest analysis, offering a glimpse into the future of agency growth.

From navigating economic headwinds to embracing new client strategies and service trends, they’ll highlight the key factors to plan for in 2025.

If you’re looking to stay ahead of the curve and position your agency for growth in the coming year, this session is not to be missed.

Grow Your Agency or Grow Your Family? The Life Choices Women Face

The path of a female leader is filled with unique challenges. Maternity, motherhood, menopause, discrimination and dismissiveness are just some of the hurdles that can make the journey exhausting.

So we’re creating a candid (but confidential) space to discuss these challenges and share advice for tackling them head on. This session is open to anyone and everyone looking for a better understanding of the reality of juggling parenthood and running a business. [Read more]

Moving Away from Start-Up Mentality

In this session, we’ll be spotlighting several agencies who are in the ‘maturing’ stage of their growth journey. We’ll discuss private investment, building an SLT, and how to identify when it’s time to take a step back and let your team take the reins. [Read more]

Making It in the States 🇺🇸

Ever thought about opening your agency in the USA?

Budgets are bigger. Contracts are longer. And they love a Brit over there.

But how do you get started? What’s the first move? Do you really need people on ground to get going?

In this session, we’ll be answering all the FAQs that come with expanding into the US. Joining us is Patrick Richardson, founder of The States agency, who helps agencies do this every day.

[Read more]

How to Acquire an Agency 🛒

M&A is looking very attractive for agencies looking to grow.

But how does it all work? What do you need in advance? What happens after?

In this session, we’ll be joined by Simon Corbett, founder of Jargon PR group. He’ll share his experience of acquiring five agencies in three years and providing valuable insights at Agency Growth Summit.

If you’re interested in M&A, or are currently going through this transition and need some more support, come along to this session and get your answers from those who have completed this side quest.

[Read more]

M&A is looking very attractive for agencies looking to grow. But how does it all work? What do you need in advance? What happens after? We’ll be tackling these questions with two agency leaders who have been there, done it, and raided the gift shop. [Read more]

How to Scale Your Agency to the Next Level 📈

Julian Reiter founded Positive – one of the first digital agencies – in 1996. Since then he’s built, scaled, and sold multiple businesses, gaining unparalleled insights into what it takes to grow an agency.

In this talk, How to Scale Your Agency to the Next Level, Julian tackles the big universal challenges of agency growth: talent retention, operational inefficiency and profitability – while sharing actionable strategies to build strong teams, create scalable systems, and deliver real client value.

There’s bound to be one or two insights that you need to hear to take your agency to the next level.

Grow your agency to a scaled success story

The Agency Growth Summit is a day that will help you get inspired, and meet other people that you can learn from. It’s aimed at agency leaders and their leadership teams – but anybody can come. It’s a blend of interactive talks and group discussion.

  • Our venue is the Knowledge Centre at The British Library. We have the entire building, so you will explore the venue interacting with different agency leaders. We mix up the groups so you meet different people.
  • We poll you before the event to see what you want to talk about.
  • We make sure all the talks are original and interesting. We facilitate questions and reflections throughout.

Five Rooms of Learning and Inspiration

Bronte Room
Dickens Room
Theatre
Elliot Room
Chaucer Room

Agency Growth Summit – FAQs 🤖

Q: What actually happens on the day?

We start the event at 9.30am , so try to arrive by 9am.

The day’s format is pretty simple: you will spend some time hearing from guests with interesting stories that you can learn from, and you will also spend some time in small groups discussing your journey with like-minded agency leaders.

The event is hosted by Agency Hackers facilitators who make sure that everybody with something interesting to say gets heard. (We poll attendees before the event, so we know who to ‘pick on’ on the day.)

We will serve tea, coffee and sweet things to keep you going, and a buffet lunch will be provided.

Q: Who will I hear from? Who are the speakers?

The people you’ll hear from are all agency leaders with interesting stories to tell about how they’ve achieve agency growth.

We also decide who to spotlight based on the information we capture in the weeks before. (Look out for our emails!)

We will publish the line-up a few weeks before, but mostly we hope that you will trust us to select interesting folk from our audience. We find that the people who choose to attend our events are overwhelmingly on fascinating journeys that will resonate with you.

Also, the ‘talks’ aren’t really linear presentations. They’re more like structured case studies, with lots of questions and reflections from the audience.

You could potentially call them ‘fireside chats’, but these are not rambling cosy conversations. They are planned and structured . We put a lot of work into researching our guests, out of respect for your time.

Q: Who can attend?

This event is mainly for agency owners and leaders – but it’s potentially of interest to keen “second in commands” who might be responsible for growth.

Basically, anybody can attend if you think it looks up your street.