Speakers
📢 Here are the current speakers we have for this event. We will also hear from you – the event is all about taking part.
Keeping Operations Steady Through Acquisition
“Shit was hitting the fan.”
Paul Simms realised he had two weeks to decide: let it all collapse, or risk it all and acquire the business.
The cracks had been showing for a while. Private equity deals had fallen through, finances were stretched thin, and the group Reflect Digital was part of had invested heavily in senior leadership, expecting funding that never arrived.
Eventually, the numbers weren’t working, and the business was heading straight for liquidation.
It was Sophie’s Choice – let it go under and watch clients, projects, and friends disappear, or try to pull off an acquisition at unheard of speeds.
“It was riskier not to do a deal,” says Paul.
Walking away would have meant chaos for clients and dozens of people losing their jobs just before Christmas. So, with almost no time to think, Paul and his team acquired Lab Group.
What followed was two weeks of insane negotiations, intense restructuring, and a last-minute Christmas party that turned out to be the best decision they could have made.
But the challenge wasn’t just about contracts and cash flow – it was about bringing together a fractured team, untangling operations, and bringing stability back to an agency in turmoil.
In this session, Paul will be sharing all about Reflect Digital’s journey so far, and how he has kept operations afloat – despite last minute acquisitions.
Scaling Your Agency Without Losing Control
Keeping an agency working can feel like juggling a hundred things at once.
You’re tracking projects, managing cashflow, keeping clients happy – and at the end of the month, you’re turning a profit. But there’s a tipping point for every agency, where it’s hard to break out of the chaos.
If you’ve ever felt bogged down by too many tools, tracking the wrong numbers, or struggling to scale efficiently, this talk will help you cut through the noise and focus on what really drives profitability.
“At the start, you’re just looking at cash flow – what’s coming in, what’s going out. But as you grow, it’s not enough. You need to start understanding project profitability and, eventually, team performance, so you’re making proactive decisions rather than firefighting.”
Harv Nagra from Scoro will be talking about the different stages of business maturity and how agencies can make sure they’re tracking the right things at the right time.
Avoid Project Ruining IT Catastrophes
One click.
That’s all it takes for your agency’s carefully built processes to come crashing down around you.
A fake invoice. A dodgy email. A phishing link that someone – maybe even you – falls for. And suddenly, you’re locked out, your data is compromised, and your biggest client project is ruined with no real explanation.
Ralph Harrison says, “Trust is good – but not from an IT perspective.”
Scammers and hackers don’t announce themselves. They don’t wait until you’ve got the time to deal with them. And they don’t just happen to the elderly – they hit fast-growing agencies, stretched teams, and anyone who’s thinking, “We’ll deal with security when we’re bigger.”
In this session, Ralph from Cubit, will be diving into the biggest security mistakes agencies make, and how to bulletproof your operations against IT disasters.
Being Lean Can Be BETTER For You
“Going from 25 people to 10 isn’t as scary as it looks.”
According to Jake Cawdery, it might just be the smartest move you make as an agency.
Trimming down might sound daunting, but Jake says: “You start to see that you can work so much smarter and faster, with the people you have.” Less headcount doesn’t have to mean less impact – It actually means you have more clarity, better efficiency, and a team that’s, “very commercially minded in how they work.”
In this session Jake will be deep-diving into why chasing ‘vanity metrics’ can lead you down the wrong path, and why real success comes from focusing on “what the clients are going to see… the outcomes, the outputs, the work you’re delivering, and the profits.”
If you’re looking to make big changes about the size of your agency, this is the session for you. Jake will be sharing what he’s learnt from Curated’s transition into a more sustainable model.
Right People, Right Roles: Boost Your Teams Efficiency and Reduce Stress
“People just assume their team structure is working – until everything starts crumbling around them.”
In an agency, it’s really easy for roles to bleed together.
The strategist is making client decisions, the PM is filling in the gaps, and junior staff are running around ‘keeping the machine running’ without doing anything truly meaningful.
Mark and Joanna have seen it all: teams frustrated because they’re stepping on each other’s toes, agencies setting unrealistic targets based on default structures rather than ones that have been purpose built, and businesses losing top talent because expectations weren’t clear and progression plans weren’t laid out.
Mark will be sharing how Numiko overhauled its entire operating model and how agency leaders can take a realistic, practical approach to restructuring roles without breaking everything in the process.
In this session, they’ll break down how defining roles properly can transform team efficiency, set accurate goals, and actually reduce stress levels. If your team has ever struggled with role clarity, accountability, or making realistic targets that fit your agency’s structure, this is the session for you.
The Future of Internal Comms – A Design-Led Approach
Internal Comms is changing – and it’s changing fast.
“It’s right on the precipice of a huge paradigm shift,” says Emma Bridger. “AI is going to make a lot of what internal comms would do previously, redundant .”
It’s not enough to send out generic all-company emails, and one-size-fits-all updates. You need to be getting behind design-thinking, personalisation, and putting people at the centre of your communications.
Emma says, “When you get it right with your people, it unlocks everything.”
But how do you actually do that?
In this session, Emma Bridger will break down how agencies can apply design thinking, audience personas, and customer experience tools. to revolutionise the way they engage their teams.
How Operations Leaders are Using AI To Transform Their Agencies
AI can be an organic, unstructured, playground. A playground that feels like it only has space for creative teams, researchers (and people looking for LinkedIn posts.)
But for Charlotte Collier,, AI needed to be a strategic tool for operational efficiency and innovation.
As Operations Director at Finally, Charlotte has taken on the role of “the AI whisperer for the business”, proactively finding ways to embed AI across the agency..
Rather than letting AI spiral out of control, she made sure she put guardrails in place. For example, she’s worked with legal teams to create “10 AI Golden Rules”, ensuring AI use is responsible and legally compliant.
Beyond the legal, she’s spent a lot of time building custom AI-powered tools – like a real-time sales leaderboard using HubSpot data and a news-scraping dashboard for trend analysis – automating tasks that once took hours or days.
She said, “We changed our company vision at the end of last year – to be human-centric and creatively backed by AI.”
Now, Charlotte is leading the charge in using AI not just to save time, but to unlock entirely new ways of working.
If AI still feels outdated for operations in your agency this session will show you how to implement it with purpose, structure, and real impact.