Coming up At Agency Hackers
đŁ Please note, these events are for Agency Hackersâ members only.
If your agency isnât a member yet, get in touch with Anne or sign up here.
Event key:
đ” Presentation
đŽ Interview
đŁ Demo/workshop
ALL our sessions are interactive, so cameras on and get your questions ready to ask!

- Thereâs no denying that London is an agency hotspot, full of talent. But what happens when your agency is based outside of major city hubs, and attracting senior talent isnât so realistic?
- For Mike Maynard, CEO of Napier, the answer lies in in-house training. But it’s about more than just solving an immediate talent problem. By focusing on practical training and hands-on experience, Mike has created a system that builds confidence, empathy, and understanding within his team too.
- In this session, Mike will be talking candidly about Napierâs in-house training programme and how it has helped them find and build a talented team they need – without venturing into London.

- Selling your agency is like stepping into the unknown. Itâs not just a transaction, but an emotional and logistical maze to navigate. Itâs all the more difficult to navigate when the sale doesnât go to plan. This is what happened to Jonathan Jacobs, co-founder of LOUDMOUTH. He sold his former agency in 2021 – but when things finally went through, he was faced with a tough, unexpected choice. He could either buy the agency back, or let it be scrapped completely.
- After a phone call with the new interim CMO, he called their bluff. âI donât want it, right? I sold it to you because I didnât want to do it anymore.â And so the agency was thrown on the bonfire. Employees finished their 30-day notice periods, and they were gone. Poof.
- In this session, Jonathan will share his experience in navigating the complications of selling, and dealing with the emotions that come with it.

- Winning awards isnât just about great work – itâs also about telling a story that resonates with the judges. âA jury room is another channel. Itâs the same campaign, but itâs different audiences, different formatting – different everything,” says Shannon Keach, an agency award consultant.
- Shannon has nearly a decade of experience helping agencies get recognition. He believes the key to winning is crafting meaningful, compelling narratives – and presenting your work in a way that connects to judges, not clients. âThey’re expensive, so if you’re going to do them, do them to win, right? Make something out of it. Don’t just throw money at the wall and hope for the best.â
- From proactive storytelling to capturing the right material during production, Shannon will be sharing the secrets of building submissions that connect, resonate, and, most importantly, win.

- âThere are some significant changes coming to employment law, and agency leaders need to be prepared.”
- With the upcoming Employment Rights Bill, and other legal changes that could significantly impact how you hire, manage and retain your teams, Alistair Wells and Georgiana Delorme from Tend Legal are on hand to go through this with us. From flexible working to new rules on unfair dismissal, the landscape is shifting â and knowing whatâs ahead will help you stay compliant and proactive.
- âMost reforms in the bill will take effect no earlier than 2026,â advises Alistair. âYouâve got time, so donât panic. The key is to understand whatâs coming and prepare gradually.ââ If you want to know how these new changes will affect your agency in the next 18 months, this is the session for you.

- To become a bigger agency, you first have to think and act like one. Fake it âtil you make it, right? For Claire Lamb, director of Skout, this meant making a deliberate shift in mindset and operations to reach the agencyâs ambitious ÂŁ3m goal.
- âWe made a very conscious decision about two years ago that we were never going to be a ÂŁ3 million agency unless we started acting like one,â she says. This bold ambition drove a complete rethink of the way Skout PR operates. But this shift isnât easy â and for many agencies, itâs all too easy to veer to extremes. For Skout, some of the changes they introduced went too far. While the new processes were methodical and deliberate, not everything was the right fit.
- Shifting from a start-up mentality to a ÂŁ3m mindset isnât a linear journey â itâs a delicate balancing act. For agencies like Skout, the hard work being done now may not yield immediate results, but itâs setting the foundations for future success. Join us for this session to explore what it takes to shift your mindset, find the sweet spot between ambition and practicality, and position your agency for sustainable growth.

- When it comes to a rapid increase in growth, itâs easy to get caught up in all the excitement â but without the right structure, scaling can lead to serious challenges. By 2022, search-first social agency Rise at Seven had grown to ÂŁ7m. But with that immense achievement came two problems – they had too many people, and the founder, Carrie, was exhausted.
- Enter Karl Loudon. âI met Carrie for a drink, and we hit it off very quickly,â says Karl, the agency’s global MD. âIt became very clear that she had a commercial gap in the leadership of the business, and I’m a very commercial, growth-oriented person. We ended up putting processes in place to track the pipeline, win rates, and financial reporting.â
- By 2023, the agency had reestablished to ÂŁ5.5m in revenue, with it now on track to grow back to ÂŁ7m â but in a much healthier way. In this session, Karl will explain how instilling Rise at Seven with financial rigour and commercial metrics has taken them to even greater heights â and how you can do the same.

- Are agencies at war with Google? It certainly feels that way for many PPC agency leaders. âEvery week, a client calls to say, âHey, I just had a phone call from Google. They told me you guys donât know what youâre doing.ââ This was the overwhelming sentiment at our most recent PPC Leaders event.
- Googleâs aggressive sales tactics â contacting agency clients directly, pushing strategies like broad match or PMAX increases, and undermining agency work â have left agencies feeling frustrated, undermined, and, frankly, exhausted. At Agency Hackers, weâre launching a campaign to put pressure on Google to address these issues.
- This isnât just about airing frustrations â itâs about creating change. If youâre tired of going head-to-head with Googleâs aggressive tactics, this is your chance to join the conversation and be part of a united front.

- For many agencies, AI is no longer just a tool; itâs a game-changer and a key part of the team when it comes to digital search.
- In this session, weâll hear from Jo Lambadjieva, founder and CEO of Amazing Wave, and Matt Foster, senior digital PR manager at Distinctly, about how theyâve embraced AI to navigate these huge changes – everything from optimisation to new search behaviours.
- We’ll be discussing the evolving role of search engines and AI-driven discovery; AIâs impact on PR workflows; and the AI-human collaboration. Jo and Matt will share practical use cases, insights, and strategies to help you harness AI, making your work more efficient, creative, and impactful for you and your clients.

- Towards the end of 2024, many agencies were unsure how to approach the new year: âAt the end of each year, I used to write a roadmap for the following year. I’m not even going to bother for 2025, because I’ve changed the 2024 plan four times already,â said one agency leader.
- As we approach the end of the first quarter of 2025, we’re checking in and asking you: how are things now? Are you still navigating rocky waters, or is the tide starting to turn?
- In our quarterly State of the Nation, this is your chance to share how you’re getting on, and also gain a temperature check of the space with people in this space who really understand.