Online Events

Whether it’s your brand name, software or even a new creation, agencies create a LOT of intellectual property.

But if you don’t protect it, you could be leaving yourself incredibly vulnerable.

“People assume that the things that emanate from them, belong to them, but when you’re out in the world, unless you take the right actions, you’re not going to have protectable IP,” says Shireen Smith, solicitor and founder of Azrights.

We’ll be talking all things IP with Shireen including how to formulate a proper IP strategy and how best to protect yourself to avoid future trouble.

Come along and discover what you need to do to protect your intellectual property – you might not have realised how important this really is.

You’re invited to our monthly mastermind for marketing and new business people.

If you’re responsible for marketing and new business in your agency… it’s a crucial role! So it helps if you can hang out with other marketers and find out what’s working and share what you’ve learned.

“One of the biggest side effects I had was brain fog. I’d be in meetings, and nothing would go in.”

These people are just talking at me, and I don’t know what to say in response – and that is a real knock of confidence.”

This is one of the common symptoms of the menopause. For Lesley Fettes, director of Network Design, going through it ended up being a blessing in disguise.

But when it came to going back to work, things got a bit tricky. Working in a small agency at the time, there was no support.

“I had to put strategies in place myself to be able to work. It was a case of needing to take ownership of what was going on and how I could manage that myself.”

So, what can we do to support those going through the menopause? Lesley will be talking us through:

• How she navigated menopause as a working woman.
• What processes bigger agencies need to have in place.
• How male colleagues can help.
• Menopause myths and the realities of menopause.

LinkedIn. Is it part of your daily routine – or does it feel like a problem you haven’t solved yet?

This is your monthly chance to come together and share what has and hasn’t been working for you on LinkedIn – and get support from others if you’re keep to up your LinkedIn game.

Join other agency leaders (and agency marketing leaders) to discuss how you’re using LinkedIn to stay top of mind with clients and prospects – hopefully without selling your soul.

To track or not to track? That is the question.

Luci Perry, finance manager at Freestyle, says time sheeting was driving negative behaviour, and the leadership team were constantly questioning the figures that they were getting.

Glen Duncan, operations director at 383, says numbers give you context, so time sheeting is the key to understanding financial performance.

So, what’s the answer?

Join us as Luci, Glen and others discuss both sides of this age-old argument: is time tracking really worth it?

“I was really enjoying the work, helping our clients to grow. But as it got bigger, it became a lot harder to manage,” explains Arek Estall, SEO consultant and founder of All Trousers, a digital marketing agency based in South Wales.

In April this year, Arek decided to sell All Trousers to The Audience Group for an undisclosed fee.

The penny dropped slowly. After six years of running the agency, Arek realised the things he enjoyed doing didn’t actually require running an agency to do them.

“I just wanted to get back to doing what I actually enjoy doing. I think the pandemic made a lot of people realise how they spend their time and how valuable it is,” he says.

“Including offers and negotiations, the whole thing took six months,” explains Arek. “I think the most difficult thing was the climate of lockdown starting and finishing, and different sectors that we work with, particularly B2B, were quite affected by things like Brexit too.”

His small team took it very well.

“Ironically, it was quite painful for the ego to realise you’re not as significant as you thought you were. If I’d known that, I could have run the business very differently.”

Join us as we talk through Arek’s sale story, find out what lessons he learned along the way, and what his next steps are.

“For me, it was all about being able to work on my own terms. Otherwise, what’s the point?”

This is the reason why Joe Perkins, founder and MD of web design agency Chaptr, started his agency in the first place. But he soon realised that the work-life balance he aimed for wasn’t going to happen if he didn’t take a step back.

“I was trying to do everything at once,” he says. “I was being pulled from loads of different directions, and things were piling up.”

Now, instead of a 9 to 5, Joe works in short bursts, giving him the freedom and time to support his wife and his two sons.

Join us as Joe tells us all about his journey to working fewer hours a day, and why they have more value.

Join our monthly mastermind for client services folk.

• Hang out with your client services friends
• What are you working on
• What challenges do you face?

Get help from other smart agencies.

“In agency life, it’s full on. You burn out, you’re away from home a lot, and a lot of people are now saying, ‘I don’t have to put up with this shit’.”

‘The Great Resignation’ has been building up over the last 18 months of lockdown. It has given the general population a fat dose of perspective, and many are re-evaluating what’s important to them in their career.

So, what can you do to make sure your employees aren’t going anywhere?

Employee engagement expert Emma Bridger will take us through:

• Universal themes. The things every employee expects from their boss.
• Individual requirements. How to work out staff needs that are unique to your organisation.
• The maths behind the madness. Stats that show what really matters to staff.
• Case studies. The benefits you should and should NOT be offering your employees. 

In this training session, Emma will explain the steps you can take to ensure your staff stick with your business, and the changes YOU most definitely need to make too.

You’re invited to our monthly mastermind for agency HR leaders and people directors.

Take part in our monthly session for “people” people.

How is your team’s morale and focus? Has hybrid working flagged up any issues? Speak to like-minded agency HR / people folk and share what things look like from your side of the fence.

Two years after launching, Mr B & Friends had grown to ten people, and things started to feel like they were heading in the right direction.

But the pace was too slow for Simon. “It was quite a gradual process in those first couple of years, and I remember feeling slightly frustrated by the lack of pace,” he says.

In fact, it took the team five years to reach the elusive £1m mark, in 2011. But once they broke that sound barrier, all bets were off.

In this Open Source session we take a deep-dive into Simon’s business – and hold each lesson up for inspection.

There are significant lessons in:

• Trusting your gut instincts.
• Preparing your agency for substantial growth.
• The psychological impact of trying to make it past the £1m mark.
• Making sure you have the right people in the right seats.

Don’t miss this candid and transparent session – and remember, this one is 90 minutes!

You’re invited to our monthly mastermind for process and operations people.

Operations people tend to be the glue that holds an agency together. They’re indispensable! But it can be a thankless task sometimes.

So join the operations crew and chat things through.

Take part in our monthly session for senior agency finance folk.

This session allows you to meet like-minded financial professionals from a range of agencies. Get help and share wisdom on finance-related challenges facing you and/or your agency.

You’re invited to our monthly mastermind for marketing and new business people.

If you’re responsible for marketing and new business in your agency… it’s a crucial role! So it helps if you can hang out with other marketers and find out what’s working and share what you’ve learned.

LinkedIn. Is it part of your daily routine – or does it feel like a problem you haven’t solved yet?

This is your monthly chance to come together and share what has and hasn’t been working for you on LinkedIn – and get support from others if you’re keep to up your LinkedIn game.

Join other agency leaders (and agency marketing leaders) to discuss how you’re using LinkedIn to stay top of mind with clients and prospects – hopefully without selling your soul.