2025 online
schedule
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!
- AI is rapidly transforming the agency landscape, reshaping how teams operate, create, and deliver value to clients. But as automation accelerates, how can agency leaders and teams stay ahead, adapt, and integrate AI in a way that actually works?
- Ryan McKenna and Chris Scott have been at the forefront of AI adoption at Revere, embedding automation into the agencyâs day-to-day operations â from delivery and compliance to personal development. They have helped their team embrace automation, upskill efficiently, and use AI to enhance – not replace – human creativity.
- Join this session to explore the real operational impact of AI in agencies – and how to build a future-ready team that knows how to use it wisely.
- 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 behaving like one,â she says, and this bold ambition drove a complete rethink of the way Skout operates. At the heart of this shift is a commitment to big thinking. âThink big, act big, win big is definitely still the mantra without doubt. And I don’t think that will ever change; it really works for us,â says Claire.
- 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.
- Towards the end of Q1, while things werenât terrible, it was still quite a rocky time. Now we’re midway through 2025, and challenges remain. Client confidence is shaky. Sales cycles are still low. And for many, decision-making feels more complex than ever.
- But there has been SOME movement, and a growing sense that 2025 might not be a total write-off as it was first feared.
- At the end of Q2, weâre checking in again. What say you? Howâs your pipeline? Howâs your team? And how confident are you for the rest of the year? Join us as we take a temperature check on agency life, and figure out whatâs really going on out there.
- When Glen Duncan worked as the chief operating officer for a digital product agency, he attended meetings he would refer to as âthe gunfightâ. âI came in with something that could save us 20 hours of admin a week â a clear win. But it didnât even make the sprint.â
- At first, he felt like his suggestion was too good an opportunity to miss. After all, when you work in operations, everything feels urgent â especially something with such a clear, quantifiable impact. Then Glen had a realisation: âNot everything gets solved. And thatâs OK. Thatâs strategy.â
- In this session, Glen will explain what it really means to âchoose inefficiencyâ â and why letting a few wins fall by the wayside can actually help you deliver bigger, better outcomes. Youâll learn how to identify your highest-value work, protect your energy, and shift your mindset from fixing everything to leading with focus.
- KPIs are met, the marketing contact is happy â by all accounts the campaign is a success. Until someone from the clientâs sales team joins the debrief and says: “This wasnât what we needed.”
- For Darcie Thompson-Fields, client services director at B2B events agency Chief Nation, this kind of scenario kept cropping up â she knew something had to change. But what? Her team were following briefs to the letter, and the problem wasnât in the delivery. Darcie realised that while the briefs werenât broken, they also werenât going deep enough.
- If youâre tired of briefs that donât quite hit the mark, post-campaign surprises, or constantly realigning mid-project, this session is for you. Darcie will share the practical, step-by-step structure she uses to get clients aligned from day one â even when theyâre siloed, vague, or too busy to talk.
- âCan you do AI?â If your clients arenât already asking you this question, they soon will be. So when they do inevitably ask the question, what should you say? Or more importantly, what should you show them? For Andy Nicol, managing director of Sputnik Digital, these questions proved to be a turning point for his agency.
- Despite there being no guaranteed return, Andy decided to take the plunge and build AI prototypes â without a brief or a budget. âWe knew it was possible, and we wanted to be able to show clients what we could do â not just talk about it,â he says. âSometimes the best way to move things forward is to just build something and see where it takes you. When weâre designing anything now, we always think about where AI can fit in.â
- In this session, Andy will share how his team tackled the âDo you do AI?â question by jumping in feet first.
- Big clients are exciting, but what happens to the smaller ones that still keep your studio ticking? At Huddle Creative, Nicole Posner is working on how to balance both.
- âWeâre still taking on ÂŁ15kâÂŁ20k projects, but only if thereâs a clear reason – like future opportunities to grow the account – or if itâs creatively exciting,â she says. âAnd weâve become much more granular in how we scope them.â
- Itâs a shift thatâs working. But while Huddle is now catching more of these white whales on a regular basis, they havenât walked away from the smaller stuff. In fact, theyâve had to get laser-focused on managing that balance. If youâre scaling up and struggling to manage the mix, this session will show you how to make both ends of the spectrum work.
- Scams are everywhere, and theyâre getting harder to spot. From phishing emails to fake invoices, itâs easy to fall for a scam if youâre not paying attention. Ralph Harrison, sales and marketing director at Cubit Technology â and Agency Hackersâ Recommended Partner for all things IT â wants to show the industry how to spot the warning signs before itâs too late.
- âTrust is good, but not from an IT perspective,â he warns. âIf a house gets burgled, the first thing the owner does is install better locks and alarms. Don’t wait to be hacked, prevent it. Make your business a harder target and they’ll focus on the easier ones.â
- In this session, Ralph will take you through practical tips and show you how to turn every member of your team into a âhuman firewallâ against scams.
- âNine times out of ten, when a client brings me in, itâs because theyâve reached their witsâ end with someone – but when I dive in, theyâve actually done nothing about it.â This is what Rhian Peebles, founder of HR consultancy, The Sitch, faces on a regular basis.
- âIt isnât about being reactive,â Rhian explains. âItâs about creating regular habits that make performance conversations normal and part and parcel of the job – not just something you do when someoneâs in trouble.â
- Rhian has developed a framework for proactive people management, built around their practical rituals and smart accountability. If youâre looking at ways to make your performance management more proactive within your agency, look no further.
- Late payments are nothing new â but the real issue? Most agencies set themselves up to fail from the start. Whether itâs risky payment terms, over-reliance on project completion, or failing to build a cash buffer, Rory Spence has seen too many agencies flirting with financial chaos.
- “Weâve seen agencies agree to 50% on completion â and then act surprised when they donât get paid,” says Rory, head of commercial at The Wow Company. “More than one in ten agencies only have a monthâs overheads in the bank. Thatâs incredibly high risk.”
- In this session, Rory will lift the lid on how the smartest agencies are managing their money â and how to put payment structures, pricing models, and planning processes in place before cash flow becomes a crisis.
- Itâs one thing to keep your clients happy. It’s another to grow those relationships and drive more revenue from the work youâre already doing. For many agencies, account growth is left to chance.
- But for Helen Knight, founder of Creative Business Brain, itâs all about growing your confidence, habits, and thinking in order to create intentional, consistent account growth. âMost people just arenât shown how to do the growth side of things,â Helen explains. âAnd itâs really normal, so people shouldnât feel bad about it.
- She believes sales doesnât need to feel forced or unnatural – in fact, the best account growth âisnât about selling at allâ. As Helen says, âItâs actually all about listening.â doesnât even feel like selling. In this session, Helen will guide us through the practical mindset shifts and behaviours that help creative teams stop waiting for growth and start creating it – one conversation at a time.
- When Heather Murray first explored AI agents, she hit a wall. This wasnât because she couldnât build one, but because she realised she simply didnât want to. âI’m non-technical. I do not want to learn how to build agents. I’ve tried, and it’s way too hard. I’ve got no interest in JavaScript or APIs,â says Heather, founder of AI for Non-Techies (the clue is in the name).
- And crucially, she didnât need to. While thereâs a whole world out there full of custom GPTs, Zapier integrations, and stitched-together workflows, Heather argues that sometimes, simple is better.
- In this session, Heather will show you how sheâs working with AI agents in a way thatâs fast, accessible, and effective – no coding, no dev tools, no drama.
- In a saturated agency market, with declining spend and diminishing returns, itâs easy to fill LinkedIn with the kind of content you think clients want to consume – instead of tuning into what they actually want and need. Fiona Proudler, managing director of Orb Group, is here to deliver a wake-up call: none of it matters unless youâve earned the right to sit at your clientâs table.
- âToo many agencies pay lip service to understanding their clients, and take them for granted,â she says. âIf you donât fully invest in them as an individual, their brand and their business, you donât deserve their work. Itâs that simple.â
- This session will challenge you to get back to basics of the agency world, and how to put the client first in everything you do. Come ready to question your assumptions, sharpen your approach, and rediscover what it truly means to serve.
- In the rush to grow fast, win big, and shout the loudest, most agencies forget one crucial thing: if nobody wants to buy what youâre selling â now or in the future â whatâs the point?
- Thatâs where Anna Stone comes in. With over 20 years navigating the commercial guts of agencies from founder-led startups to global players like Ogilvy, and now head of growth at True, sheâs here to reframe the conversation around growth. Less about vanity metrics. More about value.
- In this online session, Anna will help you get clear on what really drives agency buyability. This is a no-BS guide to sharpening your story, targeting the right people, and finally answering the question: âWhy would anyone choose you?â
- Neurodiversity in agencies isnât a niche concern anymore; itâs a widespread reality. And yet, many agencies still treat it as a challenge to manage, rather than an opportunity to embrace. âI thought my agency was disproportionate,â says Nick Silverstone, the Fractional MD. âBut then I started talking to other people and thought, âCrikey, this is across the board.ââ
- Having led a team where neurodiversity is common – and then realised itâs actually the industry norm – Nick has been building a panel of trainers, coaches, and HR professionals to help others do better.
- This session will unpack the misconceptions, mislabels, and missed opportunities that surround neurodiversity in creative work.