SO, WHAT’S IN STORE
IN February 2025?

📣 Please note, these events are for Agency Hackers’ members only.

If your agency isn’t a member yet, get in touch with Anne or sign up here.

Event key:

🟥 Interview
🩵 Presentation
🟣 Demo/workshop

ALL our sessions are interactive, so cameras on and get your questions ready to ask!

How Can You Use Productisation to Scale Your Agency?

⏰ 2pm, Tuesday 4th February 2025

Growth and scale are at the crux of 2025 for many agencies – and a route becoming increasingly popular is productisation. This is the approach Tom Perry, CEO of Sherpa, has taken over the past couple of years.
The need to scale pushed Sherpa to rethink how they worked with clients. Over a 15-month journey, they streamlined their offering from 33 different project types to just two core products and one technology platform.
If you’re curious about how to productise your services, streamline processes, and achieve repeatable success, join us for this session, where Tom will share Sherpa’s journey to productisation, and the hard-won lessons behind their growth.

⏰ 2pm, Thursday 13th February 2025

As agencies grow, they often fall into the same traps – unknowingly sabotaging their own success. Growth should mean progress, but instead, it can leave teams overworked, systems breaking, and leaders tearing their hair out.
From working with hundreds of agencies worldwide, Steve Wages, former agency CEO and global strategist, has identified four critical traps that prevent agencies from scaling sustainably while maintaining creative success.
If you’re growing your agency and struggling to scale without losing your creativity and culture, this is a must-attend session. Steve will share his decades of experience and insights to help you identify these traps and navigate growth successfully.

⏰ 2pm, Tuesday 18th February 2025

There’s 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 isn’t 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 Napier’s in-house training programme and how it has helped them find and build a talented team they need – without venturing into London.

⏰ 4pm, Thursday 20th February 2025

Selling your agency is like stepping into the unknown. It’s not just a transaction, but an emotional and logistical maze to navigate. It’s all the more difficult to navigate when the sale doesn’t 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. “I don’t want it, right? I sold it to you because I didn’t want to do it anymore.” 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.

⏰ 11am, Tuesday 25th February 2025

Winning awards isn’t just about great work – it’s also about telling a story that resonates with the judges. “A jury room is another channel. It’s the same campaign, but it’s 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. “They’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.”
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.