Your Seminar Programme for 2023

By Tony Spong

First, my thanks to the speakers and our own Katrina Law and Philippa Darnell for delivering a great programme of seminars during 2022. We saw 400 plus delegates across our screens and, with several representatives from each agency being able to attend, it meant learnings were enjoyed, discussed and deployed more readily as a shared experience.

As always, we’ll be adding fresh topics for 2023 together with the most popular ones from last year, who will be updating and tweaking their content, all aiming to tackle the main issues of the day affecting performance, as well as those around developing core skills and introducing new ones to keep your teams running to the maximum of their potential.

Many clients have sought to bring certain functions in-house and this is fast becoming the new normal. My colleagues Alex Steele and George Porteous will be sharing our latest research into what is and isn’t working but, more importantly, how agencies can work best with these in-house teams for mutual benefit.

Given the current economic prevailing winds we welcome Abby Dixon’s client-side insights into how agencies can best support and help marketers navigate this stressful period.

Our industry, perhaps more than any other, is in a unique position to play a leadership role not only by embracing diversity, creating equity and demonstrating the value of inclusion through the way we behave individually and collectively, but also through the work we deliver for our clients. I’m really pleased to welcome back UNLRN, who will show us how to create and execute more inclusive work for our clients.

Clients continue to challenge agencies to listen and not just hear what they are saying. Active listening is a fundamental tool in the client service team’s armoury and one which Lizzie Palmer will take us through in her seminar.

Tessa will provide her latest insights into how we can master ‘Presenting in hybrid times’ and Andrew Waddell’s seminar will help you get inside your client’s mind to understand how you can unlock resistance to change.

Social media is firmly entrenched in our lives, and I’m delighted to welcome Julie Atherton who will be tailoring content from her book ‘B2B Social Selling’ to help both your agency brand and you as individuals develop strong strategies to stand out in the market and maintain contact with key individuals.

The dynamic duo that is me and my colleague Vicky Gillan will be back after an absence of a few years with fresh insights into the current trends in client/ agency relationships, with a particular focus on the crucial embedding phase of a new client partnership.

Finally, Tim Smale will show you how to create a group-winning mindset to win or retain business. His approach has a 75% success rate, which is the sort of numbers we like.

Latest details of our 2023 Seminar Programme can be found over page and we will continue to run them over Zoom and offer each agency up to 5 places per seminar.

It always helps to plan ahead, think of who would benefit the most from each seminar and pencil that in their diaries now. We open up bookings roughly three weeks before each seminar, so be sure to look out for bookings opening for those you’re especially interested in. As an added bonus, they all come with IPA and IDM CPD accreditation to boot! ●