Peer to Peer Action Group Events

Have you ever wondered why you’ve lost a pitch after being told you were the best in the room?

This happens all the time and is due to the disparate requirements within the client organisation.

Largely between Procurement and Marketing.

It’s not that they are not aligned, although this sometimes happens, it’s more likely because you have not properly addressed their respective needs.

Marketing’s objectives lean towards sustainable sales growth, whereas procurement are often more cost-reduction-based.

They operate in different time zones across different dynamics, but both deal with the same absolute objective, to enhance business value.

In the next Commercial group, we’re going to explore this in more detail.

– How do agencies learn to speak two languages more fluently to deliver the same end goal of creating added value.

– To ensure both audiences’ needs are maintained throughout all engagements

– To help agencies focus on only those opportunities that are most likely to solve both parties needs

We’ll be asking questions like:

– How do I really know what procurement’s needs are

– How to get beyond the cold, informal RFP process

– What does price really say about my solutions, and how do I best position my price to better convert

In the hotseat we will have:

– Barry Byrne, Chief Growth Officer (Fractinal) at Umbrella, & ex-Procurement Director at Adidas, AB Inbev and Diageo, to name a few.

– Esther Carder, Partner, Moore Kingston Smith

– Sophie Connor, agency MD at Kingdom Creative

– And you, as agency experts who sell marketing services all day, everyday.

– Hosted by Fractional CFO and Alliance Commercial lead, Andrew Reeves

Please note sign in/attendance to to this session contributes 1 hour (1 point) towards CPD points for Alliance of Independent Agencies Members.

Brilliant Campaigns Start Here:

The Strategic Foundations Behind Award-Winning Work

Key Topics:

• Finding the real problem – looking beyond the brief to uncover the challenge that really needs solving
• Turning research into insight – understanding audiences, behaviours and the human truths that inspire great ideas
• Identifying the strategic opportunity – discovering the role, tension or space your brand can uniquely own
• Building the foundations for creativity – how strong strategy leads to bolder ideas, better campaigns and measurable results

About the Strategy & Planning Action Group

Led by our Member Lead Emma Hodgkinson, Chief Strategy Officer at Common Thread Group – This group offers a chance for anybody in membership with a role in strategy and planning to form a community. If you’re a planner, strategy director or similar and could benefit from peer to peer interaction within your speciality then please come along.

Meet the independent agencies you could work with, hear directly from clients, and turn new connections into commercial opportunities.

The Agency Collaboration Group (ACG) is coming together in person for its first live session, bringing independent agencies from across the Alliance community into one room to connect, build relationships and explore how we can win more together.

As clients increasingly look for broader capabilities, specialist expertise and more connected agency solutions, collaboration gives independents a powerful opportunity to compete differently – combining their strengths while keeping the agility, expertise and entrepreneurial thinking that sets them apart.

At this interactive afternoon, you’ll hear directly from a panel of client-side marketers about what they really want from their agency partners, how they view multi-agency collaboration and what makes a joined-up independent agency offering work.

But this isn’t just an event to sit and listen.

A major focus of the session will be face-to-face networking designed to help you discover agencies with complementary skills and capabilities whether you’re looking for a specialist partner for a pitch, expertise you don’t have in-house, trusted agencies to refer or outsource work to, or new opportunities to collaborate on client briefs.

Together, we’ll explore:

• What clients want from independent agencies and where collaboration can create a stronger proposition
• How independents can combine capabilities to compete for bigger opportunities
• Finding your collaboration partners – connecting with agencies that complement your expertise
• Building trusted agency relationships for pitches, referrals, outsourcing and shared opportunities
• Turning connections into action and creating a stronger collaborative network across the Alliance

Expect an interactive, practical afternoon with plenty of time to meet other agencies, understand what they do, share what you’re looking for and discover where there could be a natural fit.

Because the next opportunity your agency needs might already exist within the Alliance – you just need to meet the right people.

Who pays when AI gets it wrong? Copyright liability after the 1.5 billion dollar settlement

Recently a US court approved Anthropic’s 1.5 billion dollar settlement with authors over unauthorised use of copyrighted books in AI training, the largest copyright settlement in US legal history. For agency leaders using generative AI daily across ideation, production and client delivery, the question is no longer theoretical: where does your agency’s exposure actually sit, and what would a claim against you look like.

Join our Group Lead Jason Anderson (AI & Technical Director at AVANTGARDE) and a panel of legal, risk and technology specialists for a pragmatic, non-alarmist look at what this settlement and the wider legal landscape actually mean for agencies working with generative AI. We will strip away the jargon and give you a checklist approach to what is safe for internal ideation versus public-facing commercial work, so you can use these tools with confidence rather than guesswork.

Your Panel of experts:

Dominic Bray, Partner at Lee & Thompson LLP

Sam Johnson, Director at RiskBox Ltd

Tim Watkinson, CTO at BASE

Target audience

Managing Directors, Operations Directors & Creative Directors (although all job roles that find the topic of interest are welcome to join)

Please note sign in to this session contributes 1 hour (1 point) towards CPD points for Alliance of Independent Agencies Members.

About the Group

The AI and Experience Tech Action Group is the Alliance lab for AI, interactive and emerging technologies.
This group is the lab for AI, interactive and emerging technologies. We bring together independent agencies who want to use fast moving technology, especially artificial intelligence, to create unforgettable experiences and smarter ways of working. The group shares playbooks, pilots and standards so members can move faster, with more confidence and less risk.

Your Nervous System Lab

Understanding Stress for Peak Performance

In our high-pressure industry, understanding your stress response is key to protecting your wellbeing and performing at your best.

The Alliance will be joined by NABS, the advertising and media industry’s wellbeing charity, for this expert-led Lab exploring how stress affects the mind and body, why we react the way we do under pressure, and practical ways to regain balance.

Together, we’ll explore:

• Your personal stress response and triggers and that of your team/colleagues
• The Stress Curve and how pressure impacts performance and wellbeing
• What happens in the nervous system during stress
• Practical techniques to calm your system and build resilience
• Everyday habits that support long-term wellbeing

You’ll leave with a better understanding of your stress response and a practical toolkit to help you feel calmer, more in control and better equipped to navigate pressure at work and beyond.

Our speaker: Emma Pratt is an accredited executive and wellness coach for NABS alongside running her own executive coaching company, Performance Path coaching. Emma has more than 20 years of experience in people development, business, and communications thanks to her background in coaching and advertising. She specialises in helping people to become great leaders, to enhance performance in new and existing roles, and to find clarity and confidence in their careers. Emma is a member of the Association for Coaching (MAC), a registered assessor for The Institute of Leadership Management, a deliverer and assessor for The Chartered Management Institute, and a member of the Neuroscience Coaching Group.

NABS is the charity helping everyone in the advertising, marketing and media industry move forward. From hot tips when you’re ready to fly, to a helping hand when you’ve fallen down, we’ve got you. Industry events or networking? Check out their calendar. Group workshops or in-house training? Sign up to our sessions. Sounding board on promotions, redundancies, parental leave – life in general? They’ll help in ways no one else can. nabs.org.uk

Sign in/attendance to this session contributes 1 hour (1 point) towards CPD points for Alliance of Independent Agencies Members.

Beyond the pitch
Building teams where commercial thinking is everyone’s job

Many agencies treat commercial awareness as something that sits with senior people. Juniors and mid-level team members get pulled into pitches but the everyday commercial thinking, spotting opportunities with existing clients, understanding the value of what they deliver, having confident conversations about scope and fees, that’s left to someone else.

So the organic growth that’s sitting within existing client relationships often doesn’t get spotted and agencies can be slower to notice when client revenue is at risk.

The session will cover both the why and the how:

– Why commercial awareness needs to be a team-wide capability, not just a senior-level responsibility
– What actually holds junior and mid-level people back
– Practical ways to build commercial thinking into everyday work, not just pitch preparation
– How commercially aware teams are better at protecting revenue and retaining clients, not just growing it.

Anna Golding our member lead & Business Director at PrettyGreen will be joined by Emma Ewing of Big Fish Training…

Our speaker:

Emma Ewing is an internationally recognised career coach and founder of Big Fish Training, a company that has been helping PR professionals succeed for over two decades. Through her leadership, Emma and her team have equipped thousands of individuals with the skills to excel in their roles, deliver measurable results, and advance in their careers.
Emma’s practical, results-oriented approach helps people at all levels identify actionable steps to achieve better outcomes and, more importantly, leaves them and their teams feeling happier and more engaged at work. She also runs a monthly free webinar, often accompanied by expert guests, which is designed to give people a step-up with their skills.
To get in touch, please go to the Big Fish Training website or find her on LinkedIn here