Secrets of developing agency culture to be shared at SAGE
The architects of some of Australia’s most high performance agency cultures are to share their techniques for recruiting, developing and retaining the best talent in a session at next month’s SAGE conference.
SAGE – Secrets of Agency Excellence – is organised by Mumbrella’s marketing intelligence tool The Source. The one day masterclass takes place in Melbourne on November 20 and Sydney on November 21.
A session on building a good agency culture and recruiting, developing and retaining talent will feature panellists with some of the best track records in Australia of doing so.
The Sydney panel includes UM boss Mat Baxter, Whybin\TBWA Sydney CEO Paul Bradbury, Group M’s chief HR and talent officer Elissa Good-Omozusi and Bohemia co-founder Brett Dawson.
The Melbourne panel features Mark Coad, CEO of PHD, Melinda Geertz, CEO of Leo Burnett Melbourne, Chris Brown, national CEO of DDB Group, and UM managing partner David Hearn.
Sydney talent and culture panel:
Mat Baxter made his name as a co-founder of Naked Communications Australia. He then went on to become chief strategy officer of Mediacom before becoming CEO of UM. The agency has seen significant growth under his leadership. it is currently Mumbrella’s media agency of the year and was number 11 on BRW’s best places to work index. Baxter is also on the executive committee of the Media Federation.
Paul Bradbury is CEO of creative agency Whybin/TBWA Sydney with big agency experience including board director at Bartle Bogle Hegarty and group head at M&C Saatchi. The agency employs 174 staff in Sydney and looks after a striong of major cleintds across the group including Nissan, RaboBank, Fairfax media, Tourism NZ, ANZ, NRMA Insurance, Pedigree, David jones, Telstra and Hahn Super Dry.
Elissa Good-Omozusi is responsible for the talent culture at WPP’s Group M, which is Australia’s biggest media buying group, covering Mindshare, Mediacom, Maxus and MEC. The last three years has seen Group M create the ambitious M Grad project as a strategy to attract graduate talent into the organisation. She is also on the Media federation’s People committee.Prior to Group M she was group HR manager for Publicis in the UK.
Brett Dawson co-founded media hotshop Bohemia two years ago. Bohemia has since become of of Australia’s fastest growing and most respected media independents. Previously he was strategy director at Ikon Communications, which was famed at the time for its strong staff culture. He also chairs the Media Federation’s MFA Awards committee.
Melbourne talent and culture panel:
Mark Coad is one of Australia’s most accomplished agency bosses, having run both media and creative agencies. He is particularly respected for the management team he build during his four years as CEO of OMD. After a spell running creative agency CHE Melbourne, Coad returned to the media industry last year as CEO of PHD Australia.
Melinda Geertz is a veteran of both the Melbourne agency scene and Leo Burnett, where she has worked for 23 years after arrving from Chicago. She has led the agency for more than a decade and is recognised for driving a vibrant culture. She was one of the first women appointed to The Communications Council.
Chris Brown is responsible for a team of nearly 400 staff including 140 in DDB Melbourne and 225 in DDB Sydney. The group also includes RAPP, Mango, DDB Remedy and tribal DDB. A board member of The Communications Council, Brown has also worked in the UK. he specialises in leading and developing teams working on complex pieces of cleint work.
David Hearn is managing partner and head of strategy at UM in Melbourne. He joined the agency earlier this year after previously heading planning at BWM. his experience also includes the London agency scene including UM, media independent Walker Media and Carat London.
SAGE will see a series of presentations and discussions on many of the key aspects required for an agency – and its staff – to succeed.
The sessions also include how to put strategy at the heart of your agency; innovation; case studies on creativity in action; the secrets of managing client relationships; how to PR your agency to the trade press and beyond; how to win new business; and how to ensure ongoing commercial success.
Yesterday, speakers were revealed for the sessions on account management and how to keep clients happy.
SAGE is designed for people working in agency management or business roles, or those aspiring to do so. Panellists will offer useful advice applicable to those working in big agencies or smaller independents. It will also be helpful for people working client-side involved in managing agency relationships.
In addition, the events will see the publication of the findings of The Agency Review – a book written by Mumbrella’s journalists offering an authoritative assessment of every one of Australia’s 50 largest and emerging media and creative agencies, along with a survey of the views of Mumbrella’s readership and a panel of experts.
SAGE is priced at just $495 per head. The price also includes a copy of The Agency Review 2013/14, usually priced at $125. An early bird discount of $100 is available until November 1.
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