3 DAY Residential
A three-day residential that prepares experienced agency managers for the next step in their careers. A transformational opportunity to step back, reflect and learn from the best. Delegates leave with the confidence and commercial acumen to lead teams, drive growth, and navigate change with impact.
Chairs
SPEAKERS
Course manifesto
YOUR GREATEST WORK IS AHEAD OF YOU
The rules of agency growth are being rewritten.
Technology is transforming how value is created. Clients are demanding more. Talent expectations are changing. Competition is coming from places that barely existed a decade ago.
For agency leaders, the challenge isn’t simply to keep up.
It’s to build businesses that can thrive through change.
That requires more than creative excellence. It requires commercial leadership, strategic thinking and the ability to lead people through uncertainty.
This course is designed for leaders preparing for that responsibility.
Because the agencies that succeed next won’t be defined by what made them successful yesterday.
They’ll be defined by what they become tomorrow.
What to expect
This three-day residential course includes two nights’ accommodation and meals. The course has been designed so that delegates can step away from their daily routine, even if based in the same city, and learn from course chairs, speakers and fellow delegates.
The residential nature also supports group and individual work. Participants will:
- Reside with other course delegates, allowing evening networking and group work, and building close working connections with industry peers
- Participate in immersion sessions, exercises and discussions
- Benefit from small group learning and presentations from a range of industry leaders
- Undertake one-on-one guidance throughout the experience from the course chairs.
Course Content
DAY 1: FUTURE YOURSELF
Find your authentic leadership style and unlock the power to communicate it. Â
- Welcome and introductions
- Creating high-performance teams: Mike Read
- Understanding learning and communication preferences: Mike Read
- Confident communication in leadership: Mike Jenner
- Reflection session
- Dinner
DAY 2: FUTURING THE INDUSTRY
Learn more about how to shape an agency that has human empathy and machine capability.
- Fireside chat: Nick Garrett, Rose Herceg & Mike RebeloÂ
- Panel discussion: Launching an indie
- It’s all about talent & management strategies
- Pricing for profit and partnerships: Chris Howatson
- Psychosocial hazards & your HR and legal responsibilities: Clinton Parr
- The AI Dividend: Moving from Experiment to Efficiency by Time Under Tension: Jason Ross
- Reflection session
- Dinner
DAY 3: CRAFTING A FUTURE
Learn from the experience of others as part of fireside chats with industry experts & local and global leaders of agencies and brands.Â
- The blueprint for global impact
- Panel discussion: Double-edged sword
- What boardrooms say about agencies:Â Justin Papps
- Panel discussion: Dealing with change and transformation: Sheryl Marjoram, Lindsey Evans & Matt Michael
- Fireside chat: The effectiveness of creativity
- Reflection session
Please note: Topics and sessions are subject to change as we finalise speakers and content.
Who’s it for?
Likely GMs, GADs, Client Partners – but could also include Founders, Creatives, Strategists, and Operations. It’s designed to supercharge business leadership skills.
Former Chairs
related Articles
Kirsty Muddle and Chris Howatson return to lead 2025 Business & Agency Leadership
From manager to leader: Navigating your new role with heart and smarts by Clinton Parr, Founder, A Lion and the Vibes
2024 Chairs announced – Kirsty Muddle and Chris Howatson to chair
2023 delegate Sara Stevenson shares leadership, its an abstract notion
Cognitive diversity: get the best out of your team by Mike Read, Pigs Can Fly Too
The blueprint for becoming a dynamic leader by Clare Robinson, Clarety
Speakers announced for 2023 Business and Agency Leadership residential
Laura Aldington and Lindsey Evans to chair Business & Agency Leadership
Participant Feedback
It’s rare to have time and space to pause, reflect, and rethink what leadership means in our industry today — and to do it alongside some of the best minds in the business made it even more powerful
Samantha Nunura, General Manager, Client Services and Business Operations, WiredCo
An incredible 3 days with the opportunity to listen to, and learn from, some of the industry greats. The past few days have been inspiring, uncomfortable (in the best way), and deeply thought-provoking.
Shivani Patel, VP, Dentsu B2B ANZ, Dentsu
Open and genuine the conversations. Being able to take what we were learning and see how it played out in real-world situations was incredibly valuable. It helped everything click for me, giving the concepts real context and making the learning feel much more relevant and applicable to my own experiences.
2025 delegate