How do they do it? Everyone wants to know.
How to get ready for a pitch, how to express ideas powerfully in words, how to come up with 'that' great concept and then how to deliver it to the client on time. Wouldn't you just like to be a fly on the wall and see how it's all done? Or, even better, join in with an expert and discover it for yourself.
Day One of The Edge will focus on four vital areas to help you understand and better prepare yourself in the areas of pitching, copywriting, project management and concept development.
Each half day workshop will run from 10am to 1pm and 2:30pm to 5:30pm, giving you the chance to attend two of the four sessions. The workshops will be run by experts within their field. All you have to do is take the plunge, sign up, listen and get involved.
Workshop 1: Pitch and roll: get the edge - win more business
You have to win. If you don’t win business, you won’t be in business. But what’s the best way to win new clients? Can you charge fees for pitching? Do you need to pitch at all? How do the best design businesses deal with it? And what do the clients think? This lively half-day workshop session will tell you all you need to know.
Shan Preddy will take you through her top tips for winning clients. Shan will be joined by senior people from two Top-100 design businesses including The Alloy, Blue Marlin, Dalziel+Pow and Living Group , who will be sharing their pitch policies and methodologies. To round it off, a panel of design-buying clients including BT, Chicago Town Pizza, Diageo and Waitrose will take part in a discussion. Kate Blandford, Consultant and former Head of Packaging Design at Sainsbury's, will be moderating the client panel discussion.
What will you learn?
- How to get the edge over your competitors
- How to increase your win rate
- How to better understand what the client wants
Speaker:
Shan Preddy, Preddy&Co
Workshop 2: Writing for design
Don’t forget the words – and don’t just add them as an afterthought. Words can be the starting point for creativity, and designers need to use them well. Otherwise you won’t influence or persuade as effectively as you’d wish.
Words are risky – that’s their joy. Words can be joyful – learn to take a risk with them and you’ll enjoy the pleasure they bring. Come and take some risks with words at this workshop session. John Simmons, with his colleague Neil Taylor from The Writer, will help you discover the creative power of words.
What will you learn?
- A new approach to creativity through words
- Greater confidence and enjoyment from your writing
- Understanding the liberating power of constraints
Speaker:
John Simmons and Neil Taylor, The Writer
Workshop 3: Project management
Project management can often be seen as the necessary, but rather mundane side of delivering a creative solution. This hugely underplays its value. Project management is the key to happy clients, a profitable business, a properly briefed creative team and thriving long-term client relationships.
Attend this session with David Rivett and find out about the tools needed to set up and manage projects to maximum effect. You’ll also gain insight into the importance of interpersonal skills, behavioural understanding, commercial instincts, negotiating skills and project trade-offs.
Working through the project process starting with briefing and team structures, you’ll then look at feedback, communication, profit-measures, resource management, before finishing with dispute resolution, collecting money and measuring client satisfaction. You’ll also get to take part in sessions on brief creation, key performance indicators and understanding behavioural styles for negotiation.
Overall, you will gain a greater sense of the importance and centrality of project management to your career, your businesses success and your clients’ satisfaction.
What will you learn?
- How to effectively plan and manage projects
- The tools and skills you can leverage in this role
- How to build great long-term client relationships
Speaker:
David Rivett
Workshop 4: The business of ideas
An inspirational and practical workshop delivered by Patrick Collister, ex executive creative director at Ogilvy & Mather and EHS Brann. This workshop will provide two specific tools that you can use immediately in your job to help you have more ideas faster. It will also help you to distinguish different sorts of ideas from each other and become better able at selling these in easily.
Keeping it relevant as well as fun, you can bring a simple brief and choose to explore new ideas privately or within the group during the session.
What you will learn:
- What is creativity? Understand the diagonal brain. What is it that you do that your clients need and that they can’t do themselves.
- What is an idea? How does the mind construct ideas and why are these important?
- The hierarchy of ideas? Understanding the hierarchy of a brand idea, a strategy and an execution will help you answer the brief faster,
present better and prevent expensive mistakes.
- Meaning and expression. Once you understand the meaning of your idea you can express it in countless ways. The secret of thinking simple.
- The 7 ideas. What are the 7 ‘master’ ideas and how can each help trigger a new chain of thought?
Speaker:
Patrick Collister
