Have you ever thought about making things better and cutting out the crap?

If you had a magic wand, what would you change about the advertising industry?

We asked 5 industry leaders this very question and this is your chance to find out what they think.

Taking the stage:

Pete Petrella, Co-Founder, Black Book London
Abi Ellis, Group Creative Director, LBi
Patrick Collister, Head of Design, Google
Andy Cutbill, Creative Director (former CD, Head of Copy, R/GA)
Ed Robinson, Co-founder & Creative Director, The Viral Factory

Pete kicks off with a talk entitled; ‘Whose opinion is it anyway?’: If he had a magic wand he’d stop people high-jacking other’s opinions. He’s going to talk about my frustration in the seeming acceptance of ‘advertising’ folk assimilating other’s opinions as their own and how he thinks it’s potentially breeding a useless bunch of people who can’t think for themselves without a search engine.

Abi is going to tell us all to ‘Slow The F**k Up’: Pace has its place. Yep, let’s live life in beta. Let’s do something NEW before someone else does it. Let’s hurtle towards… “Meh”. If she could change one thing about this gloriously barmy industry, she’d slow down a little. Let creative minds think a little longer. A little harder. Ruminate. Sleep on it. Chuck out the shit. Slowing down might just be the way to make brilliant things, faster.

Patrick says that if he could change one thing he’d ‘close down Campaign magazine’. The advertising industry is ridiculously self-obsessed. It means we don’t notice what’s happening beyond our own relatively small world even though what’s happening out there is changing everything we do.

Andy’s mantra is ‘Less Advertising More Industry’. Advertising is on its deathbed. As more and more big brands take creative in-house, only those agencies that have value hard-wired into their business models, constantly inventing surprising, commercially successful new avenues for their clients will live to tell their tale.

Cracking the whip Ed explains ‘Why Advertising has to GROW A PAIR’: If he could change one thing about the advertising industry, it would be to rout the snivelling hoards of ‘do nothing’ brand nazis and fear-mongering legal department zombies. With peer opinion on the internet dominating how we make purchase decisions, we need to be braver and bolder than ever. He’ll attempt to explain why there is a sound business case for us all growing a pair.

Big thanks as always to our partners:

Because Source is all about Connected People, Connecting People, Creative Social is the perfect platform for people to network whilst benefiting from leading industry knowledge. To help conversation flow, there will be a sponsored bar, courtesy of our friends at Source

We would also like to say a special thanks to our venue partners LBi for providing us with ‘The home of Creative Social Presents..’ a top notch venue for creative thinking.

Please note: This event is for agency folk and students only

AN IMPORTANT NOTE FOR WHEELCHAIR USERS AND THOSE WITH REDUCED MOBILITY

Because of the age and design of the LBi building (a former brewery), we are unable to accommodate wheelchair users at our events. The escape routes from our basement are all vertical and require a level physical mobility when used in the event of a fire or other emergency.

In the event of an emergency, we are able to provide those people with ambulant mobility with assisted escape from one of the building’s emergency response team. However, where a person is a wheelchair user with no mobility, an effective and safe evacuation is not possible.

We would ask those with reduced mobility to contact us ahead of any events to ensure that we have the correct assistance in place in case of an emergency.

We apologise for any inconvenience caused.