The Connected Agency and Innovations that Create Success - Ensuring Agencies Continue to Thrive Amidst the AI Era of Uniformity

In our current landscape, where AI significantly influences content creation and volume, the importance of groundbreaking creative thinking and unique concepts is paramount. The pressing question for agencies is how to balance the relentless demand and commercial responsibility with producing work that truly stands out.

During this free online Colloquium, we will explore what creative agencies must do to continue thriving amidst the multifaceted challenges facing the industry. Agencies are not only tasked with delivering faster results but also with maintaining a robust financial footing.

The financial health of agencies, whether large, medium, or small, is a persistent global challenge. Often, winning more business can lead to increased chaos and a reduced net return on the hard work invested.

We will delve into what it means to be a digitally connected and operationally resilient agency poised for growth. How do we take the acronyms we know and love – Creative Operations, DAM, and AI – and approach them as a core value? We'll discuss how creative operations can carve out time for deep creative thinking and strategic planning and the critical role data plays in safeguarding and enhancing the value of creative output.

Participants will learn about:
• Global challenges faced by growing agencies
• Defining operational resilience in an agency context
• Essential operational technologies every agency should employ
• Benefits of building operational resilience for agencies
• Strategies to secure new business opportunities while safeguarding your financial health

BONUS: All attendees will be eligible for a random drawing during the event to win one free course from any of our Rutgers Continuing and Professional Studies certificate programs (valued at up to $1,095).

Presenters include:

• Andrew Hall - Andrew is a commercial marketing specialist helping software organizations with their go-to-market strategies and executions. Andrew has spent a large portion of his career working with US start-up organizations to build a market presence on a global platform. Prior to that, Andrew spent 15 years of his career in the creative agency space, leading an independent agency group. In this time, a key area of focus was the commercialization of agency value and the benefits of operational structures for agencies to scale effectively. Andrew has a great blend of commercial experience and qualifications combined with an appreciation of the content, creative, and communication for levers of change. 
• Julie Johnson, Ed.D. - Julie has 30+ years of professional development and continuing education experience within higher education, international non-profit organizations, and public education. She is currently the Director of Continuing and Professional Studies (CPS) and participates in the campus and university continuing education and micro-credentials bodies. As the Director of CPS, Johnson leads all continuing education, non-degree, micro-credentialing programming, and educational outreach of the Rutgers School of Communication and Information.
• David Lipsey - DAM Industry Strategist and DAM industry foundational contributor. Global Chair, The Art & Practice of Managing Digital Content worldwide conferences. Executive and Advisor on initiatives designed to put digital assets to use in their daily and greater purpose, including executive coaching on DAM issues, organizational change management consulting stemming from content / digital issues, and commercial, museum, and not-for-profit business development.