1. If there are more than two agencies pitching on work, be selective and responsible and just pass on it. No one profits from a cattle call, and it just encourages our clients to continue not to value our collective strategic and creative expertise.
2. Have respect for the talent and value of your offerings… by not giving it away free.
3. Don’t over promise and under deliver. It just feeds the unmet expectation beast that will eventually kill us all.
4. Take pride in what you do and place an appropriate value on it.
5. Less is more. Avoid the temptation to actual design, and produce the event during the pitch/sales phase. This is valuable and should be paid for. Always.
6. Learn to say no and learn to better manage costed expectations. We’d all love Champagne, but not on a beer budget. Stop offering Champagne at the expense of your profits, staff and/or vendors.
7. Take the time to skill up and ensure your team is diverse in gender, age, experience, and creative outlooks for best short- and long-term results.
Darren Kerr is co-founder of Factor168 Creative Events Company
More: The agency agonies of 2017
