Hey clients! Creative issues keeping you up at night? Put them to bed with ZEDTalks

Weird isn’t it? The only time the client community and creative types get a chance to converse is when we’re in the eye of the storm presenting ideas or receiving feedback.

I find it particularly strange when you consider that both client and creative share a similar challenge – to bring something into being that is worthy of buying the time of a human being. It’s surely something worthy of much deeper engagement than stolen moments in the pressure cooker environment of presentations.

As vice-chair of the DMA Agency Council and a creative director I felt there was an opportunity to create a space for clients and creatives to share their thoughts, concerns and ideas about the communication challenges of the 21st century.

So I asked the DMA to conduct research to uncover the key challenges that the client community was facing. The result was interesting.

Top of the list by some margin was Creativity and Ideas; where do they come from and how do we support them.

Second was Creativity and Integration; connected ideas, multi-platform execution. Do we create campaigns or content?

Third was Creativity and ROI; how is creativity measured? Return on engagement, co-creation?

In response we are developing three events tailored exclusively to those issues that came top of the client list at research, the issues that kept them awake at night. We’re calling the events ZEDtalks (see what we did there?)

5 industry leaders will get 15 minutes each to offer their thoughts, solutions or challenges at each event. It promises to be a veritable feast of stimulation, inspiration, and perhaps a bit of controversy too.

The opportunity for clients and creative to come together in a spirit of openness may not be entirely unique, but it’s certainly rare.

So with an agenda built from direct feedback ZEDtalks promise to be must-attend events for the client community.

I’d like to thank Emma de la Fosse, Nigel Clifton and Nicky Bullard who made significant contributions to this idea as well as Directory (and its editor Patrick Collister) for supporting the events.

By DMA guest blogger Ian Bates, Creative Director, The Real Adventure and Vice-Chair, DMA Agencies Council

The first in the series, ZEDTalk 1: Creativity and ideas, takes place on 24 July.