APG Noisy Thinking
In partnership with
An exuberant and often provocative chance to debate the questions that Planners are asking, it’s a way of bringing people together and helping us all work where we stand on the issues that vex, stimulate and inspire. We plan to hold these events in person as more people are back in the office.​​​​
​Next Noisy Thinking:
What should we be measuring in 2026 and why?
11th November 2025 | 6pm-8pm GMT | Live at Leo Burnett
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This is a live event with some brilliant speakers to bring you new thinking and ideas for 2026..
We all know that briefs have to start with proper objectives, with measurement and KPIs agreed upon up-front. That’s like telling strategists to eat their greens.
But we want to open people’s eyes to what great measurement can be: Fun, fascinating and a chance to add real strategic value.
It’s not just brand tracking from one big company, or ad testing from everyone’s favourite emotional ad testing system, but a living, breathing, dynamic world which you can think about creatively too.
So we’re calling in the experts to APG Noisy Thinking to give short, fun, 5-minute talks with a chance to ask lots of questions.
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Tom Roach of Jellyfish on what’s happening now that a new audience - LLMs - are mediating our work
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Sammy King of TikTok on living social insight and how to use it
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Jared Tanna of Canvas8 on what you can learn and apply from cultural dynamics
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Joy Talbot of Analytic Partners on the power of holistic measurement and storytelling
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Josh Bullmore of Leo Burnett, as host of the evening
You’ll take away some genuinely new ideas and a lot of practical ideas and tips you can relate immediately to your work.
Tickets
What happened at our latest Noisy Thinking?
If Planning didn’t exist, how would you reinvent it? | 16th September 2025
Hear from our speakers:
Ashley Biack
Strategist at Special London
Ayo Fagbemi
Strategy Director and Co-Founder at Explorers Club
Imali Hettiarachchi
Strategy Lead at the LEGO Group
Jim Carroll
Former CSO and Chairman of BBH
APG Noisy Thinking Events in partnership with Canvas8
Canvas8 is a global strategic insight partner helping clients understand people's mindsets and behaviors to make strategic business decisions.
We get you: great brands, campaigns, products and businesses are the result of a deep understanding of what customers want and need, not endless, dense data.
And our aim is to keep your businesses resonant with your customers, so you can continue making things that people really want.
If Planning didn’t exist, how would you reinvent it?
16th September 2025
Speakers: Jim Carroll, Imali Hettiarachchi, Ayo Fagbemi, Ashley Biack, and Kit Altin
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Click through to read the event write-up
Strategy Departments Need to Represent the Nation they Advertise to
18th March 2025
Speakers: Marco Angelides, Steve Lacey, Josh Bullmore, Omar El-Gammal and Jenika Tanqueray
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Click through to read the event write-up
Who owns effectiveness, really?
8th July 2025
Speakers: Shekhar Deshpande, Dom Boyd, Tom Roach, Bridget Angear, Sam Fowler and Will Grundy​
Is Fame a Strategy?
16th May 2025
Speakers: Richard Huntington, Alison Phillips and Dan Deeks-Osburn
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Click through to read the event write-up
5 Things to Stop Doing Today (And still not get fired)
19th September 2024
Speakers: Jo Arden and Richard Huntington
Is Pre-testing Helping or Hindering Creativity?
19th March 2024
Speakers: Sarah Carter, Jon Evans, Craig Inglis and Martin Beverley
Fact vs Fiction: Do we actually need insights?
30th July 2024
Speakers: Mel Arrow, Ran Stallard, Matthew Waksman and Nick Hirst
What is ‘reputation’? Is it different from ‘brand’?
21st March 2024
Speakers: Daniel Deeks-Osburn, Gen Kobayashi, Jo Juber and Emily Harlock
New Challenger Strategies: The Big Themes and How to Apply them to your Brands
29 January 2020
Speaker: Adam Morgan
How do you Plan?
23 January 2019
Speakers: Raquel Chicourel, Craig Mawdsley and Milla McPhee
Planners' Cannes
19 June 2019
Speakers: Jo Arden, Kevin Chesters, Vicki Holgate & Cat Wiles
How do you plan faster and more effectively?
27 March 2019
Speakers: Amelia Torode, Sera Miller, Dom Boyd and Lucy Jameson
The Right to Disconnect
24 September 2019
Speakers: Charlie Wells, Vicki Holgate, Helen Andrews, Matt Tanter & Chetan Murthy.
How do you keep strategy interesting?
22 May 2019
Speakers: Rob Campbell, Sophie Lewis and Nick Hirst
Is it possible to think long term any more?
12 November 2019
Speakers: Tom Roach, Elly Fenlon, Kieran Bradshaw, Richard Storey and Paul Cowper
The Art of Persuasion - How do you get your idea over the line?
15 February 2018
Speakers: Jim Carroll, Marie Oldham, Laura Jordan Bombach and Martin Beverley
Alastair Campbell on what’s happening to political brands?
19 June 2018
Speaker: Alastair Campbell
If the structure of our industry is broken, what do strategists do next?
13 March 2018
Speakers: Ian Leslie, Sally Weavers, Stuart Smith and Guy Murphy
'How Not To Plan' Planning Surgery
21 November 2018
Speakers: Sarah Carter & Les Binet
How best to make sense of the world now? 20 Strategic Tools
26 April 2018
Speakers: Chris Arning, Alex Steer, Dr. Adam Gill, George Webster and Lucas Galan
Why aren't strategists impacting client's bottom line?
8 March 2017
Speakers: Pete Markey, Martin Hayward and Bridget Angear
Does Brand Purpose have a point?
21 September 2017
Speakers: Richard Shotton, Ian Leslie, Daianna Karaian and Marie Maurer
Do we need target audiences any more?
26 April 2017
Speakers: Andy Davidson, Frank Durden, Verra Budimlija, Will Whalley and Lucy Jameson
Which bits of your job are going to be taken over by robots, and what are you going to do about it?
6 November 2017
Speakers: Amelia Torode, Oli Feldwick, Ronnie Crosbie & Russell Davies
In a disruptive world, what skills do strategists really need to survive?
15 June 2017
Speakers: Shekhar Deshpande, Fern Miller, Vicki Holgate and Lisa Bowcott
What inspires you?
6 December 2017
Speakers: Simon Wassef, Kate Waters, Clare Hutchinson, Pete Buckley, Chris Baker and Clare Phillips
What is a Brand Nowadays?
1 February 2016
Speakers: Dom Boyd, David Wilding, Mark Bell, Nick Kendall and Jane Buck
Brand Lessons from Brexit - Why did we stop listening?
19 September 2016
Speakers: Alex Batchelor, Helen Job and Matthew Taylor
Is big data making strategy irrelevant?
18 April 2016
Speakers: Les Binet, Lazar Dzamic, Shorful Islam and Leo Rayman
Why did we stop thinking beyond next week?
18 October 2016
Speakers: Richard Shotton, Dr. Guido Orgs and Bogdana Butnar
Collaboration in practice and how it can lead to great strategy and great work
6 June 2016
Award-winning teams told us how working together made the difference on Sainsbury's and This Girl Can
What transformed your thinking in 2016?
29 November 2016
Speakers: Lilli English, Stuart Bowden, James Caig, Kevin Chesters and Fern Miller
21st Century Strategy
11 March 2015
Speakers: Agathe Guerrier, Neil Perkin and Giles Rhys Jones
How do you get noticed and influence people?
7 July 2015
Speakers: Faris Yakob
The future is bright, the future is....
14 April 2015
Speakers: Pippa Morris, Enni-Kukka Tuomala, Thomas Griffiths, Hannah Mackenzie, Sam Reid and Melanie
How does Advertising work in the 21st Century?
22 September 2015
Speakers: Paul Feldwick and Giles Hedger
Reasons to be Grumpy
9 June 2015
Speakers: Jon Steel
Planning in a Post-Capitalist World
17 November 2015
Speakers: Kirsty Fuller, Fern Miller and Tracey Follows
What is an insight?
4 February 2014
Speakers: Tracey Follows, Andy Davidson, Nick Hirst, David Wilding, Caitlin Ryan and John Griffiths
Planners' Cannes
14 July 2014
Speakers: Matthew Heath, Patrick Collister and Rachel Hatton
What makes a good brief?
18 March 2014
Speakers: Thiago de Moraes, David Hackworthy, Craig Mawdsley and Nathan Guerra
Whatever happened to brand building?
16 September 2014
Speakers: David Wilding, Alex Dunsdon and Mark Given
Why do women feel alienated by advertising?
20 May 2014
Speakers: Jane Cunningham, Kate Smither, Rachel Pashley and Richard Huntington
What makes an idea influential?
24 November 2014
Speakers: Dom Boyd, Chris Gallery and Tracey Follows
"I wouldn't let a planner near my boardroom"
5 February 2013
Speakers: Paul Feldwick & Simon Gulliford
Content is King
5 November 2013
Speakers: Kirsty Saddler, Nathan Guerra and Nick Price
What is an idea?
24 April 2013
Speakers: Tracey Follows, Richard Storey, and Jim Carroll
When did Planning get so small? Is new 'tech' crowding out big thinking?
27 November 2013
Speakers: Tracey Follows, David Hackworthy and Alex Dunsdon
Planners get the research they deserve
25 June 2013
Speakers: Wendy Gordon, John Griffiths and Kirsty Fuller
When I'm CSO
10 December 2013
Speakers: Lucian Trestler, Vinay Chaudhri, Stuart Harrison, Simin Radmanesh, Hamish Cameron, Max Keane & Mel Arrow
What is the Future of Planning?
8 March 2012
Speakers: Adam Morgan, Richard Huntington and Cameron Saunders
Whoever 'owns' the data owns the conversation
3 September 2012
Speakers: Andy Nairn, Sue Unerman and Rory Sutherland
Business Bites Back
9 May 2012
Speakers: Andy Fennell, Mark Lund, Alison Hardy and Doctor Foster
Planning 3.0 - Planning without a roadmap
8 October 2012
Speakers: Tracey Follows, David Hackworthy and Alex Dunsdon
Noisy Thinking Goes Global
26 June 2012
Speakers: Guy Murphy, John Shaw and Jackie Hughes
Drinking from the well of inspiration
26 November 2012
Speakers: Craig Mawdsley, Richard Huntington, Rachel Hatton, Russell Davies and Malcolm White