APG Young Planners

Sally Neilson is a strategy headhunter and founder of Strategy Book. In this practical, tip-filled talk, she covers some valuable tips on how to ace that interview, build a killer CV and what agency heads (in their own words) are really looking for in a junior strategist. 

For younger planners and strategists it can feel as though you are at the mercy of clients and bosses and emails, and that you are not senior enough to resist the pressure and push back for your own health and happiness.

We've joined up with Sam Pearce to create an evening event that will help you manage all those pressures, and learn how working less can mean more.

Andrew Phillips, Director at Big Island, talked about the five main theories of how advertising works.

We spent an evening with Media, Digital, Traditional, Direct and Brand Planners and learned the differences in their jobs. 

An update on Jon Leach’s various historical, anthropological, sociological, and psychological studies on why people think the way they do.

Toto Ellis, Head of Strategy at Droga5, opened our minds to help us understand the importance of culture when looking at brand strategy.

APG Young Planners first event of the season is on the 1st October. 'Pints, Stats and Pork Scratchings' is the theme and we'll be running a pub quiz with The Nursery to demystify the world of quant.

We have now hosted 2 extremely successful Speed Mentoring events with top CSO's and Heads of Planning and Strategy from the best London agencies.

Having good relationships beyond your fellow planners is vital. Being on good terms with account management, creatives and above all clients can kill or cure ideas.

Tom Sussman is Head of Planning at Leo Burnett. With him, we created a special interactive workshop for young planners and strategists nearer the start of their career. He talked about the principles and practice of insight with lots of examples and advice.

How to navigate the world of recruitment and polish your CV with Ben Shaw, Kate Sherwin-White and David McGowan

In this session we took a peek behind the scenes of R/GA Ventures Studio and learned some tricks and tools for creating new brands for start-ups.

Jim Carroll reflected on his 30 years in advertising and gave us 10 tips on how to get the best out of a career in strategy.

Our 3rd Speed Mentoring held at We Are Social. Thank you to everyone who came along.

John Harrison, Managing Partner at BBH, shared with us his biggest bugbear – that all too often we are focused on finding the consumer insight, when actually insight can come from other places.

An evening of talks, tools, interactive exercises and discussion to demystify qualitative research. A brief but incredibly useful, interactive session to get the most out focus groups and qual research.

Pitches turn the agency upside down. A pitch means anyone can influence the agency's future as commercial imperative pushes creative minds. 

Should my job title on LinkedIn be 'experience design architect' or 'planner'?Should you be a generalist or a specialist? Which is better for long-term career prospects? What are other junior planners doing?

Martin Beverley is CSO at adam&eveDDB. He has created an excellent new session for young planners and strategists with 1-3 years experience. Practical and inspirational, this will teach you 10 ways to get to a great brief, by using the power of sharing and opening up your first thoughts.

Ben Shaw, Head of Strategy at BBH, hosted an evening with his team to help teach us how to communicate better with Creatives.

In this session, Creature CSO Andrew Gibson shared wisdom that has been fundamental to his career as a strategist: Different ways to look at a problem and how you can put them into practice.

An evening of talks, tools, interactive exercises and discussion to unlock the secrets of qualitative research with The Nursery.

Took a trip around the Wellcome Collection and then to the pub.

Craig Mawdsley, Joint Chief Strategy Officer at AMV BBDO speaks about how to build a career as a strategist in the creative industries.

On Tuesday 24 March, 60 young planners and strategists got together to talk briefs and briefings with Paul Feldwick and Pete Heskett of JWT.

Our first in a series of 'Speed Mentoring' sessions for young Planners and Strategists looking to get a little more guidance and advice on how to survive in the industry.