hello and good afternoon everybody very glad to not so much see you but know that you're there welcome to F concession creativity in the time of corona and the session will go on for about 45 minutes so you'll be with us till 5 and just a few housekeeping points first and foremost could I ask if anybody has any questions please could you post them into the Q&A section and and then we're also asking one question to get a word out of you that if you could put that into the comment section so that's a separate section that would be great so the question we were up we're asking is if you could come up with the one word to describe your current creative state so the whole panel will be doing this as well so one word to describe your current creative state and if you could put that in the comment section that would be great and I will Corral all the questions that go into the Q&A section and we'll be putting those to the panel towards the end so we'll be saving those and collating in and putting them in groups so that we can put them to the panel about 10 minutes before the end but with that I'll pass you over to our facilitator this afternoon who is Dean Bestwick and he is the creative partner at gorilla gorilla and and he will lead the discussion and also mention questions to the panel so without further ado I'd like to pass you over to Dean thanks Claire good afternoon everybody delighted to be able to facilitate this session on creativity in the site in during the corona crisis and we've got some amazing speakers here today you're going to share their thoughts and their experiences and obviously some frustrations as well but I think the main thing is that we want to try and focus on any positives that we can take from this as much as possible so this is very much an open conversation and just to kick things off I'd like everybody in turn just to spend a quick minute to introduce themselves and also to give their one-word experience of the current times and you want to start with Matt fantastic Thank You Dean hi everyone out there I'm Matthew Morrison and founder an innovation director at smile and my one word to sum this up which is slightly tricky but I think in seeing when I have over the past weeks I think it has to be humble humble act as seeing kind of how everyone has come together and some really inspirational pieces of creativity out there thanks Matt and Angela could you introduce yourself hello Heidi and hi everybody it's Angela Moore from every sense and we're a specialist business consultancy we help lots of different types of agencies to grow and and I guess my one word is exhilarated so you know lots of challenging things going on but also some fascinating collaboration inventiveness ability to just hand you and reimagine things on the part of all different kinds of agencies I'm Sanjana and Steven could you introduce yourself I am thanks Dean hello buddy I'm Steve our CEO cheer for 21st I was gonna come up with one word it would be excitement I think as a creative agency I think we thrive on challenges and I think you thrive on adversity I think there's opportunities and parking the human tragedy and my thoughts go out to everybody I think this is a massive opportunity to reset the business to be honest and I think the industry was do a bit of a reset and I think in a positive way the value will go back to what what creative is I think that's a great is you know how you how you solve solutions is about creativity the excitement I see you thanks Steven and hi Karen could you introduce yourself hi Dean hi everyone I'm Karen Cade and I'm one of the founders and Managing Partner of brands of work we're a creative engagement agency my one word would be curious I think there's a tension there in the great unknown and how this is decimated many industries and companies and agencies and peers lives but I'm in in a lot of ways also curious about the sense of wonder this might unleash an everyone about how can we do better how can we elevate the creativity and how can we do better in the realm of communicating and even if it has to be at a distance so that would be my world always question everything challenge everything thanks Karen I like to I won't introduce myself and but I think Michael it would be zooming spending an awful lot of time on that at the moment but you know I hopefully like everybody and we were talking about this yesterday as a group that it's providing them obviously a a really new way of doing things and what we're going to do is that we're going to cover off sort of four broad areas that we've talked about that we thought might be interesting to explore around creativity on a project level on an agency level for clients and also in the wider world now none of our speakers today know who I'm going to come to first with their questions have a surprised look on their face and then why but I'm going to come back to Karen if that's okay with our first question in the sort of project space which is a massive massive question that it has this common global experience impacted the search for originality on Karen what I would say is that today and yesterday you shared a couple of really interesting examples that something that it just popped out from you from somewhere completely different I mean you mentioned the the likeness between the governments of color coding and Nando's peri-peri you know I mean is there a danger that we're all going to be basically you know searching for the very same stuff yeah no I mean I think you is the mother of invention and I you know I think we're all really sick of the word pivoting so I'm just gonna say pure wedding from now on and but you know in in terms of originality it's everywhere you know we've probably all been falling down the sort of scroll hole of Instagram and Twitter and LinkedIn and everywhere and and in that space and tick tock I mean I don't think I'm the target audience might be a little bit too old for it but I have been amazed by the stuff coming out there I've even tuned in and so I have to say I'm finding the creative inspiration coming from unexpected places not necessarily the same corridors of inspiration I would have walked previously I'm the lens has been widened and I'm I'm looking in unusual places and I think our clients are counting on us to come to them because we're all staring at the same four walls every day so they're looking to us to say okay how can you see beyond those four walls and that's what they're paying us to do and and and that's what we what we can do and so some of those examples of you know even my personal life you know I'm a mom of two little people and and how did we pirouette when it came to Easter well we went on a virtual Easter egg hunt around the neighborhood and and we got a whole bunch of neighbors to put up Easter eggs in their windows you saw the rainbow projects probably all around your neighborhoods and I think those are all examples of society and humanity pivoting in this space so I think originality has never been more present than it is right now if you if you are an Instagram look up Jake Gyllenhaal he's become sort of the quarantine hoist poster boyfriend for everyone he's he's participating in the one-minute play project which is just an incredible initiative that's about telling stories in under you know in under 24 hours and using their talents to express themselves I think I think it's a beautiful thing thanks Karen it was really interesting I mean Matt from your point of view knows obviously you do a variety of things but within smile I mean it is I mean I mean originality is a challenge full-stop you know but I mean do you find that you you know there's a commonality to the experience that's kind of helping in some way i I have to say I agree Karen totally original t he is possibly easier now because we got everyone the whole globe is locked in in terms of creativity and actually let's take a step back it's actually more about with all humans and and it's that need that in that need that desire for humans to connect the humans and whilst this that mediums been taken away from us and we're all on dooming and we've gotten fatigued I think they'd actually how people will actually curb that and got around that whether you look at the Italian balcony bands that really come out or owner and and spark this off in terms of how they managed to still communicate with their street or we look at like Obama and Lady gaga just about to do a graduation but all the graduates in the USA down to things like fisher-price and planer built now you think that's something completely well but I love the fact they've created a set of figures called heroes and those heroes all the money that they are getting from that is all going into the communities and it shows how a team around reacting as well in an authentic and honest way through this I think that that it's got all walked in life was we seen Creighton did he come out so I think actually it's is making a really interesting time shaking a lot of things up in the motor you talked a bit about this and yesterday's Steven about how it's sort of changing I'm sort of you know changing your view on sort of projects in terms of what's what's the best thing to kind of focus on I mean do you think that sometimes it's not necessarily about originality but maybe just pointing things in a slightly different direction yeah I mean I think I think the power creativity is going to be amplified now I think and in some ways you know we are experts in a certain medium to date which is about engagement honesty and communication with our clients and staff etc and then get moving forward being open to this mad gold rush and trying to cut through really what is unfortunate again and again it's human interaction so I was going back to the excitement being about a challenge it's a huge opportunity for us to count focus and where the value is that we add as agencies and I and I hope that's a good thing for every creative service industry going forward because it's the only one with the tech companies anyway yes I think yeah I think also clients are very confused we're all confused as well so you know there's a certain amount of Education to go on route again what do you want to do what you're trying to achieve and also not throw out the baby with the bathwater um before you talk about it later on about his virtual gold rush and how crazy is because it's not really that's not a stand what it's not all about it's not about that at all going forward Steam's mentioned something interesting their answer there about agencies kind of you know focusing on uh sort of core area of their value proposition and I was wondering if you could talk about that a little bit particularly with you know from a project point of view as well you know in a lot of senses options are a little bit limited lots of different agencies it's interesting isn't it I think from that agency and value proposition point of view I think the agencies that have got strong client relationships especially in a strategic strategic level you know their clients have been saying once they looked around and went oh now what we do which we've all been doing their clients came to them and said what can we do we think need this how can you help us and that how can you help us those big questions really open up the possibilities for originality and creativity and I think that's what how agencies have been responding and that's a very positive thing I think also the other thing can be positive is perhaps some of the timescales and the decision making because it's such a dynamic situation and nobody knows what's going to happen if something needs to say something they potentially need to say it really quickly and communicate something quickly in them now because it's going to change so quickly and that's led to some really interesting creativity and originality to get ideas and messages out to people really quickly rather than kind of sitting on it and overthinking it and so I think it's led to certainly I've seen with the the agencies and the work that we've all seen in the world a kind of big change in that potential for responsiveness and collaboration and just inventing things all over again and that is really interesting and exciting I think if I was going to come to you as the random first person for the next question Angeles follow-on there yeah say are you ready just until you mentioned it there in terms of people innovating in in new ways I mean is there an example in particular that's really stuck out for you hmm I think the the idea that instead of people instead of agencies thinking actually we're experts in particular Channel or a particular means of delivery to really kind of go back to the essence of agencies thinking about themselves and their skills as communicators so they may have ended up being specialists in one thing or another but at their core part of their skill set is that ability to communicate and so and that's in greater need than ever interestingly enough because the whole world is almost is going through a similar experience we're all kind of human we're all experiencing the same journey that gives fantastic opportunities for creativity that was really going to land because we will all get it and enjoy it in the same way that we were talking earlier about seeing this fantastic creativity on on different social media channels and I guess from a client point of view I suspect before long it's going to need to move into something where will they do it already is in in kind of brand sense where people where clients are saying this is great but we need to make sure that what we stand for and our brand has some kind of differentiation in it and so I think agencies really getting to grips with that and supporting their clients to be to demonstrate that brand and potentially to be even braver about it and to dive down a little wormholes of nuggets of insight about human behavior and what we really feel and how does this match up with what we want to communicate I think that might be who knows that might be some of the next phase thanks I'm sure I can see you nodding along Matt and thanks for the got some thoughts on that I completely agree with Angela I think there this innovation question is slightly the tricky one because yes we've had to innovate and there's a whole cocktail of different solutions out there but then people got fixated on it and actually I think it comes back to that human piece again and about experience tonight which I know they're super talented people across the whole industry whoo-hoo about experience design and I think they'd been slightly got railroaded in this kind of platform and screen and zooming and that what other platforms bolted and innovate and actually the need is about human connection and doing that in creative ways which might mean that you do need some of that innovative processor and Deb's to come in and help you with that but actually the the design if we look at the top level of it I find actually mixing that that intersection between technology and humanity is the interesting place that's a sweet spot for me where actually some analog things are a really powerful as well as that do you think about where where the audience is where they sitting like they have a hope they don't have to be in the office I mean where can they be around and how to bring that to light I think there's there's so much opportunity when you just open out and and and go back to actually what we were doing before with the experiences I'm just doing slightly different ways so you I suppose do connect and remember what everyone's good at yeah but I've kind of started I think going back to what I was saying the essence and what you're saying a matter is about is human human interaction and that's our challenge because you know meeting someone if you do any reports 80% of any kind of live engagement pieces a is meeting someone and then you know and we're we're summing is going wrong in his description if you're trying to design a virtual hotel room what are you trying to do that that is not the event that's not the engagement please what is what it's a conversation piece and what's the engagement piece that's where it's going that is what I find exciting and I think that's when it goes back to the value of us is pure comms dualists ideation then that's that's the exciting bit because it isn't what you think it is right now we're just covering it and that's that's brave new world all that sort stuff and you know we're all kind of saying optimistically who actually actually really understand what the challenge is what what is on the table the opportunities are I'm Steven from your point of view Karen I mean doing anything new are you sort of innovating on a project level you know perhaps in a way that you wouldn't have imagined reprised this you know what no because we yes and no and virtual and hybrid events weren't new for us that that's been part of our bread and butter for since we were in business and I mean a lot of my personal history even goes much further back beyond that you know where we work with huge pharmaceutical companies where they have to Train global audiences with sticky memorable interesting content and we turn that into you know a TV broadcast so for us this wasn't a huge stretch what is unprecedented is this social distancing piece the piece where armsan our audiences can't come together our speakers can't necessarily come together our colleagues can't come together write on the walls and come up with all the mad madness in the room together that's the weirdness that's the tension for us where we've had to innovate yes but pivoting to virtual or hybrid that wasn't a pivot for us we were already doing it as part of our bread and butter but but yes the exclusivity of our current circumstances the nature of people audiences having to be at home all day not being able to break out of their bubbles that's different and that's the big the big challenge but it fundamentally I agree with my my colleagues here on the phone what we aren't restoring tellers right that's what we do and we're just finding you know new and different ways to story tell but for us you know every brief is wildly different one minute I'm writing a musical about chewing gum the next I'm delivering you know a technical learning event for 3,000 auditors in a you know in the Cotswolds water park the nature of our briefs we always every time we had a really random new brief in the door that's what we do and it's never one-size-fits-all we don't we aren't run out of product company we don't sell widgets we sell ideas and creativity and that's what we're still doing right now terms come on to the next section we talked about challenges we've talked about the need to innovate you know some of the frustrations but excitement and with that you know sort of looking more broadly from an agency point of view I mean how are you keeping your team and your kind of selves kind of feeling creative at the moment Karen myself I've had myself on you but you're saying um how do we continue to keep ourselves creative yeah what sort of things do you do you obviously mentioned some of this stuff you've been doing anyway but you know are you finding that you're needing to des proteins in new ways or look at things differently like I said I mean we we always you know this this is part of what we do it's what's the blank canvas what's the challenge challenge the brief do all the things with we've always done are we doing more research into innovative formats for sure and and are we talking and this is something I believe Steve touched on earlier what's been really refreshing is the collaboration versus competitiveness across the industry and I think that's been really nice we've been talking to a lot of other peers and agency owners etc about you know what are you doing how are you navigating that so so certainly inspiration within the industry but then beyond I'm having a look in funky places right like I'm I'm at home with my two kids I'm getting a lot of inspiration from my kids um and and in fact some some phenomenal some some phenomenal best practices might might just turn four-year-old he goes from Montessori School there's a Montessori app he's doing talk about user experience it blows the doors off of anything I've seen health care and and so just getting ideas in unexpected places that I wouldn't have necessarily looked at before I do think there's an incredible pressure right we don't normally come up with creative ideas in this sort of 9 to 5 zoom window so I think it's really important to break out of that and and so for the first few weeks I fell into that trap of look busy be on every zoom call and I've had to stop that for my own sanity and for my own you know mental well-being and for my own inspiration so if I step away I have a I bought a 3m Toblerone flipchart dry erase thing that I pop up and I create a little brainstorming studio and I you know I might involve my colleagues in that or I'll have a bit of self reflection time I've got I've used old-school techniques like the creative whack pack and you know different devices lateral thinking from Edward de Bono just stepping away from the screen and then being able to come back to the problem looking at it differently looking at it from you know like I said a widened lens so so yeah looking in different places and I think a really important thing is to give ourselves some grace right this is hard we are we're in some sort of fishbowl experiment right now so you know what's pot never boils and you know an under-pressure creative doesn't pop so just relax get into a state of flow and it might come to you I'm at yeah yeah so I just I think actually it's not just about you know we have creative teams creative departments and I don't actually think what's really nice actually it's about their teaming and I found actually creatively coming from all that we talked about the public but actually within an agency what getting a different the different departments together and jörgen is employed in crate have come out of really good teaming there they've all got a slightly different angle they're all actually consuming they're seeing and you know different channels different ways or people approaching it you know the mountain means with machine and you can I think you mentioned ticked off earlier which again definitely not my I'm not the target audience for that one either but I think the crater to be seen coming out there but a cheese diamonds coming into our teams and no ice well well we're putting different teams together with great success though actually just inspiring each other and then that's what the client wants to see as well some of these ideas and you don't need to be an architect software architect to do this this again later factor the innate talent in this industry and the amount of people that you find in gathering gathering that creative from all different sorts of sources inside the agency is really actually energizing for the teams and seeing how much they've thought they've actually pushed outside of there they're kind of old defined roles is inspirational I say how to say how after most of all the industry for actually doing exactly the same as well and just looking with wider horizon and bringing new people into those teams thanks man nice thing yeah just two things kind of one from our internal perspective is we're probably having the most best brainstorms collaboration focus and microwave your teams on zoom' meetings because I can look everyone in the eye and the ones focus and actually the throughput and the output has been a proper collaboration you know you guys in some of my agency in a bad day was have a brainstorm known turns out and they're making the sandwich so there you go but I what I I hope and I think we'll have a come out and necessity is honesty and transparency as well and what I'll say about that is like be honest about what you're good at be transparent about what you actually we're committed as a collaborator and much more overt and saying these guys are good at this these guys are good at this and we're good at this and that would driven unfortunately by economic reasons primarily but secondly I think that's part of the new way of working you've got to be stick what you got oh I know about you go I've been in this industry 37 years ago and at one stage you had to make her everything was in-house it's all owned by us it's all white labeled we're doing everything under the Sun guys that is finished there's also very expensive so stick what you're good at be the storytellers and do your comms expertise and then the tech guy will be detect person there is absolutely a blend of Technology coming yeah if the tech guy thinks they can do your conference your event they're stupid and if you think you're going to do their platform you're stupid too but together and be honest about it that's how you know work and speaking on the last four we that's getting a lot of resonance with our clients and our clients are just as confused as we are we've turned down briefs could we say that's not for us and then going back to the excitement because we are seeing back the value of what we do you know is connect audiences make an impact in the business generate more profit make yeah so that's great and hence why the excitement and I can tell from there's a buzz in my team there's a buzz in my firm yeah we are worried about the business you know about it going to shoot about there's a buzz and there's actually being a shot in the arm for us to go what do we really do how do we do that we'll do that all likewise Karen we didn't heart bid events for the last 20 years we just call them web streaming webinar remote through row shows you know but you know it's the same thing to us so hasn't been that matter of evolution but I think it's just focused clients on what they're trying to do instead of we booking an event we did it last year we'll do it again and we've always said why Angela's gonna come to you next time solutely just think what I'd love to do is to bridge this thing about how people are experiencing that at the moment with what people are learning I'll let you comment first I was going to asking a question about that as well I'm gonna tree that I'm really interested in here what's everybody saying about that and I completely agree with Steve about really understanding where your expertise is and then pulling those other things in that are going to help deliver that to the client and asking those big questions I think that maybe some of the excitement amongst agencies and individuals at the moment and why people are like yeah I want to be on the brainstorm is obviously this the human factor they're in their living room with the cat quite like to talk to somebody even on a screen and then setting that aside I think the other thing is is that my perception looking at you know we've all seen the briefs the big corporate briefs for brand events etc etc they often what they do is that they just seem to ignore the idea that they're talking to a group of humans all together it's all to do with let's download this stuff we need to tell them this stuff you know that that's still very much how how some of those be culprits and someone's operate and that's a real dead nerve to creativity it's a real dead nut to generative conversations it's a dead nettle innovation it's a dead no to empathy and getting people engaged in their companies and I guess what's interesting now is that because everybody is going through the same human experience that every type of communication has to be on that human level I guess what's going to be fascinating going forward is to see how we can continue to have that appreciation of human in all that communication rather than it going hmm going to that kind of level of this is business this is corporate this is shareholders this is finance rather than who are we and what really matters to us without trying to sound too profound hmm no I don't think at all thanks Karen I'm just going to say to ask Angela to just kind of bridges into the next point so I'm just conscious of time but I mean everybody's talking about some really interesting stuff here but in your experiences as a consultant is there is there a real danger if suddenly we're all back to normal that a lot of this great stuff gets gets lost I mean what is there a key thing that you can offer up in terms of people what's the best way to kind of keep hold of some of the things that people are learning okay that's a fantastic question Dean and I guess my off-the-job my head answer to that is that it will be there is I think that potentially it's a danger who knows what's going to happen in the next 24 months three years who knows but I guess I feel as though if agencies can be really conscious of the moment at the moment about the value they add understanding that value and that value lies in empathy and creativity and being able to distill that into something meaningful but the agencies have to be on the front foot around saying we can put a value on that creativity and we're going to link it to what it means to your business from a client point of view and that connection between what can we do for you it's really important you can see we can get an outcome has always been essential to success and I I think it's gonna be even more so going forward thanks Angela I'm just going to come to yourself next Karen I did if you wanted to respond to the point before but I thought if there's anything you can sort of talk across there that sort of takes us into perhaps something that you think what's the key thing that you've learned that you might take forward I don't know if it's a bad thing I've I've learned so much because I I think you have to be careful about being too prophetic or you know predictions and all of that because I think it drives everyone a bit mad really because we don't know how or any of us know we're not Abedini ologists but i will say this that you know with 20/20 hindsight and looking at what some some of the stuff that I've seen out there and this is not in any way shape or form a criticism of the work of others but I think there was this Steve use the word a gold rush I you know I've been with a likening it I've been calling it the wild wild west I think there was this like rush to this reactionary rush to get stuff out there and fill the void and I wonder if we need to just chill the hell out a little bit and and encourage our clients to and it'd be better to wait and do it properly rather than try to cut and paste the format of what was going to be a live event into a virtual format because I think our I personally witnessed looking out there and trying to tune into as many things as I can to see what's happening it there have been lots of crimes against online communication being committed and it's it's not the best work that our clients can do or the industry can do we can elevate this and I think we need to think beyond the little tiny moment in time we're in right now cuz this is the really in between phase where like lockdown isn't quite lifted this isn't going to be forever but what does he know what does good look like even six months from now when we still might be not be able to do a huge big live event but what is a great virtual event get our clients focused on that now like let's stop this you know death by webinar situation it's just good enough we can do better sorry like you were going to pick up on that as well Steven yeah I think um it's going back to going back to the basics again you know why we trying to do this kind of communication exercise and I think to the point that Angela's making I think it's it's it is a reset of the industry and I think more importantly clients are gonna actually think about what they're actually briefing because like you guys I take the money down this event it's an SLT the senior management meeting you go and and it's all driven by logistics and I know we try to offer measurement oh no don't you do it can we do so what's the purpose what's the reason why and I think par this would be to really I realize why are they doing this again to actually influence an audience subscribe back to simple stuff therefore what is the medium for that and therefore we will think about the brief in a much more constructive way in some ways it's back to how it used to be I'm gonna be holding some of these guys here in the eighties and nineties where the client came to us as the experts didn't have the events team logistics team with the comms team they said we have this problem what can we do we create audience engagement and over the years to come yeah procurement accepts you etc and I think you know that's part of the excitement together I'm also worried as a fashion apparent as well I'm also worried about the fact that people don't really change I'm also worried about about that there's a huge industry pressure from the hotels and they want to have big organizations and that I worry about that I don't think that's gonna happen I think just something in between that's gonna happen it was absolutely alive and looking someone in the eye and hugging them and running or for a beer and do whatever you do in hotels it's gonna never go away as human as human nature and that's what happens nothing like going to be entertained and going to a nice venue but if we can get back to the why and the purpose and therefore as agencies that's what we've been doing all the time and be recognized for that and also commercially its charge more fees there and not worry about how much our lighting big costs does it spin we don't care about that you know and I think that's the great rinse cycle for all agencies so if you don't wake up to that you know as you're going what are you a Commons agency with an AV company your logistics company hotel my company that's gonna get sorted out because it's got to mushed so far in my opinion oh yeah you've got tech companies saying they can do crazy for shows and they got creative agency saying we own all this kit that's crazy do what you're good at stick with it I'm gonna steam so I can see you - I just want to give chat and Matt a chance to respond about the point about if there's anything key that you're learning from this Matt and I'll come back to you and Rufus okay I think there's a huge amount or we're learning more time I think it's been quite inspirational to see some of that frees from the random random sources and and also thinking about how we can think things in different different ways how we have created lights different things so how can utilize someone's home in a very different way - what it had to be before through their office it's also got their kids running around and you're gradually getting windows and insights into people's life that's actually quite nice to get that more human Propst back in there but I think you know we I'm also feeling the new brands are being slightly more sincere no not overly commercial and actually that positivity that I'm seeing in some places he's actually really needed because actually I think everyone needs some fun I mean like Netflix had there has had a massive run on comedy there's no wonder because actually a lot of people need cheering up but I think bringing some of these elements into what we do so and thinking that actually we don't just have to talk I mean that initially we had crimes come to us saying we want a eight hour Conference transpose - hey where are you like that's bonkers we would do that you know look look at Ted then the reason it's about 18 minutes you just don't do that but but then think how do you paginate that how do you intersperse those moments of loveliness how do you bring unexpected in to that because actually everything's gonna be the same thing they're turning up - every time it's like a broadcast and it's a one-way piece of traffic so I've learnt and the team have learned a shoe is your mouth difficult ache and approaches really and also being in kind of a collaborative thing with clients it's been really nice dating clubs for clients initially were on a very steep learning curve and I know everyone the colleagues here I said is like a panic and everyone like let's go rush but actually still this really there's a need more than ever for brands to communicate with their audiences and their internal teams you know in this crisis we need to find better ways to communicate and that's not spending eight hours a day on zoom' despite this being a great platform there's other ways looking to do that and so I think that's been a journey in their learnings across this is how we hadn't got variety had we had contrast Google's days hardly really connect with people rather than just talking and as I say I found it quite inspirational for from a creative standpoint I think it really helped the industry and really technically helped our agency and smart and a great response and I think we've got about ten minutes left and before we're gonna go into Q&A so I did you want to say something Claire oh you're on mute Claire sorry come on drive the machine and just to say there are quite a few questions so I don't know whether if you wanted to start taking them or you wanted to get through your last bit and just I'm not resorted to the yellow card yet so just because of people doing some really interesting stuff I thought perhaps if we get Angela's response and go into the client side of things in particular and then maybe so we leave a good ten minutes of the questions at the end of us okay okay we've you've only got about five minutes left so the maths is interesting but I'm sure we go are we on till five or we on till 45 minutes I think is it quarter to oh sorry okay then but do you want to just respond quickly Angela and we'll go into the questions I'm zone you can say that I think that there could be both some really interesting questions and some ideas coming out of the things that don't happen during this period and how long it's going to be and who knows what's going to come out of it we don't know but I suspect there will be a lot of usual comms and marketing that doesn't take place and that some clients and CMOS and in and internal comms directors will be going we didn't do that and the sky didn't fall in so why do we need to do it in the future and what should we be doing and what could be doing differently and I think that's those going to be fascinating questions that the agencies can be all over and really supporting clients on asking those interesting questions and then coming up with some really fascinating and more interesting ideas absolutely I mean on that note I mean the next section we were going to get into an apology's I failed miserably as a facilitator whose o'clock so I am available for children's parties but there's one of the questions I saw Claire which kind of covers off our next section which I think would be really good to look at which is and I think from Stewart saying given the massive financial impact of this situation on clients how much do the panel think clients are prepared to invest in creativity or come to you first Steven I think it's a very very good question so I think we can't ignore the commercial landscape that is we're in now and the fact that whatever happens we're going to come out of a into a massive recession so absolutely marketing budgets and everyone's be under the microscope going forward and the only way is to prove that you're going to make a difference to their business and the only way you're going to do that is to say as experts and talking to your clients trade partners whatever that you know we would do something that makes them do something that has an impact in your business therefore it would drive more your revenue and that's always been what we've been trying to do I think there'll be more focused on can you prove that and can you actually measure that I don't know about you guys but the magic ROI and a live event just does not exist okay no matter what anyone says and I'm okay okay okay I think the the the the blend of technology the the more what I'm jealous about digital agencies is data statistics analytics at their fingertips and I would like that saying power within our live comms arena which we don't really have and this is if this sort of change brings that together in a standardized way for the industry in some way and some way that actually qualifies it they never go about to because also you got to prove your worth to your clients if the budget if it's gonna generate more revenue for your customer your kind it's a no-brainer you wouldn't do it would you will not not do it if it's an over here and ends a jolly and it's seen as we do this every year that's that's a hundred point that will be reviewed you know I don't really understand the travel in the sense of market but obviously it works in this very big market I do understand the business objective meeting but all your partner's to get so once a year that makes a difference to your business I get that so again going back to them they've got the question yeah I think it's it's it's a it's the financial implications cannot be ignored there will be survival and also going back to let's be absolutely honest we all sort of husband during our cash and nursing our cash so there's a there's is risk and bravery for agencies stroke survival and being here next year yeah and unfortunately that's just an economic commercial decision so you know I mean yeah that's we're all being in quite very positive if you go to underpin they're all about reality and also who knows what it's gonna be you know which is we see as a positive because no one else to us so to speed their head of the game but it's serious it's also serious stuff I mean I would say from from our experience in gorilla gorilla that the clients that we've approached proactively with creative ideas have responded really well even if they've said I don't think that's right for us now it's it's opening up another conversation is showing that with their to support them it's keeping our team that kind of creatively act and engaged and so on and actually we're finding that quite often you can do those creative explorations once around one comms problem or whatever and actually apply that then to lots of different clients for sure sorry you haven't got your hand up then I was just going to say that's good I completely understand that and that's totally where I think lots of people have liked yourselves have been reaching out to clients to say we were thinking this we've been doing this would you be interested in this this is what we thought of for you we were considering what you said recently and that kind of that kind of productivity when we undertake client research exercises so on behalf of agencies we've talked to their clients about a whole range of subjects one of the things that comes back time and time again are the clients saying would we love it if they could be more proactive there is that tendency for agencies to be very active when they're in delivery mode and then there's a gap between those conversations so they they've always asked for that productivity and I think if you can be proactive now be those trusted experts who especially with those clients where you have a real strategic relationship you understand their business you talk their language you can have those conversations to talk about what could be meaningful for their business at this time and that's always going to be a positive something positive will always come out of that sorry I'm keeping there's just another question here that's been asked in several different ways so I just wanted to put this to the panel was how are agencies keeping creative sessions strategy meetings team meetings and so forth how are they keeping them there team's going and what platforms are they using and what strategies are they implementing to keep the team engaged and creative so basically your employees so is that a question us internally with our own teams first yes I think people are looking for ID and for ideas and suggestions and what platforms people are using and so on sure works good so I'm sorry you guys I think Matt had his hand up there so I think the processing is essential and and actually when you look at how you work a digital process it's quite slightly different or very different sometimes the event but but actually the collaboration tools is a really good question we've been using using quite a while my row digital whiteboard I'm really good for collaborating with teams and getting those ideas and mixing that together and it also offers a number of other tools as well but I think it's making sure that you have a very good structure and process I set out it's it's my rows only as good is that kind of structure and presence you put into it check-ins on teams and then one-to-one making sure you actually catch up with people I think we do some of you zoom meeting sometimes there's such big groups you forget catch up with smaller groups and individuals so it's a number of different techniques and methods and I suppose trying to structure using meetings a little more so they you know you put it out because that's the times a lot and you don't need that always and sometimes I find actually faster pace meetings are a lot more productive when them you set a fire on underneath everyone get them motivated and drive it forward you often quietly some of the best ideas as I think you know we're seeing in this time when we're under pressure you can see some great ideas come to fruition hi Karen yeah yeah so all of the things that my colleagues have said um you know Matt we also use teams and use chat functions in that and and unzoom so we use a blend of various tools even what's that believe it or not just trying to create a little bit more of in the moment on this you know in in in the moment in time if that's what's available to you and we've also been doing some just structured things like Mondays Monday afternoons we do a kind of business news flash and this is like a round robin update and it's fast-paced it's not meant to keep everybody on the phone for too long but it's a way of just connecting huddling we call them our current levels because we call ourselves sorry I'm on Wednesday mornings we've we've introduced bite-sized learning sessions so it's a morning inspiration we've we've delivered a whole series in the last three weeks of creative writing workshops which people have loved and they've been able to actually apply the learning so copywriting hacks and everything cuz everybody no matter if you're a producer you know a logistics or whatever your job you need to be a good writer because you're engaging with audiences be those clients or whatever it is so it's a great art and it's sometimes a lost art so things like that investing in ourselves and then on Friday we've introduced fireside chats it used to be on Friday visit four in the office where we bust out champagne but we're more on a beer budget right now so we're doing you know lower key gatherings on Friday virtually sometimes pure inspiration sometimes this is something I attended and I want to share it about it so three fast-paced little Pecha Kucha presentations that show ideas and share inspiration from out there in the industry and then sometimes pure fun like we had on Friday we're having a school quiz and on Easter Easter Friday we had a an Easter bonnet virtual parade everybody showed up in really random hats and we did a hilarious pop quiz so just just random things like that but really important to be investing in ourselves and the camaraderie that is what makes us special okay hope that helps I am just conscious that we have run over so if it's okay with everybody I am going to draw a line there thank you all very very much indeed it was really nice spending time with you and before we go can I just remind our audience to go into the chat box and answer the question one word to describe your current creative state there's already some appeared in there and they are varied I'll grant that and so look forward to reading those and we'll post those out on our social media and on our channel this is recorded as well so if anybody wants to go back and pick up some of the points it'll be on our web site from tomorrow and but with that I'd like to thank Dean Karen Steve Matt and Angela thank you so much it was a really really enjoyable session thank you taking part and thank you to our attack and