20 Takeaways from '24

As we reflect on an incredible year of insight, we’ve gathered the top 20 quotes from our 2024 learning sessions—moments that inspired, challenged and shaped our thinking. Featuring wisdom from industry veterans like Elise Mitchell, Rishad Tobaccowala, and Michael Lasky, these quotes capture the essence of innovation, leadership, and transformation in our industry. Each one offers a powerful takeaway to carry forward into the opportunities and challenges of 2025.

‘24 Sessions by Topic?

AI: 5

Client Service: 5?

Finance & Pricing: 5?

Legal Guidance: 4?

New Business: 3?

Manager Workshops: 3?

Writing & Editing Workshops: 3?

Creating Inclusive Workplaces: 2?

Leading Integrated Teams: 2?

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1. Navigating Client Relationships & Team Dynamics with J. Mark Riggs and Mark Mohammadpour, APR, Fellow PRSA

“As you’re assessing an opportunity, use a go no-go checklist to take the emotion out of the decision. We recommend grading the opportunity and going through a series of questions: Do we have relevant experience? Do we have the right team to produce a winning pitch? Do we have the appropriate and available talent to put in the room? Do we have an advocate on the prospect’s team?”

2. What’s Next is Now with Chris Perry , 万博宣伟

“AI is going to radically alter what we’ve been doing and what we’ve built, digitally speaking, for the last 20 or 30 years...I think we vastly overestimate the value of a tool and vastly underestimate how to use it for maximum benefit.”

3. On the Minds of CCOs with Craig Carroll , OCR, Observatory on Corporate Reputation

“Every agency should examine what strategies they employ to demonstrate the full impact and importance of communication efforts to a board of directors and/or the C-suite.”

4. Generative AI Guidelines Update Webinar with Anne Green , G&S Business Communications, a G&S Agency , and Mark McClennan, APR, Fellow PRSA , C+C

"Everybody is still rightly cautious about copyright and trademark issues, as well as trying to ask the bigger picture questions. Where is the human and where is the machine? What does it mean to bring that human spark and ingenuity?”

5. Mastering the Art and Science of Client Service with Elise Mitchell

“Focus on building trust to build a great relationship. That enables great work to happen, which builds more trust.”

6. Using Your Superpowers to Unlock New Opportunities with David Clayton , True & North

"Anchoring, a form of unconscious bias, means that the first information shared sets the context for everything that follows. If a conversation is anchored low, like focusing on the logistics of a workshop, everything that follows will match that lower level. But if a conversation is anchored at a more strategic level, the perceived value of everything that follows will be increased.”

7. Managing the Room for a Great Pitch with Michael Quinn , Minor Nobles, Inc.

“We have to make sure our audience feels understood. We have to work on listening, really listening to them and responding in a way that gets us closer to winning and being seen as a great collaborator and partner.”

8. Entrepreneur Master Class “Mastering Client Contracts” with Michael Lasky , Davis+Gilbert LLP

“We believe that the client contract, or the MSA, the master services agreement, is the occasion to correctly, properly and clearly communicate the expectations for a successful agency-client working relationship.”

?9. What’s Next is Now AI with Bob Pearson , The Bliss Group

“The next major influencer for us in the communications function is AI. We need to learn how to influence AI. I think that experimenting with internal communications is the least risky, so we should consider piloting things inside a company and then going external.”

10. Effectiveness of PR: What Needs to Happen Next (OR Now) with Johna Burke , AMEC Measurement and Evaluation , and Tony Cheevers , Researchscape International

“Understand the why behind what you're doing, and make sure that you’re the one who’s leading some of those conversations. If you have a single slide to share with your clients, to demonstrate how your efforts made a difference, make sure to include data or proof that’s meaningful to them and to their stakeholders.”

11. Margin Makers: Cultivating Margin Improvement with Alex Halbur , Prosper Group

“The biggest driver of profit is having the right pricing model and then having the right systems around the agency to manage the profit model.”

?12. How to Build a Team Culture of Accountability with Stephanie Sage

“The question is, what separates good agencies from great agencies? It’s a commitment to create a culture in which talented people can work together without ego or agenda, to deliver brilliant results for both clients and firm.”

13. What’s Next is Now with Ron Bonjean and Rodell Mollineau , ROKK Solutions

“The way we create will forever be changed, and the landscape for IP must shift to accommodate the potential of new technologies in the creative process. Competition is going to look different. Whether it’s on the ball field in the stock market or apparel sales, companies can and should take a leading role in shaping it.”

14. Margin Makers: Scaling the Business with Alex Halbur , Prosper Group

“Intellectual property, methodology and products lead to what you’re going to train the staff, which then leads to consistency of client service delivery and consistency of the staff experience.”

15. Turbo-Charging Your Career in Turbulent times with Rishad Tobaccowala

“Adopt a ‘company of one’ mindset that focuses on the importance of strategy, collaboration, and leveraging AI for higher value work. A differentiating advantage is going to be communication skills. If everybody’s got the same knowledge and the same data, how you speak and how you write is going to become very, very critical.”

16. Neurodiversity Training with Leanne Gawley, CPA, MBA, CEC, ACC and Taliesin Ho-Devine , CultureAlly

“The key to supporting neurodivergent employees lies in creating a strength-based support system that enables them to contribute their best.”

17. Entrepreneur Master Class “Attracting and Retaining Top Talent: Innovative Strategies for Agencies” with Michael Lasky , Davis+Gilbert LLP

“Implemented properly, incentive plans can enhance performance goals, revenue goals, profitability goals, retention, and add significantly to protective or restrictive covenant enforcement.”

18. Reaffirm DEI Commitment and Mitigate Legal Risks with David Glasgow , New York University School of Law

“No matter what happens in the legal landscape, it will remain lawful to continue to adopt and promote many forms of DEI. If you’re framing your DEI programs as reducing bias in the workplace, that’s something that benefits everybody.”

19. AI, Humans and Work with Rishad Tobaccowala

“The most successful people in firms will combine AI plus HI, where HI is not just human intelligence, but human insights, human intuition, and human imagination. Take a small section of your people, maybe some of your best people, and commit them to focus on tomorrow while the rest of the people run today.”

20. Implementing AI as a Business Strategy with Greg Shove, Section School?

“Building is easy. Engagement is hard. You can buy AI and deploy it to your teams. You can even do training. But unless you provide the workflows and go through exercises where your team can see how they can actually apply AI, you might not get the engagement and therefore you won’t get the business impact.”

Explore the full Year in Review here: https://heyzine.com/flip-book/PRCinReview