24 hours of Agency Life in Hamburg ????

Last week, on a - not so average - Wednesday morning, I hopped on a plane to the beautiful Hamburg, one of the most northern cities in Germany. A vibrant city that bursts from entrepreneurial spirit and creativity, and guess what happens when we combine these 2?

Entrepreneurship + Creativity = Agencies!

The Event: bringing 28 Agency Leaders together

The idea of organizing an exclusive event where Hamburg-based agencies and their Agency Leaders can meet each other and share their stories, was very welcome in this city. No surprise, since they are all entrepreneurs and leaders in a creative and sometimes very competitive environment.

We had a lovely dinner at a beautiful location with 28 Agency Leaders coming from a variety of agency types and varying sizes of agencies. And this last one I must say, the Germans are humble. Agency founders and leaders presenting their agency as a 'small' agency while they have already built something that works for over 10 years and meanwhile work with more than 40 or even 50 people. I thought we, as Belgians, were humble - haha - but we don’t see this company size as ‘small’ at all. It’s a big achievement to build and lead an agency like this, and you can take some credit for that. Stefanie Polster ????

Key insights

"Learning from each other, even competitors, and sharing experiences is the fastest path to growth. Every perspective offers a lesson, and every exchange builds understanding."

We’ve enjoyed an interactive keynote by Peter Van Wijnaerde wherein we all shared our views, ideas, the numbers from our Agency Benchmark research and brainstormed with the audience on these topics, a big thanks to our guests for sharing (and daring to share) their views, experiences and opinions Thorsten Rudeck Markus Kreykenbohm Lin Lehn Tobias Feige Vincent Hartig Janis Baumgartner Stefanie Polster Michael Wars?nke Marcus Müller Annika Loizou and others.

It sparked fruitful conversations and enhanced meaningful new connections.

It was a pleasure meeting you all and we thank you for your participation!

Nick Meyer Roxeanne Rieck Bj?rn Gerlach Christian Tiedemann Sarah Lepinat-Pr?ve Laura Dietz Daniela Reeh Martin Loytved Meiken E. Marco Safavi-Hir Daniela Poehnl Alexander Bünk Christian Laur Oliver Golz Manfred Schüller

What am I taking along?

• Hamburg is in the top 3 of smartest and most digital cities in Germany, no wonder it's also in the top 3 of cities with the most digital agencies. ??
• Zeiterfassung, eine Pflicht in Deutschland - but everywhere and across country borders we hear the same story: the people (creatives ??) don't quite like it, it should be kept intuitive and simple at all times.
• The average billability is 66% in European agencies, but the Hamburg ones aim to land and even land higher! ??
• Getting a grip on your time spent during the sales phase is often still a black box, only 1/3d of agencies have a view on this. While these insights can sharpen your focus: investing your time on the right clients. ?
• Billability is a top KPI, where we often look at billable vs. non-billable hours. But have you ever thought about splitting those non-billable hours into non-billable hours for the client vs. non-billable hours for internal use? Hearing these agency leaders' unique approaches inspired me to think differently about a lot of things... ??

A big thank you to my amazing colleagues Sjoerd G?ddeke & Christoph Klien for their help in making this event unforgettable!

What's next? We are already looking forward to the second edition in Hamburg!

In September, on Thursday 25, 2025 we'll be back, don't miss the chance to learn, share, and grow with us! Together we look back at 2025 and start Q4 successfully. Let me know if you want to save your spot already!

In the meantime, we'll be in??London, Berlin, Utrecht, Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Johannesburg and many other cities. You can follow our adventures and read more information here.

Sharing my thoughts and taking you around the world ??

With Teamleader Orbit, we are expanding internationally, also in Germany. Both with our Agency Community and the Agency Life content we create, as well as with acquiring new clients that are optimizing their workflow with using Teamleader Orbit as their operational backbone.?

If you haven’t seen our content yet, take a look at Agency Life Germany, our love letter to agencies (podcasts, ebooks etc.). It’s a real treasure when it comes to golden insights, tips, tricks, advice from the agencies itself. ??

As I share my own experiences in this wonderful agency world, I hope to provide valuable insights while learning from others. By connecting, we create opportunities to share, learn, and collaborate. Let’s stay connected - together, we can achieve even more!

Roos