Thanks so much to everyone who made it along to our February Digital Roundtable event on Thursday 18 February. It was great to get the old Roundtable crew together for the first time in 2016 and to set the creative world to rights.
A lesson in intellectual property
Many thanks go out to Steve Kuncewicz, Head of IP and Media at Bermans Law, for being our guest speaker on the night enlightening the whole room around the importance of creatives understanding the ins and outs of intellectual property (IP).
I think it’s safe to say that Steve opened our eyes to just how vital Intellectual Property is for an agency. Knowing who owns the rights to your creative work (your freelancer, the agency or the client) and having clear IP terms in your contracts really helps to project your creative ideas and the revenue potential of your work.
And, as Steve pointed out, copyright really is vital:
“As long as a trademark can be graphically distinctive it can be trademarked.
Copyright is the big one – it’s about the expression of an idea, not the idea itself. If someone comes up with it independently, then it’s fine. But having copyright and ownership of your graphics allows you to make exceptions to people.”
As Mark Stringer from creative agency Ahoy pointed out, you never know when your IP may be infringed, so owning copyright is crucial:
“Our logo has been infringed by a newsgroup in Rotterdam. They were interviewed by Marketing Online in Holland and admitted to it. There are some differences, but it was plastered 40ft wide on an arena in Rotterdam, so not subtle. We can challenge it, but they may outspend you… and there’s no guarantee you’ll win.”
Firing yourself from your own agency
Moving on from IP, we had a good chat about the need to focus more on running your agency, rather than working in it.
Inspired by our recent blog, Why you need to fire yourself from your agency, there were some pretty vibrant opinions being fired out – which is what these Digital Roundtable events are all about.
The challenge for creative agency owners is to balance your own need to be creative with the longer-term needs of your growing business. And that can be a tricky balancing act, with many ‘falling off the wagon’ and getting involved in the nitty-gritty of a project when maybe they should have their MD hat on.
I couldn’t help but add my input from having experienced the same challenge of evolving from the technician accountant to growing a business:
“If you distance yourself, you give yourself the time to be the inspiring leader you need to be. Work on strategy and motivate the team. Even if you’re not looking to sell, you’re still working towards the goal of an engaged, happy team.”
Book on to the April Digital Roundtable
It was great to get the North West’s creative crème de la crème back at the Roundtable again. And, as ever, we enjoyed seeing the amount of debate that came out of the session. That’s where the ideas come from and we love the innovation that comes out of these bi-monthly get-togethers.
The next Digital Roundtable is coming up on 21st April. Places go quickly and we have limited space so please book on promptly to avoid disappointment.
Good work guys, a lot of hard work has gone into this I know. Definitely has grown and grown and good to hear a variety of voices in the room. Look forward to the next one.
Another great night peeps. Big pat on the back too for following the event up with a blog post and emails going out etc asking for feedback. Very professional. Lets hope it grows and grows. It was a bit bigger than the very first one I attended 🙂