Financial Management: Managing the Financial Side of Your Firm Well

This intense, one-day ReCourses seminar was developed especially for principals and controllers of design, advertising, interactive, and public relations firms, and it is designed to cover everything about managing the financial side of your firm. Learn how to construct and read financial data, the key benchmarks for your firm, and how to calculate them. Discover the twenty-four keys to having a profit-based traffic system (instead of a deadline-based one). Leave this session knowing where your weaknesses are and how to measure--and fix--them. (Consider combining this with the following two one-day seminars.) The seminar will be held in Nashville--shortly we'll release a full brochure with agenda, venue, hotel, pricing, and registration details.

Building and Leading a Staff

This all new seminar for 2008 will examine handling growth, structuring roles, finding good candidate employees, screening them, integrating them into the team, managing performance, and being the sort of leader your company needs from you. (Consider combining this with the proceeding and following one-day seminars.) The seminar will be held in Nashville--shortly we'll release a full brochure with agenda, venue, hotel, pricing, and registration details.

Transition Options for Principals: Making the Most of What You’ve Built, Now and Later

This one-day ReCourses seminar is crafted for those of you who want to think far ahead, whether or not you are considering transition options right now. It will cover everything about transition options for you, the principal. You'll learn how to do your own ballpark valuation, what the options are as your future unfolds, which ones are worth pursuing, and which ones are distracting sideshows not worth a second look. The day is literally packed with data you can’t find anywhere else, all applied specifically to your situation based on our participation in more than 120 transition events. (Consider combining this with the proceeding two one-day seminars.) The seminar will be held in Nashville--shortly we'll release a full brochure with agenda, venue, hotel, pricing, and registration details.

Managing (Right) for the First Time

This is the debut for this seminar, based on the book by the same title (published by RockBench in the first quarter of 2008, by David C. Baker). It has been researched and developed for first time managers of any type, any level. We'll look at who managers are and how to become one, whether or not you were promoted for the right reason, how to start off right, what you'll discover early on, and understanding the different kinds of managers. We'll also examine how to be effective by assembling the right team, being the kind of leader others want to follow, and how to take advantage of your own management style. Finally, we'll explain the transitions you'll want to make to be effective. The seminar will be held in Nashville—shortly we'll release a full brochure with agenda, venue, hotel, pricing, and registration details.

Resourcing the Creative Process: Managing Pricing, Deadlines, Budgets, Quality, and Capacity

This was a new seminar last year, and no seminar has ever sold out this quickly. (This is the only seminar we’ll repeat this year.) In spite of that, it has been revamped and expanded to two full days. This seminar is ideal for principals responsible for setting the system up, or anyone directly responsible for resourcing (traffic, production management, pricing, or even some account service roles if they are combined with this function). The sessions are a mix of presentation, hands-on exploration, exercises, and roundtables. Resourcing, our name for the nerve center of the firm, includes estimating/pricing, traffic, production management, quality control, yield management, profitability, resource allocation, deadline management, etc. This course, unlike any other available, will look at workflow, roles, procedures, software, staffing, and systems. The foundation is built on the ReCourses Functional Model (RFM) and our system for a Profit Based Management Environment (PBME). Research underpinning the RFM began in 1998 and continues today. While resourcing isn’t taught in preparation for a career in the creative services field, it’s a critical foundation for doing work that is effective and profitable, and this seminar is meant to bridge that gap.

Download PDF with brochure, agenda, registration.

Avoiding Damage from a Downturn

You can't control the larger economy within which you operate, or even the segment of the marketplace to which you apply your unique expertise. But you CAN limit the damage that otherwise would occur by anticipating the pressures you'll face, reacting to them appropriately, and then building some future safeties into your firm's management environment. David C. Baker will present a webinar with some thoughts on these topics for 30 minutes, followed by 15 minutes of Q/A via a chatroom. Held at 3:00p CDT. Free, but you must register here to participate.

Managing Creatives and Creativity: Being an Effective and Confident Creative Director

With one-third of the content new this year, this two-day ReCourses seminar was developed especially for creative directors in design firms and advertising agencies, and it is crafted to cover everything about being both an effective and satisfied creative director.

Anyone who manages the creative process will find it to be a must attend seminar, whether that person is a principal, creative director, design director, art director, or just someone soon to be promoted to a role that includes managing people or the creative process.

You’ll learn what your role should be, whether you are a good fit for it, how to perform that role well, how to adjust for your own strengths/weaknesses as you deal with creatives, how to find and screen good creatives, and how to guide the careers of those in your care.

Most important, probably, we'll walk you through the choices you'll have to make in transitioning from doing the work to stepping away from such a hands-on role, and why you need to let your design skills whiter a bit and work on your copywriting skills instead.

This year for the first time we’ll be presenting new research undertaken about making the transition to first time Creative Director, all based on a forthcoming book on that subject for RockBench.

Download PDF with brochure, agenda, registration.

Serving Clients Well: Everything You Need to Know about the Account Service Role

A revamped, two-day ReCourses seminar crafted to cover everything about the account service role. Anyone who deals with clients is a perfect candidate for this seminar.

You’ll learn what your role should be, how to perform that role flawlessly, how to adjust for your own strengths/weaknesses as you deal with clients, and how to make the most of the client assets at your disposal.

This will include everything from knowing how to spot good potential clients, formalizing the relationship in a way they appreciate, pricing your work appropriately, and handling difficult situations.

This year we’ll be beefing up the two days with a new focus in four areas: how to safely transition the account from the new business process to client service; growing accounts that you already have, with specific recommendations and group discussion; making good presentations to clients; and solving specific client issues you have, based on some brief homework we’ll ask for in advance.

Download PDF with brochure, agenda, registration.

Resourcing the Creative Process: Managing Pricing, Deadlines, Budgets, Quality, and Capacity

This was a new seminar last year, and no seminar has ever sold out this quickly. (This is the only seminar we’ll repeat this year.) In spite of that, it has been revamped and expanded to two full days. This seminar is ideal for principals responsible for setting the system up, or anyone directly responsible for resourcing (traffic, production management, pricing, or even some account service roles if they are combined with this function). The sessions are a mix of presentation, hands-on exploration, exercises, and roundtables. Resourcing, our name for the nerve center of the firm, includes estimating/pricing, traffic, production management, quality control, yield management, profitability, resource allocation, deadline management, etc. This course, unlike any other available, will look at workflow, roles, procedures, software, staffing, and systems. The foundation is built on the ReCourses Functional Model (RFM) and our system for a Profit Based Management Environment (PBME). Research underpinning the RFM began in 1998 and continues today. While resourcing isn’t taught in preparation for a career in the creative services field, it’s a critical foundation for doing work that is effective and profitable, and this seminar is meant to bridge that gap.

Download PDF with brochure, agenda, registration.

New Business Summit (5th Annual)

This is our largest yearly seminar, held in Nashville, TN at the Nashville Convention Center (with an opening night reception at the Frist Center for the Visual Arts). With a strict limit of 150 attendees, be sure to register (this always sells out) as soon as you are interested in attending this three day event that covers positioning, marketing, and selling. Faculty include David C. Baker and Blair Enns of Win Without Pitching.

Download PDF with brochure, agenda, registration.