The Mediaweek Academy held its ninth session at News Corp’s office in Surry Hills on Wednesday, October 25.
Attendees returned to the session focused on Partnerships and Collaborations, led by facilitator Rowena Millward, a global leader in business and personal growth.
Accompanying Rowena on the panel was Legend Lou Barrett, Managing Director Sales, News Corp Australia, Legend Clive Burcham, Founder and CEO of the Compadres Advisory and Superstar Danni Hudson, Group Client Lead at Snap Inc.
The session focussed on what goes into obtaining and maintaining meaningful work partnerships and collaborations with both Legends and Superstar giving effective tips on how to treat people with respect and integrity in order to build meaningful partnerships.
Danni Hudson, group client lead manager at Snapchat APAC, shared that she hopes attendees learn the importance of the evolution of relationships and partnerships.
“Trust is the at the core,” she highlighted.
“Communication is the foundation of partnerships and my Mum always told me that you just never know who or what’s around the corner in terms of opportunity.”
Similarly, Lou Barrett hoped attendees saw the value of partnerships in their careers.
“Partnerships are the most important thing you’ll ever have in your career because they have longevity. I hope they learned that to focus on having really successful partnerships, and you’ll have longevity,” she added.
“The client is always right even when they’re not, and you should be focused on delivering an outcome for a client at all times.
“Nobody is going to buy twice what didn’t work once.”
Clive Burcham said he hoped attendees learned that: “communication is key and that it’s a long-term game and the importance of relationships.”
“A quote I used before is the success of your life will be determined by the number of quality collaborations you have. So, you need to find clients and foster relationships where people become engaged with your level of vision that you have either your business or their business,” he added.
While Hudson, Barrett and Burcham were forthright in sharing their industry experiences and wisdom, they all noted that everyone will experience similar challenges no matter their level and level of experience.
After participating in the panel and engaging with the attendees, Hudson noted that it was exciting to see change.
“There are a lot of different skill sets that are required and needed, and there’s a lot of diversity and thinking. That’s a fascinating part of where we’re going now.
Barrett said she was happy to see people passionate about their work.
“There would be nothing worse than people coming through in the industry who weren’t passionate about the industry. Having been in the business for such a long time, I’m so passionate about it.
“So, I hope those people, and I think they are, have that passion and want to improve. That gives me a lot of hope for this business,” she added.
For Burcham, he was excited to see the level of curiosity from the attendees. “I think that younger people in the industry are seeking wisdom and asking questions,” he said.
“They’re also coming up against the same issues I had 10, 20, 30 years ago. So, there is a cycle of similar issues.
“By engaging with things like the Mediaweek Academy, you’re able to source out some of that wisdom so you don’t make the same mistakes,” Burcham added.
Kate Brown, Creative Connections Planner at UM Australia said: “I look forward to taking what I learnt today and applying it to my day-to-day work. I plan to implement more engaging feedback that’s beneficial to the publisher in a way that we can continue to build a lasting relationship.”
