Expert Network Series

Expert Network Speaker Series

Designed to give members direct access to thought leaders and practitioners who are actively shaping the advertising and marketing landscape. Speakers will dive into a focused, timely topic that addresses real business challenges and opportunities facing agencies today, offering practical insights you can apply immediately.

Built for busy professionals, these high-impact sessions deliver value in under an hour. Each webinar includes a 45-minute presentation followed by 15 minutes of live Q&A, giving participants the opportunity to engage directly with the expert, ask questions, and explore how the insights shared can be applied to their own organizations.

Learn more about the 4As Experts

April Session: Closing the Account Leadership Gap

April 27th 4:00 – 4:45 PM ET

Closing the Account Leadership Gap

Moving Beyond Service to High-Value Partnership & Competitive Advantage

Clients’ expectations of their agency partners have never been higher. Great service and flawless execution are no longer enough—clients are looking for partners who understand their business, contribute strategic thinking, and help drive meaningful results. This shift requires the Account discipline to evolve from managers of the work to leaders of the relationship and the business.

In this session, Lori Bartle uses data to uncover the performance and perception gaps that contribute to the Leadership gap in modern agencies. She explores the three strategic value drivers that - when activated and empowered - elevate account leadership beyond execution: growth, creativity, and high-performing relationships. We’ll discuss where agencies and account teams often stand today with each driver, where the discipline must evolve, and how building a system of shared accountability for these outcomes can transform the role into a competitive advantage for the client and the agency.

Click here to register.

May Session

May 18th 4:00 – 4:45 PM ET

Leadership Succession Without the Panic

How to Prepare Your Next Generation of Leaders

Most agencies struggle with succession not because of timing, but because leadership transitions are treated as one-time events instead of ongoing systems.

In this session, Karl Sakas explores how agencies can intentionally prepare for leadership transitions before someone burns out, resigns, or steps back. The focus is on building durable leadership capacity that strengthens the agency today and supports what comes next—growth, transition, or M&A.

Drawing on two decades advising agency leadership teams, Karl shares practical frameworks leaders can apply immediately to reduce dependency on single individuals, clarify decision ownership, and develop internal successors with confidence. These practices support continuity whether leadership stays internal, evolves over time, or eventually transitions through a sale or merger.

What Attendees Will Learn

The difference between role succession and leadership succession—and why confusing the two creates risk
Early warning signs that a leadership role has become a single point of failure
How to develop internal successors without making premature promises or triggering internal politics
The role senior leaders play in succession planning—even when they’re not planning to leave
How thoughtful succession planning strengthens retention, morale, and client confidence

Click here to register.

June Session

July Session

August Session

September Session

October Session

November Session

March Session: Client Power Is Shifting (On-Demand)

AI, procurement pressure, and in-housing have fundamentally changed the balance of power. Clients aren’t just buying agency services anymore, they’re building capabilities, systems, and teams of their own. In this session expert, Michael Chamberlin, explores how agencies can expand their relevance by moving upstream: from campaign execution to strategic partnership, from outputs to transformation. The opportunity isn’t to fight in-housing, it’s to help design it, guide it, and elevate it. Agencies that thrive next will scale their footprint inside client organizations by helping leaders navigate what their brand, business, and operating model need to become, not just what needs to ship next quarter. The future value of agencies won’t be measured by just deliverables, but by influence, foresight, and the ability to help clients shape what’s coming.

Watch this session on-demand

Format

Live, Webinar

Duration

Each session is 45 minutes with 15 minutes for Q&A

Audience

Busy Professionals

Pricing

Free for 4As Members

Meet the Facilitator for April's Session

Lori Bartle

Lori Bartle is an agency advisor and collaborator, focused on transforming Account teams from passive cost centers into proactive cultivators of growth and strategic value. With a data-driven foundation, she recently published her first book on the subject, The Agency Within Us, and is currently offering a quarterly training program through the 4As Learning Institute called Account(able) Leadership, powered by AI.

While most of her career was in Account leadership, Lori began her agency career in the media department at DDB Needham. Her rare blend of client-side, agency-side, and media experience provided a uniquely insightful perspective and a strong foundation for success in the demanding role of an Account leader. She has an MBA and credits a relentless focus on the client’s business as a key ingredient in her success. She amassed a track record of long-term, highly successful client partnerships among national and international brands with particular expertise in travel, entertainment, the wine industry, and education.

Meet the Facilitator for May's Session

Karl Sakas

Karl Sakas helps agency leaders reduce risk, build leadership capacity, and prepare for the future—whether that future includes growth, transition, or eventual exit. Based in North Carolina, he has advised hundreds of agencies worldwide and regularly speaks on leadership, succession planning, and business transformation.