Expert Network Series
FacilitatorJuly's session: Mandana Mellano
Topic
- HR/Talent/Inclusion
- Recruitment
Delivery Method
- Live Instruction
- Video Series
Event Type
- Virtual Event
- Webinar
PricingFree for 4As Members
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
NOTICE REGARDING WEBINAR SPONSORS
We may provide an attendee list to companies that sponsor this webinar. The attendee list may include the name, title, affiliation, and email address of each attendee. Sponsors may use this information to contact attendees about products or services that may be of interest.
July 13th 4:00 – 4:45 PM ET
Talent Strategy by Design, Not Default
Too often, agency talent strategy only starts when there’s an immediate open role to fill. But as AI fundamentally changes how work gets done, the traditional "gaps" we used to hire for are shifting beneath our feet.
This session makes the case for a radical shift: why agency leaders must move from default, reactive hiring to deliberate team design. We will explore how building for maximum flexibility and adaptability—rather than fixed, rigid roles—is becoming the ultimate lever for agency stability. Learn how structuring internal teams that can flex their capabilities alongside changing client needs will redefine staffing, optimize resourcing, and future-proof your agency in a rapidly shifting landscape.
Coming Soon
Coming Soon
Coming Soon
Coming Soon
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.
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.
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
The Agency Brand Advantage: Turn Awareness into Pipeline
Most new business outbound programs aren’t underperforming because teams aren’t working hard enough, they’re underperforming because they’re built on the wrong assumptions. More emails, more calls, more automation leads to less impact. In a market flooded with outreach, attention has become the scarcest resource. The teams winning today aren’t the ones doing more, they’re the ones who understand how to build visibility, shape perception, and earn engagement before they ever hit send.
In this session, Zach Rosenberg, challenges conventional business development thinking and introduces a more effective approach; outbound programs and tactics designed around insight, relevance, and sustained awareness. Attendees will leave with a clear framework for turning attention into a pipeline without relying on volume, guesswork, or outdated tactics.
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 July's Session
Mandana Mellano
The first half of Mandana’s advertising career was holding leadership positions at some of the most iconic agencies in the world: Ogilvy, Fallon, WPP Media, and Kastner & Partners. The second half has been building and leading PEONY Talent to become the partner of choice for famous ad agencies, global adtech companies, and bold brands.
Building teams, re-structuring teams, and helping agencies and brands of all sizes grow, Mandana believes that recruiting and retaining the right talent is the only differentiator between the winning companies and, well,… the non-winning companies. She is inspired by a human-centered approach to defining roles and employing a more rigorous assessment of competencies that shape modern marketing.
Mandana and her team of experts are dedicated to help PEONY clients gain a competitive edge through unmatched expertise and connections to best-in-class talent nationwide.
Related Courses
From Campaigns to Customers: The Leadership Shift Agencies Can’t Ignore
Employee Experience (EX) expert James Killian, author of Obsessed: Cultivating the Customer-Driven Leader, and the founder of the Customer-Driven Leader consultancy. leads this webinar on customer-driven leadership and his Customer-Driven Leader framework. He introduces a model of four leadership types, explaining how organizations can progress from being customer-derailing to customer-aligning. … Login to access member-exclusive content Not a 4As member…
Workhacks: Protecting the Brand
Please note this Workhacks session is scheduled in EST. Go behind the scenes of client deliverables and explore what it really takes to protect brand integrity in the smallest details. … Login to access member-exclusive content Not a 4As member yet? Don’t miss out. Learn more about joining a growing community of 600+ forward-thinking member agencies….
Spark Session: Upfronts 101
A SXSW trend recap focusing on AI tools that are actually changing agency workflows today.