ABOUT

This is taken from some of the thoughts I gave Campaign magazine in 2015 after the latest MBC:

When I first went on the Advertising Association’s Media Business Course in 1992, as a young sales executive at Mirror Group, I knew it was a special experience to go on this three-and-a-half-day programme and be mentored by some of the elite of British advertising.

But it is only now, two decades later, having returned as a member of the organising committee for the past three years and being part of a team mentoring today’s rising stars, that I can say just what a gem of an event it is.

It is chiefly for media agencies, owners and clients who pay for their best young talent – approximately 120 people aged mainly in their twenties – to learn and network from some of the best in the business, who give their time for free. What makes the course unique is that it is the only event about media planning that is run by the industry, for the industry.

Delegates are given a brief and divided into syndicates. During the day, they listen to industry leaders and then apply what they have learned at night – quite often, well into the night.

If there is a key to its success amid the digital disruption facing our industry, it is that the MBC has consistently embraced change and reflected it each year in the course.