Defining the Future
Together.

Every year we do this little dance. We try to figure out what's best for the community, what we can actually pull off, and how we can support those who want to get together in person. This is where we landed. Tickets for the first wave of 2027 events are live now. There will be a second wave once we finish finalizing some details, but we wanted to get these out so you can get started planning your year.

Some leaders are doing great. They have strong teams around them and real energy for the work, and they aren't facing the same pricing pressure many of their peers are. Others are carrying more responsibility than in the past, and they've been doing it so long it feels normal.

I spend a lot of time talking with agency owners, and lately the conversations have a familiar shape. People start with the business. Pipeline, pricing, clients pulling back, AI changing how they estimate their work. Then, if we talk long enough, the conversation turns to how they're holding up. 

Some leaders are doing great. They have strong teams around them and real energy for the work, and they aren't facing the same pricing pressure many of their peers are. Others are carrying more responsibility than in the past, and they've been doing it so long it feels normal.

I know who I am. I know what I believe. I do my best not to let that seep into what we do at The Bureau, because I want everyone to feel comfortable, and I know a lot of folks don't feel the way I do. I look to radical inclusivity as a guideline, and I try to make sure all feel welcome.

Politics falls into that category of subjects a lot of us feel we shouldn't talk about at work. What I struggle with is talking about the impact of what's happening in the world without the cause taking over the conversation.

Over the past few years I've watched leaders in our community deal with events that hit their cities, their teams, their clients, and their bottom line. Much of it was spoken about privately because sharing it in public felt volatile. I feel we need to be able to talk about it openly as leaders if we're really supporting each other.

I've been hearing the same story a lot lately from agency leaders. You send a client an early round of ideas, and a day later it comes back reworked by an AI tool. New headlines, a new layout, maybe even new functionality.

 The first reaction is to get defensive. But I think we need to take a breath and recognize that we're in a new era. If clients are excited about the work and engaged enough to experiment, we should lean into that instead of trying to tamp it down.

How often have we felt like clients didn't care about the work? Well, now they do! So what are we gonna do about it?

I've been watching something grow for a few weeks now. Statements of work, contracts, process docs and years of email are suddenly getting attention from companies building AI models.

It’s easy to have strong moral beliefs when business is good. Enough money is coming in, the pipeline looks healthy, and you have the luxury of saying no to things that don’t feel right. It gets a lot harder when the numbers start moving in the wrong direction.That’s been on my mind because I know a lot of people are feeling that pressure right now. And pressure has a funny way of making things we never wanted to do suddenly seem pretty kinda ok.