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@BulletproAgency

Bulletproof Agency proudly presents this podcast

This episode, Andy Johnson is joined by Steve Kuncewicz (Slater & Gordon) and Mark Stringer (AHOY Branding) at Prolific North Live, in front of a live audience, to talk about intellectual property and their experiences with trademarks, copyrights, and the occasional legal letter.

Topics covered in this episode:

• What is intellectual property?
• Mark shares his personal experience with Barburrito.
• How important creativity is, and how the creative community should value it.
• Advice on the basics of when to get involved in protecting your property .
• How does a ™ differ from ® ?
• What happens when a big company gets your brand in its sights?
• How long is too long to wait when defending a trademark?

Guest BIOs

Steve Kuncewicz, Slater & Gordon
Steve is a principal lawyer in the business advisory team at Slater and Gordon Lawyers in Manchester.
He specialises in intellectual property, media and social media law with a particular emphasis on the creative, digital and technology sector. Steve is listed as a “recommended lawyer” in tier 2 of the Legal 500s 2014, 2015, and 2016 North West Technology, Media & Telecoms section.

He is a regular spokesperson, and has given interviews to the local and national press through BBC Breakfast, Sky News, ITV, BBC Radio 2, BBC Radio 4, BBC Radio 5 Live and LBC London.
Steve’s first book, “Legal Issues of Web 2.0 and Social Media”, was published in June 2011 and his second book “Legal Issues of Corporate Communication in the Online World” was published in June 2012.

As well as being a member of the Law Society’s Technology & Law Reference Group, Steve also sits on the boards of various membership bodies, including as Co-Chair Of Creative ProManchester and the MPA. He was also a Trustee of NOISE Festival and is an Ambassador for Forever Manchester.

Website: slatergordon.co.uk

Twiter:  @SteveKuncewicz

Mark Stringer, AHOY Branding
Mark Stringer is the MD and founder of branding agency AHOY Branding. He started the agency in 2008 with little more than an Apple Mac. A graphic designer by trade he has built an agency that’s as much loved by other agencies as it is by its customers. It has won numerous awards including Prolific North, RAR, Big Chip and Talk of Manchester.

Mark’s passion for helping others lead to the forming of private advice group ‘Dust It Off’ helping agency owners who fall on difficult times get back on their feet.

In his spare time his love of outdoors means he will usually be found “up a hill” with his wife, kids and two dogs.

Website: ahoy.co.uk

Twitter: @ahoymark

Presenter BIO

A journalist and broadcaster for nearly 30 years, Andy runs his own media consultancy in Manchester working with clients like Weber Shandwick, the NFU, and the Institute of Directors.

Andy started in print before 17 years as a BBC presenter & reporter, appearing on BBC Breakfast, Five Live & the Today programme. For five years Andy presented the award-winning BBC1 current affairs programme Inside Out, travelling across

Europe making documentaries on terrorism, the smuggling of illegal guns into the UK and the Manchester IRA bomb. He also made films with Sir Bobby Charlton, Yoko Ono, Lord Heseltine and Johnny Marr.

Find out more about Andy’s media consultancy: www.andyjohnson.tv

Thank you for attending and hope you enjoyed the show. Please subscribe to our podcast for more industry discussions with more fantastic guests.

Next Episode

The next episode will come from BeeAuthentic, where Dan Nolan will be discussing transparency and the rise of collaboration. So get together, be open, and listen in next time!

https://www.bulletproofagency.com

@BulletproAgency

Bulletproof Agency proudly presents this podcast

In this episode Andy Johnson is joined by Stuart Brown (Magnetic North), and Erica Ingham (Media Com North) at prolific North Live, as they discuss what buyers look for in an agency and what’s involved in selling your business, in front of a live studio audience.

Topics covered in this episode:

• What are the most important considerations when looking to buy?
• Why haven’t there been as many transactions in the creative sector?
• Aligning your aims with those of your potential buyer, and the importance of cultural fit.
• Erica and Stuart discuss their approaches to openness and communication with staff, and the importance of managing expectations.
• Advice for those looking to sell or buy in the creative sector.
• The importance of financial and emotional readiness.
• What makes buying in the creative sector unique?
• Stuart discusses what he looks for as a buyer.
• When to think about selling and how to prepare to do so.
• What makes a business stand out from the crowd to potential buyers?

Guest BIOs

Stuart Brown

In a career extending over 30 years, Stuart has managed, owned, invested in and disposed of a number of businesses where the commercialisation of new and evolving technologies was key.

His last investment was as Investor Director in a marketing services agency specialising in SMS marketing and response. Over a 7 year period the business was taken from loss to profit and successfully scaled across revenue, margin and operating profit, returning in excess of £7m to investors and shareholders.

Today Stuart is an investor director in MagneticNorth, a Manchester based digital design studio specialising in User Experience and Design for clients including BBC, Hull City of Culture, Co-op and Airbnb.

Website: www.thisismN.com

Twitter: @mNwork

Erica Ingham

Erica has been CFO at Mediacom North for nearly three years, a business on a strong organic growth and acquisition trajectory. She is responsible for Mediacom North’s Finance, HR and Legal and Compliance functions. Having graduated from Reading University with a BA hons in French, Erica joined the M&S Finance graduate trainee programme. She subsequently specialised in Media working for BBC Radio, MTV Europe, Liberty Media and 20th Century Fox. Latterly, Erica ran her own business providing fundraising, acquisition and sale advice to Media companies. Erica has spent a large part of her career abroad working on the set up of the first VoD service in Europe. She holds a Diploma in Board Direction and is also a Non-Executive Director and Fellow of the Institute of Directors.

Website: http://www.mediacomnorth.co.uk/

Twitter: @ericaingham1

Presenter BIO

A journalist and broadcaster for nearly 30 years, Andy runs his own media consultancy in Manchester working with clients like Weber Shandwick, the NFU, and the Institute of Directors.

Andy started in print before 17 years as a BBC presenter & reporter, appearing on BBC Breakfast, Five Live & the Today programme. For five years Andy presented the award-winning BBC1 current affairs programme Inside Out, travelling across

Europe making documentaries on terrorism, the smuggling of illegal guns into the UK and the Manchester IRA bomb. He also made films with Sir Bobby Charlton, Yoko Ono, Lord Heseltine and Johnny Marr.

Find out more about Andy’s media consultancy: www.andyjohnson.tv

Thank you for attending and hope you enjoyed the show. Please subscribe to our podcast for more industry discussions with more fantastic guests.

Next Episode

Another episode from Prolific North Live is next, with guests Steve Kuncewicz (Slater and Gordon) and Mark Stringer (Ahoy) who will be discussing the delicate art of picking your fights.

www.bulletproofagencynetwork.com

@BulletproAgency

Bulletproof Agency proudly presents this podcast

In this episode Steve Kuncewicz is joined by Paul Barnes (My Accountancy Place), Jonathan McNamara (RetroFuzz), Jo Leah (Little Big Agency), and Roy Wilding (PushON) in front of a live studio audience at Prolific North Live to discuss the challenges of being a company director, and lessons learned from their time in charge.

Topics covered in this episode:

• The myriad of challenges that come with being a director.
• Their first interactions with the legal side of running a company.
• Experiences with non-executive directors, when and why they come in useful, and how they fit into our panelist’s companies.
• The value of getting agreements between shareholders in writing, and managing differences in opinions.
• Failing well – the lessons learned from mistakes made when starting out as fresh-faced directors.
• Culture - what it means in a business, and how it can be developed and disseminated.  
• Promoting diversity, and the difficulties in engineering a diverse workplace.
• Giving back through charity projects.
• Who to go to when it all goes really pear shaped.

Guest BIOs

Paul Barnes

Paul Barnes - Paul is MD and founder of My Accountancy Place, the UK’s leading provider of outsourced accounting and finance services to digital creative businesses. Paul and My Accountancy Place offer advice, tools and support on how to build a profitable and healthy agency.

Website: www.myaccountancyplace.co.uk

Twitter: @myaccountancypl

Jonathan ‘J’ McNamara

Jonathan ‘J’ McNamara – J McNamara is CEO and Founder of RetroFuzz, a digital agency creating user experiences that connect brands with consumers. Increasing engagement, improving conversion, inspiring growth.

Website: https://retrofuzz.com/

Twitter: @MrJMcNamara

Jo Leah

Jo Leah - Jo is a communications specialist who has led awesome, award winning  teams at Weber Shandwick for over two decades . Famous for pulling in Aldi Supermarkets and then helping grow the account  for Weber in the USA and Australia.

Previous founder and owner of LawsonLeah Communications which grew with no outside investment, to win accounts like Domino’s Pizza and was sold to Weber in ‘97

Ranked as one of the UK’s top 100 Most Influential PR people, Jo was previously  MD of Paragon Communications and did a stint as journalist for the Guardian Media Group in the days of note pads not iPads.

She has an unwavering work ethic, is a straight talker, clear thinker and someone who lives her business life with integrity, guts and heart.

Website: https://about.me/joleah

Twitter: @joLeah1

Roy Wilding

Roy Wilding - Roy Wilding is Creative Director at PushON, one of Manchester’s leading full service eCommerce Agencies. Having been one of its founding Directors in 2005, PushON has drawn national recognition as a result of its commitment to integrity and clear results for its impressive client roster (including Nottingham Forest, Ryman and LiverpoolOne) and its commitment to the sector through engaging with local Universities and the wider sector, helping to launch SAScon, one of the UK’s most highly-regarded Search, Analytics and Social Media conferences.

Website: http://www.pushon.co.uk/

Twitter: @RoyWilding ­­

Presenter BIO

A journalist and broadcaster for nearly 30 years, Andy runs his own media consultancy in Manchester working with clients like Weber Shandwick, the NFU, and the Institute of Directors.

Andy started in print before 17 years as a BBC presenter & reporter, appearing on BBC Breakfast, Five Live & the Today programme. For five years Andy presented the award-winning BBC1 current affairs programme Inside Out, travelling across

Europe making documentaries on terrorism, the smuggling of illegal guns into the UK and the Manchester IRA bomb. He also made films with Sir Bobby Charlton, Yoko Ono, Lord Heseltine and Johnny Marr.

Find out more about Andy’s media consultancy: www.andyjohnson.tv

Thank you for attending and hope you enjoyed the show. Please subscribe to our podcast for more industry discussions with more fantastic guests.

Next Episode

The next episode will be from Prolific North Live, with guests Stuart Brown and Erica Ingham who will be discussing what a buyer looks for in an agency. Want to get inside the head of your next potential client? Listen in!