30 events in 3 years! Look at us go. And what better way to finish twenty-eleven than with Grant Rutherford, who took a little time out from hanging out with dolphins to tell us how to be the next ECD of DDB. Well, sort of, kinda. He’d be out of a job if he did that. Silly. Still, he taught us how to be better creatives by not hating Katy Perry and making us realise that beer is not a food group – and he made us laugh. At him. And his Dolphin. Anyway if you missed it, you missed out. We’ll see you next year at our next event, homies.

Oops. We forgot we took photos at our last event in Melbourne at The Worker’s Club a couple of weeks ago. But we didn’t forget Brendan! As the Editor of the newly revamped Desktop magazine, his tips were great – and you can see most of them in the snaps below.

When speakers take our simple brief of ten tips in ten minutes and change it to however they see fit, it’s so much better than sticking to the rules. Rules = Lame, buster. Paul Marcus Fuog, from Coöp, gave us one simple tip at our Melbourne event last week: ‘Learn from others’. We then had special appearances from all kinds of designers, including Sagmeister, telling us a stellar little tip or two each. It was like ten speakers in one! Bonus! If only we gave out pencils (which would have cleverly corresponded with 2/10 tips) so that everyone could write them down.

Junior is now multi-national! Inter-national! Banana-national! Yes! Josh and Jamie from The Assignment Group joined us in Auckland this week where they not only had ten stellar tips, but threw in an eleventh with a lead for a junior creative position. Crazy-town! En-Zed, keep this space posted as we will be back.

When we asked David Ponce De Leon, CD of BD Network, if he would speak at our April event in Melbourne, we got an email back asking: “what makes you think I have anything interesting to say?” Now, if you’ve met ‘The Ponce’ you’d know he’s one of the most interesting dudes round town! Having previously been CD at Lifelounge as well as head of Award School, ‘The Ponce’ knew exactly what we needed to hear. He told us of a golden agency where “clients are completely devoted to the production of great advertising and often double their budgets to achieve this. A private chef and a masseuse take care exclusively of the genial creative department. The generous senior mentors devote their time entirely to the development of juniors and newcomers, who get the best briefs, more often than not, in the agency’s own turkish steam bath.” He then explained any job is better than no job and that such agencies don’t exist, and if we thought they did we were “fucking kidding ourselves”. He also told us not to drink or take drugs, among many other pearls of wisdom. Luckily for you, the Columbian thoughtfully left us his presentation for your perusal here!

Our first Sydney Junior event for the year was a little bit awesome. Despite being on the same night as Award School (Whoops! Sorry kids!), the crowd was large, and largely good-looking. Armed with a presentation of slides designed by different Clem’s creatives, Luke Chess delivered quite the motivational 10 tips, in more than 10 minutes. There was group chanting — and he taught us to stand up for ourselves and not get pushed around by suits or clients. That said, he also told us to listen, not just to him, but to everyone — including flash nerds. And to really, really, understand the brief. Then, there was more group chanting, and we all left The Commons happy. Woo!

Coming up: Melbourne! Tuesday 5 April with David Ponce De Leon of BD Network. AUCKLAND! NZ! Tuesday 26 April with Josh and Jamie from The Assignment Group.

Clem! She gave us partydog.jpg, and ten smashing tips on how to make it in the freelance world as a writer– even when it is so flippin’ hard you think it might be better to toss burgers. We were too enraptured by the pres to take many snaps, so you’ll have to imagine how rad she was.

We’re all digital kids. If you aren’t, you must be living in the depths of the ocean stuck under the shipwreck of the Titanic. Eaon Pritchard, the Head of Digital Innovation at Clemenger BBDO knows all about the whiz-bang-shebangabang’s, he even hashtagged his ten tips.