Training - Level Two Training

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DBA Professional Practice - Level Two Training

These workshops are for everyone at middle to senior levels working in design - from designers, project and account managers to strategists, administrators, marketing managers and directors.

To register an interest in booking any of these workshops please contact Georgina at bookings@dba.org.uk

Developing your people

Henry Lydiate

Of course senior managers and leaders want to improve their businesses. But people are the key to that. This workshop draws on strategies used by successful businesses that have managed organisational change and developed their people. We'll discuss what makes for success: corporate purpose and responsibility; core business values and beliefs; internal business structure, staff, skills and systems. It's about management - creating and implementing business strategies - but it's also about leadership. Design consultancies need both.




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What clients want

Jan Casey

This workshop reveals what clients really expect from a design consultancy - in terms of presentations, credentials and general working practices. Jan Casey has seen the design business from many different angles, including that of the client, so the content is based on direct experience from both sides of the table, and recognises the challenges and opportunities that can arise for client-facing teams. We’ll discuss seeking out and commissioning design companies, setting up design rosters, credentials presentations and running creative workshops. We also decode the terminology associated with branding. Altogether, a series of powerful insights from the client’s perspective.

Managing projects efficiently

Lorna Dallas-Conte

A practical approach to project management for organisations under pressure. This session introduces a series of essential project management tools for creatives, freelancers, account managers and owner/directors. Following a five step framework we’ll help you to manage the process and the people by examining the theory and then working through the practicalities, ultimately to improve results for you and your clients. Through exercises and role play we’ll explore subjects such as: prioritising conflicting needs, getting the most from software, preventing things from going wrong, and assessing design effectiveness.

Negotiation skills

Shan Preddy

How do you get what you want? By negotiation, a lot of the time. In business, you negotiate constantly with clients, colleagues and suppliers over time, quality and money. This workshop focuses on objectives and outcomes, negotiating positions, setting parameters and understanding the sources of power and control as well as creating successful meetings and achieving win/win results. There's often a hard edge to negotiation so we look at working with procurement, checking contracts and the use of strategies and dirty tricks. Through tuition, quizzes and group exercises, this workshop will give you the knowledge, attitude and skills to get what you and your business want.

Marketing for design

Liz Lydiate

Marketing's an essential tool for any design and creative businesses. Your clients are often in 'marketing' too. But design businesses don't always use marketing well. In this workshop we explore what a marketing-aware organisation really is, and we relate general marketing principles to design practice. We look at market positioning - what it means, and how to use it? This enables you to build a framework for marketing activity and to research and convert new markets.

Money matters

Mandy Merron

Of course you need money. So of course you need to plan, measure and manage the finances of your design consultancy. We'll take you through best practice in developing profit forecasts, weighing up the business elements that affect them. We'll then look at the best ways to use management accounts and to maximise cash flow. It's all about good, timely decision-making, particularly as changes happen that affect your business. So we explore how to use management information in a format that can be understood and acted upon.

How the law works for you

Henry Lydiate

There are always complexities where the law is concerned. But there are simple principles behind intellectual property rights, and a better understanding of the law can help you make money through design - perhaps even while you're asleep. This lively workshop asks questions:

- Can design concepts be stolen?

- How do you acquire legal rights to designs?

- Can you help clients avoid designs being ripped off?
Through probing, explanations and answering of such questions, you'll find yourself awakened to the commercial possibilities of a better understanding of the law.

Design and vision

James Woudhuysen

You need to be more than just a designer. Clients buy your design skills, but they also buy the charismatic mind, not just the brilliant execution. Real brain skills - in finding things out, and in writing and speaking about them - need to supplement the skills of hand and eye. It's not just clients who will respect you for it - your own people, suppliers, regulators and the media will look to you for relevant, informed and surprising opinions. This workshop is all about helping you to think, express yourself and take the higher intellectual ground. We'll help you understand future trends, communicate your ideas, do good research, and be at the forefront of technology and innovation.

Understanding contracts
Barry Morris
This workshop goes to the heart of business. It's easy to dismiss contracts as legal and boring but they can make or break your business - so you have to get them right. Whenever you deal with clients and suppliers, you enter some sort of a contractual relationship, whether you realise it or not. We'll show you how to set them up properly, what needs to go in them, how they protect you and how they can make client relationships stronger. We'll use examples from the design and creative businesses, and we aim to draw on your own working experience.

Global perspectives

Jane Bainbridge

Design's not a parochial business; it operates on the world stage. This is part of broader global marketing trends brought about by changes in economics, the environment and technology. So how does branding work across borders, how do national identities influence customer responses? The workshop explores these issues by delving into the role of design as a strategic marketing tool. It raises questions, and helps you answer them, about the opportunities for design in the world's marketing landscape.

Course Tutors

Prices

Standard rates:

Half day workshops
DBA Members £199 + VAT (£238.80)

DBA Non-members £299 + VAT (£358.80)

Training package - All 10 workshops

DBA members £1390 + VAT (£1668)

DBA non members £2390 + VAT (£2868)

Traveller rates:

To make our training more accessible to those based outside London, we are offering a discount to individuals whose offices are located more than 60 miles from the DBA office (EC1V 9HX). If this includes you, please book using the rate below. We will then contact you to verify your postcode.

To see if your office is located more than 60 miles please click here

Half day workshops

DBA Members £139 + VAT (£166.80)

DBA Non-members £239 + VAT (£286.80)

Training package (all 10 workshops)
DBA members £1090 + VAT (£1308)
DBA Non-members £2090 + VAT (£2508)

Location: Headrooms - St John’s Path, Clerkenwell, EC1M 4DD.

Continous Professional Development Value:

Training Package: 100 points

One half day workshop: 10 points

For more information on CPD click here.

Make a booking

To register an interest in booking any of these workshops please contact Georgina at bookings@dba.org.uk