Independent Media Agencies of Australia (IMAA) held its first major event for the year, Operation Kick Off, as it provided the 200-plus guests in attendance with a comprehensive view of the year ahead.
The event was held at Hoyts Cinema in the Entertainment Quarter at Sydney’s Moore Park and was also live-streamed by several thousand viewers.
The IMAA also launched its major education initiative for 2023 – the IMAA Academy, to help address the talent shortage and to provide comprehensive training to media agency staff and for those looking to enter the industry. The IMAA Academy officially launches on 1 March.
“Our industry spends $7 billion on recruitment but only $4 billion on training – we’re an industry that learns on the job but we need to attract talent into our industry. The IMAA Academy is our answer to that – a unique e-learning course designed to educate talent on the foundations of media for junior and senior people – created by the industry, for the industry,” IMAA CEO, Sam Buchanan, said.
Guest speakers spanned the TV, radio, out-of-home, news media, regional media, cinema, and digital sectors. Industry body speakers included IAB CEO Gai Le Roy, CRA CEO Ford Ennals, Think TV CEO Kim Portrate, Boomtown Chairman and SCA Chief Sales Officer Brian Gallagher, Val Morgan Managing Director Guy Burbidge, ThinkNewsBrands General Manager Vanessa Lyons, and Outdoor Media Association General Manager Kylie Green.
Other speakers on the day were Nine Director of Content Partnerships, Total Publishing, Lisa Day; News Corp Australia Executive General Manager NewsAmp, Renee Sycamore; News Corp Australia Executive General Manager Regional Publishing, Belinda MacPherson; and GWI Sales Director Dom Birch.
The event was carbon positive after the IMAA once again partnered with C2Zero. The IMAA partnered with climate change pioneers C2Zero for Operation Kick-Off. At last year’s IMAA Bounceback event, C2Zero helped stop big polluters from releasing three tonnes of carbon into the atmosphere.
“To stage an event like this one releases two tonnes of carbon into out atmosphere. So this year we’re going bigger with five tonnes being offset. That’s enough C02 to fill five hot air balloons, clock up 1.6 million hours on a 16-inch Macbook Pro or make 416 kilos of delicious cheddar cheese. We’re proud to be the first industry event that is carbon positive for the second consecutive year,” Buchanan said.
Following the event, QMS hosted a networking event at The Urban Winery for all guests, where the outdoor company gave away a $50,000 media package to one of the guests on the day.
“This is the day that our industry comes together and for our media industry bodies to educate the indies on what they need to know going into 2023. The IMAA has had the pleasure of singlehandedly changing the media landscape and giving a voice to Australian businesses and events like these are a great way for our members and the media industry to come together to learn and collaborate,” Buchanan said.
“The IMAA will have another year of launching great initiatives, including an Indie Summit and the IMAA Awards, so stay tuned.”