I was delighted to hear this week that Amanda has been nominated for a couple of Staffordshire Criminal Justice Awards. She has been nominated for an ‘Outstanding Contribution to Tackling Youth Crime’ award and the ‘Volunteer of the Year’ award for her mentoring work for voluntary organisation – Axis.

The scheme identifies young people from challenging backgrounds and provides them with positive role models for up to a year. The mentors engage them in new activities and work with them to increase their confidence, aspirations and attainment.

Amanda is currently working with her fourth mentor and as well as finding this personally rewarding, it helps to formulate a deeper understanding of how communities operate and how different engagement strategies help to drive behaviour change.

Fingers crossed that she wins!

The marketing industry is changing, both in terms of what agencies can deliver to clients and what clients want from their marketing services agencies. So, does that mean that the structure of agencies also needs to change to keep pace?

The Marketing Industry Network is set to throw the cat amongst the pigeons by exploring the question: Do agencies and clients still need suits? David has been invited to speak to defend the role of account managers in playing a vital role in managing client relationships while helping to develop their business.

Date: 28 September
Venue: The Studio, 3rd Floor of The Hive, Manchester
Time: 6 – 8:30pm (drinks and nibbles included)

The event will also hear from agencies that have done away with the ’suits’ completely and encourage their clients to work directly with the creatives behind their campaigns.

David, together with the other speakers, will investigate which approach works best in today’s fast paced digital age.. It promises to be a hotly contested debate, so join us and let us hear your views on the way forward for agencies and clients.

If you would like to attend please contact Caroline on 0141 559 6066 or drop David a line.

For those interested in keeping up to date with developments in the digital world you'll be interested in the first Manchester-based Digital Lounge event taking place on Wednesday, 22 September between 7.00 - 9.00pm at The Circle Club.

This is the first session of the Digital Lounge outside of London so it provides a fantastic opportunity for digital marketers to meet and network.

You can expect a lively debate which will be led by Peter Houston of Advanstar. Peter is a digital strategist and blogger and a good friend of the Digital Lounge.

At Advanstar Peter is responsible for the content strategy and editorial management of the company's online and printed titles. Peter's must-see session will focus on the dramatic changes that the publishing market will face as technological trends transform the sector.

His talk will focus on the three main publishing pillars of audience, revenue and content. If you're in digital marketing, this is a not-to-be-missed chance to brush up on your knowledge of future trends.

For those new to the Digital Lounge, this informal networking club has been at the forefront of digital trends since 1997. Digital Lounge now has over 2,000 members from the digital community and is welcoming 100 - 200 new members every month.

Join them at digital-loungers.co.uk

The event is priced at £25 for members and £50 for non-members. However the first 100 to register will receive a complimentary ticket. Quote code DL0910.

The Circle Club is Manchester's premier private members' club for creative,media and professional people.