The PM Forum is a 5,000 strong regionally-based members' association, formed in 1996, dedicated to raising the standards of professional services marketing and to enhancing the credibility of marketers working in professional service firms worldwide.

In an ideal world, new work would be dependent on the quality of relationships; in reality pitches are an occupational hazard of winning most new business.

Some firms give full responsibility to the marketing team for supporting the pitch process; others form dedicated pitch teams or use experts for 'must-win' pitches.

Most marketing directors started their career in an analogue world and now find themselves in an altered landscape where a sophisticated digital marketing strategy has become a necessity. This results in:

• A struggle to give your firm the leadership that is required to take advantage of the opportunities resulting from digital marketing.
• Embarrassment in admitting that you are probably less familiar than your junior team members with an ever-increasing set of digital acronyms - SEO, PPC, HTML, A/B Tests etc

"Think of the horseless carriage, the virtual music store, and airline seats as cheap as train tickets. The most brilliant innovations come from people who are constantly challenging themselves to be better. Creativity is harnessing your imagination to produce new ideas. Innovation is putting those new ideas to work for you. The best ideas are remarkable for their simplicity."
Client Science: The Five C's Marketing Plan for Professionals.

How can a professional services firm innovate to build a more successful practice? You may think it requires big ideas, big changes and big budget. However, there are some simple, practical marketing techniques to help you attract more clients.

Rachel Killeen, managing director of marketing consultancy firm, Killeen Communications and author of Client Science: The Five C's Marketing Plan for Professionals, will cover the various types of innovation – small incremental changes and big market-altering innovations – and provide examples of how you can improve your client's experience of your professional practice every day. Critical to the success of any professional practice is the implementation of the Five Cs Marketing Plan – Collate, Create, Communicate, Collaborate and Calculate.

Why do businesses fail? Why do businesses underperform?

These questions are of direct interest to all people involved in businesses and the key question "What can be done to improve our performance?" is one that we should all be confronting every working day.

This presentation will recognise the causes of corporate failure and then propose a new sustainable approach to marketing as a solution to many of the problems faced by modern businesses.

Looking to tune fee earners' brilliant minds into adding value to your firm's marketing?

In a firm full of talented technical specialists, being able to harness proper thinking skills can make the difference between an averagely successful and the most successful businesses. Sometimes it's the soft skills that can gain advantage and add value.

This session will look at how social media fits into a professional services firm's marketing plan. It will have practical examples and case studies of what a firm should do (and what some have done already), what the priorities should be and some hardcore advice on what to do that makes a difference to the firm's bottom line.

Most of us are intrigued by, and initially attracted to, personalities different to our own, but find it less challenging in the long term to live or work with people who are similar to us. Such people are easier for us to understand, and like.

PSP theory can provide practical value in promoting effective interpersonal relationships and underpin all the skills we use at work to communicate, both formally and informally, with others, our managers, staff, colleagues and with clients.