Welcome to PM Forum London
The PM Forum is dedicated to raising the standards of professional services marketing and to enhancing the credibility of marketers working in professional service firms worldwide.
The London branch of the PM Forum makes up 50% of national membership with some 1,500 members. Members come mainly from law (40%), accountancy (30%) and property (20%) firms. It has members in:
- 17 of the top 20 accountancy firms
- 45 of the top 50 law firms
- 40% of the leading property firms
- 50% of the top management consultancy firms
- Members in architecture, the Bar, engineering, patent attorneys and actuarial firms
The London branch of the PM Forum has the following aims:
- Representing the needs of London members in the activities of the PM Forum (derived from networking, experience, surveys and interest groups).
- Organising industry leading seminars and events which cover the range and level of all London members.
- Facilitating the sharing of knowledge through events and the online Article Bank.
- Providing open and useful networking forums for London members.
- Raising the profile of marketing and business development within professional services firms so that they are increasingly recognised by fee-earners as essential and valued members of practice management teams.
- Work with other professional and trade bodies to raise the profile of professional marketers, and identifying new members.
These aims are delivered through the work of the London committee which meets on the second Monday of each month.
Events
The PM Forum in London hosts monthly speaker events which are free to members. Details of our next event is below.
Topics
These are selected by surveying members at the end of each year to establish what hot topics they would like to turned into seminars, panel sessions or discussion groups. Committee members are then allocated responsibility for sourcing and liaising with speakers on content for the event. Feedback is requested from all attendees to help improve the overall quality of events hosted in London.
Contact Us
As a membership organisation, where membership is corporate nationally, only members of the Forum are eligible to attend our events and benefit from other features such as the monthly magazine professional marketing, the online Article Bank and Job Bank. However, those interested in joining are welcome to attend one event as our guest in order to get a feel for the Forum.
For more information on membership download 7 reasons to belong to the PM Forum and a registration form.
Committee:
Barbara Hamilton, Smith & Williamson
Nicholas Moore, Marketing and Business Development Manager, Farrer & Co LLP
Annabel Pritchard, Brand Manager, Deloitte
PM Forum - Making your job a little easier! Join us now.
Details of our next event:
Brave new world or grave new world?
London - Tuesday 20 January 2009
There is no doubt that there is a great deal of uncertainty and change in the current business environment. Many businesses and business models are coming under pressure, and professional services are certainly not exempt.
How should senior business developers be demonstrating value to management teams who themselves may only have known good times? There just may be opportunities for BD professionals to earn their place as part of the C-Suite and to get attention for some of the things that went undone during good times. The session will cover the following topics:
- What happens in downturns – key issues and bad behaviours in partnerships to be alert to avoid…the rush to discount, “own-desking” and other value destroyers…
- What is different this time – scale of problems, pressures on the traditional leverage model, off-shoring and outsourcing and new ways of working such as the “millennial effect” on the billable hour, the pressure to innovate on services and delivery…
- What is happening at your clients? Some practical opportunities to build relationships, and manage the service and client portfolio more aggressively, some bright spots in the economy…
- Changing metrics for BD from lag to lead indicators to provide leadership with business-oriented measures…
The aim is to help participants to shape their own agenda for the coming year, take away some easy wins and test their ideas with their peers.
Simon Slater
Having spent 10 years in the sales school of hard knocks with SmithKline Beecham (now gsk) and Pfizer, and a spell in business-to-business brand management with Swedish multinational, SCA, Simon became one of the early pioneers of professional service firm management in 1989.
Over the next 15 years he worked in marketing and general management with the boards of leading practices - DTZ Group plc, Charles Russell LLP (where he was Chief Operating Officer), Eversheds LLP and Taylor Wessing LLP. During this time he developed a reputation for bringing a refreshingly pragmatic approach to the leadership and management of professional firms, be they publicly quoted or private partnership.
As Managing Director of First Counsel Consulting Limited, Simon now provides strategic advice, close counsel and practical support to professional service firm leaders in their quest for sustained growth. He also serves as non executive director of a number of organisations in other industries.
Karen Jones
An experienced Marketing Director at board level, with a highly tuned commercial radar, Karen’s career has spanned the private and public sectors, with a background in Financial Services, Telco, FMCG, and consultancy industries with blue chip multi-nationals, eg. GlaxoSmithKline, HSBC, AVIVA, PwC and BBC, BT, National Savings & Investment - for business to business and direct to consumer. She has held P& L responsibility for turnover upwards £10bn+, budgets £40m+, profit £250m+, teams 100+, multiple products and distribution channels in new and mature branded markets, through recessionary and buoyant market conditions.
Karen’s expertise is in forging new strategic business models, with a particular focus on applying customer targeted commercial strategies. This includes brand positioning, innovative proposition development and introducing new routes to market to access business and personal customers, through new and existing channels of distribution and partnerships and associated tender and bid management of multi-million pound deals. This is achieved whilst simultaneously increasing marketing effectiveness, reducing costs, improving customer retention and increasing sales for profitable growth.
Booking form
If you would like to receive regular invites to events, please register online.