9 Things We Learned at APA's Future of Advertising

1. Despite Brexit, the advertising industry has just had its biggest ever quarter.

As the Advertising Association's chief executive Stephen Woodward told us, we don't have to be terrified of the upcoming Brexit. The AA were in regular talks with the government pre-election announcement, and he told us they 'are listening' and that 'they know the importance of the creative industries and how we need the best talent from across the world.

2. If you want your clients to sign off on your best ideas, you have to speak a common creative language.

Contagious Communications' Arif Haq dealt with an age-old problem in his talk, Why Your Client Won't Buy Your Ideas...and What You Can Do About it. After joking that "clients are the f****** problem," he said the main reason for this is that the brain is 'hard-wired against creativity', meaning the best ideas don't get sold because the client can't think of a way of selling it to their boss.

He suggested taking a leaf from the Heineken playbook. The brand creating a 'creative ladder' [above] to rate ads so both agency and client could speak in a common language when discussing work.

3. Let frustration fuel your business.

...this was the advice of Tom Wiltshire at Boiler Room. Finding their favourite artists weren't getting the mainstream attention they deserved, and hating what was happening to the MTV of their youth, they made their own music channel, which went from illegal dance party to a worldwide brand in a few years.

4. 2017 is the Year of 'Trust in Crisis'.

Edelman's Toby Gunton was on hand to talk about this year's Edelman Trust Barometer, their worldwide survey of how people trust major instiutions like governments and the media. The takeaway? Nobody trusts anything, and certainly they trust less people than they did last year. The main losers of trust? The media, who have taken a major hit after the 'fake news' scandals of 2016.

5. By 2025, 75% of the workforce will be made up of millennials.

During a talk about the benefits of reverse mentoring, where younger workers mentor older ones about the latest tech, Freeformers' Lucy Lyall Grant told us this terrifying statistic (and this author speaks as a 1993-born millennial).

6. The secret of success: "Seeing somewhere where you can help and running with it".

That advice comes form Andy Kinsella of Google Creative Lab, who took us through some of the amazing stuff they do, including guiding refugees in new countries, creating a new graphic identity for Google, and generally making epic s**t.

7. ...seriously, Google makes some epic s**t.

8. The global and the local are in a fight to the death.

McCann Truth Central's Rodney Collins shared some early findinsg from the polling agency's upcoming The Truth about Britain. The results so far, are confusing for all involved, with equal pushes towards more globalisation and more localisation. More clear was the UK's love of its own heritage brands, including John Lewis and The Queen.

9. Working in advertising, we have a responsibility to "be messengers of goodwill".

This was the advice of Rodney Rascona, the director/photographer who went from an early career as a car photographer to one of the most prolific photographers working for NGOs and other charitable causes across the world.