Hackaball is Made by Many’s most ambitious side-product to date: a computer you can throw, and a connected toy that you can program using an iPad or iPhone. It started life as an intern project that was supposed to help Made by Many understand how to design hardware and software together. Hackaball has won a slew of awards from around the world for Made by Many, and generated amazing PR and coverage in WIRED, Fast Company, Core77, The Economist and FT, amongst others. All this has been incredible for Made by Many, who have won several new connected device projects with global clients as a result.

Tim Malbon joined the Internet in 1998 because it seemed to be the best way to redesign the world whilst also having a laugh. He's been laughing ever since. He has no actual discernible skills other than being a serial-inveigler and pathological enthusiast. This led him to user experience and product design. He's fascinated by big complex systems, pattern-spotting and participatory culture.

In this talk Win Without Pitching founder Blair Enns discusses the five constraints or restrictions he would impose upon you and your firm – if he had the magic power – that would cause your business development results to soar and your total effort and cost of sale to plummet. With every constraint you'll do a brief exercise to reimagine the implications in your firm. Each constraint builds upon the next until yours is a Win Without Pitching firm that commands the high ground in your relationships with clients and prospects and wins new business without pitching free ideas, writing lengthy proposals or otherwise sacrificing your practitioner position in the relationship.

Blair Enns is on a mission to change the way creative services are bought and sold the world over. He is the founder of Win Without Pitching, a new business development system and training program for creative entrepreneurs, and the author of The Win Without Pitching Manifesto. Through his speaking, writing and training program Blair has helped thousands of firms reclaim the practitioner position in their relationships with clients and prospects, and build systematic, sustainable business development programs that win higher margin work at lower costs of sale.

When your company gets to around 45 people, things change. For some, it’s a glass ceiling they never break through. For others, it’s like hitting the sound barrier, sending out shockwaves around the organisation. I’ll talk about how cxpartners grew to 60 people - and managed to deliver great work, a happy team and a profitable business along the way. I’ll share some of the tools we use to keep our culture and values on track. I’ll talk about how my role as founder has changed (several times). And I’ll talk about where we got lucky, where our plans came unstuck and what I’d do differently if I could go back and do it all again (and there’s a lot of that).

Giles Colborne co-founded cxpartners in 2004. Since then, it has grown to one of the world’s leading independent experience design consultancies working on next generation experience design and generating hundreds of millions of dollars of revenue for companies such as Marriott, eBay and AXA. His book, ‘Simple and Usable’, has sold tens of thousands of copies in Europe and North America and has been translated into Chinese and Korean. Giles is former president of the UPA, co-chair of IA Summit, and UX Awards judge. Additionally, he has worked with the British Standards Institute in developing standards for web accessibility.

Building a successful agency is incredibly rewarding. But it comes with significant challenges and stress. From managing staff and keeping clients happy to keep in work rolling in while remaining profitable. In his talk ex-agency founder Paul Boag discusses life after running an agency. He will answer questions like, “how do you know when it’s time to walk away?” And “what are the pros and cons of life after the agency?” But this isn’t just a talk for those interested in leaving the agency life behind. It will inspire us all to consider what success looks like and what we want from the agencies we run.

Paul Boag successfully ran the digital agency Headscape for over 13 years. He is the author of several books including his latest, Digital Adaptation. But today he works as an independent user experience consultant. He helps not-for-profits become more user centric and make better use of digital tools. He is a prolific writer, speaker and host of the longest running web design podcast.