“The purpose of these forums is to invite our clients and agency partners to firstly gain some new perspective or knowledge on a certain topic and secondly it’s a chance for our team to network and brainstorm with our clients in an informal setting,” says Chris Botha, Group managing director of The MediaShop.

Interesting and notable takeouts from the forum included that consumers are undoubtedly under pressure but Whitfield reassured the audience that we are however on the right path with the right people.

He said that the finance minister is frustrated by waste within government departments and that he is being pulled in many different directions. On the subject of big business he said that companies are going into Africa as it's harder to make money at home because of, among other things, the increasing petrol price and instability of the electricity supply.

“Each forum hosts different guests and dissects different topics,” says Botha. “For those who can’t attend, we’ve created the hash tag #MediaShopFourm and tweet throughout each session from our @MediaShopZA account.”

“We extend our thanks to Bruce Whitfield, Radio 702 and Primedia Broadcasting for entertaining and educating us for the morning and to their colleagues Barry Bateman, Katy Katopodis and Alex Eliseev for attending and supporting us as well.”