According to ACA, when Mathe Okaba became the new CEO, she announced that one of her personal objectives for the body was to ensure that the industry attracted an increasing number of young talent from all walks of life, and also that these brilliant young minds remain within the agency environment.

"I want to show these young creatives — or rather, prove to them — that there is a long-term future in advertising," says Okaba.

Future Ballers was exclusively invited to attend. The objective of the evenings is to offer these young individuals the same networking opportunities that seniors are exposed to on a regular basis. These people are more often than not office bound, with limited exposure outside of their own agencies.

On the night, attendees had the opportunity to listen to a presentation titled ‘Working in Advertising. WTF’ by Doug Place, CMO at Nando’s and 2018 winner of the Loeries Marketing Leadership and Innovation Award.

Additionally, Atiyya Karodia, lead strategist at VML South Africa delivered a presentation on what it is that people truly achieve as an industry when it comes to culture and moving people to action.

"We want to expose the Future Ballers at each event to industry veterans and young trailblazers from the relevant hosting agency. People with interesting stories that inspire and, through their presentations, reflect that, as professionals, we’re here to play the 'long game’'," says Sarah Dexter, chair of the ACA Education and Training Committee.

The next (by invitation only) Future Ballers evening will be hosted by Joe Public in June at the Bryanston offices. If you are an ACA member and have Future Ballers in your agency you know would benefit from attending, contact [email protected].

For more information, visit www.acasa.co.za. You can also follow the ACA on Facebook or on Twitter.