2025: what’s in store for DBA members?

Design effectiveness has never been more important.

If you want to set yourself apart from the masses, there’s nothing more compelling than being able to prove the effectiveness of your past client work to build trust in your capabilities.

That’s why, in 2025, we’re giving every DBA member one free entry to the DBA Design Effectiveness Awards. Because every DBA member has work in their studio that could and should be awarded. Whatever your size, and whatever your design discipline. And we’ll help you prove it.

The ability to talk about the effectiveness and value of your work is key to the success of a design business or in-house team. In 2025 we’ll be running a programme of online content, free for members, which will support your ability to work with your partners to gather data, build case studies, and understand how to properly articulate the results of your work.

Membership of the DBA will not only give you the practical means to develop your focus on effectiveness in 2025, it is here to support your whole business. From benchmarking key indicators of performance across your business, to training your team to thrive in our industry. From essential tools and templates, to networking, inspiration, community building and access to industry expertise.

Make sure you are taking full advantage of all the benefits membership brings.

You can access a handy snapshot of the ways the DBA can support you and your team in 2025.

And here’s a taster of what we’ve got lined-up for January:

The first of our monthly, online DBA Members’ Forums on 13 January at 4-5pm GMT will be an opportunity for members to talk with Blair Enns founder of Win Without Pitching and author of three bestselling books, including the hot-off-the-press ‘The Four Conversations: A New Model for Selling Expertise’.

In the member exclusive hour, Blair will dive into the core of his newest book and take us through the fundamental differences between selling design expertise and selling products and transactional services. He’ll share his approach to effortlessly navigate sales in a way that is intuitive to selling expertise, the same way you deliver it – with confidence and integrity.  

And our first webinar of the year on 30 January at 4-5pm GMT will be a fireside chat with Dr Mary McBride from the Pratt Institute.

For those of you who attended The Design Effect event at The British Museum in October 2024, you will know what a treat this will be. It is essential viewing for anyone in a leadership or strategy position.

Head here for more details about these events. You can also reserve your place for the launch of the 2025 What Clients Think Report on 27 March, with early bookings now being taken for this unmissable event.

And there’s much, much more to come… we look forward to seeing you, and supporting all of our members in 2025.

To all our members and industry friends, season’s greetings from us all at the DBA and wishing you and your team a very happy, healthy and prosperous 2025.