The panelists will answer questions that include:
- What are the key characteristics of a valuable in-house team? 
- How do you gain respect and avoid misuse of in-house creative services by internal clients?
- What tools, processes and structures have you adopted to support your in-house team?
- How do you recruit and retain great creative talent in-house?
- What are your thoughts on outsourcing creative? What are your experiences of the benefits and/or
challenges of doing it?

Moderator:

Wendy Millard RGD, Empire Life

Wendy has an extensive background with in-house design management and designing the process in which to engage design. With over 20 years of experience, she has led several design rebrands in the technology and financial services sectors. Her formula for successful in-house design is to deliver high quality, award-winning work and exceptional partnership with internal stakeholders

Panelists:

Rajinder Sidhu RGD, Vidyard

Raj brings over 10 years of experience as a creative leader and hands-on visual designer. Many years as a successful art director and freelancer have given him the capability to manage a wide range of projects, processes and teams. Raj is currently the Design Director at Vidyard, leading an award winning team of designers, illustrators, and video producers. 

Mark Cohen, TD Wealth

Mark Cohen is the Senior Manager of Creative, Production & Digital for the Strategic and Editorial Content group in the TD Wealth division of TD Bank. With his guidance, TD became the first Canadian bank to use video on the web in 1998.
Mark manages an in-house team that delivers digital content, content used both internally by staff and externally by clients. Recent projects he has led include the creation of an in-house video production studio, a market news video website, moneytalkgo.com, and the launch of MoneyTalk Life, a new digital personal finance publication.

Jessica Vitale RGD, DIALOG

Jessica is the National Graphic Design Manager at DIALOG – a multidisciplinary design firm of architects, engineers, interior designers, urban planners, and landscape architects. DIALOG has 5 studios across North America located in Toronto, Edmonton, Calgary, Vancouver and San Fransisco. A graduate of OCAD U, Jessica has been working as a graphic designer and creative lead in Toronto for over 13 years. Jessica’s sweet spot is branding and brand implementation in both print, digital and environments. When she’s not pushing pixels and collaborating with the team, she’s spending time with her husband and 3 year old daughter enjoying the city.

Edmund Lam, Frank And Oak

Edmund has been working in marketing and communications for over a decade. Prior to joining as Creative Director and Brand Strategist at Frank And Oak, he spent time at Sid Lee, bleublancrouge and CloudRaker leading brand experiences for Samsung, Cirque du Soleil, Stella Artois, Natrel, Neutrogena, the Toronto International Film Festival and Kijiji. He cares most about making useful things that people actually want to see/watch/read/do/experience. His work has been recognized by the One Show, Tomorrow Awards, Marketing Awards, FWA, Awwwards, Webbys, Créa and Boomerangs.