Speakers

1. 

   Martine Ballegeer

   Partner at Pitchpoint

   PitchPoint specialises in agency selection and optimising brand-agency relationships. In 2008, Martine co-founded PitchPoint alongside Chris Van Roey, former CEO of UBA.

   Since its inception, Martine has guided more than 200 companies, both large and small, in Belgium through their agency selection process, including recent collaborations with Lidl, Toyota, bpost, D’Ieteren, Moore, Xerius, Bancontact, among others. She is also an expert in defining the most suitable remuneration model for advertisers and visits two to three communication agencies in Belgium each week.

   Before founding PitchPoint, Martine worked for over 20 years in communication and marketing, including roles at Apple and Mobistar. She is also the co-author of the book "Adverteerder zkt. reclamebureau".

2. 

   Mia Venken

   Expert at PitchPoint

   Mia joined PitchPoint at the end of 2023. She is a strong advocate for strengthening long-term relationships between brands and agencies, believing that this not only drives better results but also enhances well-being within the industry. Over the past year, she has focused on evaluating and optimising brand-agency relationships. As a former COO of UBA, she continues her mission to support and improve the sector.

   Mia began her career in the newspaper industry. After starting at the advertising sales division, she became Commercial Manager of De Standaard. From 2006 to 2011, she helped transform De Standaard into a multimedia news brand, encompassing the newspaper, De Standaard Magazine, DS online, and DS mobile. In 2009, she received a Gold Effie Award in recognition of the outstanding results achieved.

   After De Standaard, Mia worked at UBA for 12 years. Within a few years, she successfully doubled UBA’s membership. From 2016 onwards, as COO and Board Member, she led the organisation’s digital transformation, playing a key role alongside CEO Chris Van Roey in turning UBA into a customer-centric membership organisation