Agency Awards Approved puts the spotlight on this year’s Conference News Agency Awards winners – the teams, campaigns and ideas that rose above the rest. This series goes beyond the trophies to explore what set these agencies apart, from the strategies that delivered results to the decisions that defined their success, alongside insight from the judges on why these entries stood out. Each feature dives into the work that earned industry recognition, offering a closer look at what it really takes to win.
In this edition, we speak to Matt Culverhouse, founder, and chief executive officer of Made Human. Made Human was the winner of this year’s Start-Up Agency of the Year award, in its first year of operations.
Speaking on how he felt after winning the award, Culverhouse said: “I was completely gobsmacked. I was up against some agency legends so I was very stunned. My previous agency won Start-up Agency of the Year back in 2019, so it was especially nice to come back with my two agencies and win it twice.”
He added: “Whilst it is always nice to win an event-specific award, it is nice that that this award reflects the agency. It shows who we are, what we stand for, and the reasons why I created the agency to begin with.”
Following two decades delivering global programmes for some of the world’s leading brands, Culverhouse created Made Human to prove that commercial impact and human connection do not need to exist separately. The agency is built on the idea that meaningful events should deliver measurable business outcomes while also creating genuine experiences for attendees.
He said: “Especially in a period where we’ve gone through so much merger and acquisition activity, the experience we create for our clients is incredibly important, both in making the event successful and in retaining that client relationship. For attendees, I feel like the events industry has become a bit stale. People are just doing the same thing, day in, day out.”
When designing events, Made Human focuses on designing events for real human behaviour and neurodiverse audiences. Culverhouse says: “If one in five people are neurodiverse, that could potentially be 20% of your audience that either miss out, feel uncomfortable, or may not even attend.”
He adds: “It’s about breaking down barriers and making sure the right people come into the room in the first place. That starts with how we communicate registration and event information, making sure people have clarity and foresight ahead of time.”
Then for events, the agency avoids the ‘cookie-cutter’ model. Rather than running 90-minute general sessions, or relying on one learning style, they design breakout sessions round different learning styles and communicate that ahead of time, so people can build their own path through the event.
He adds: “We don’t just talk about people; we genuinely do things for people. Our motivation is to help people succeed. Our goal is to create career-defining moments for our clients, as well as momentum and ROI for attendees.”
Made Human is rooted in what Culverhouse calls the “SPARK framework”, which stands for:
- Smart – being insight-led and technology-driven, while still putting people first. Culverhouse said: “Rather than putting up a massive TV on a wall or showcasing an AI formula to create meetings, it’s about having the insight behind it and making sure technology adds purpose.”
- People first – showing who the stakeholder really is. Culverhouse explained: “We often look at this backwards and see the attendee as the stakeholder. The C-suite and the people signing off the budget may appear to be the stakeholders, but actually we ask: what are we trying to achieve for attendees, and how does that create momentum both for them and for the business?”
- Adaptive – staying curious, flexible and always on the move.
- Real – no jargon, no ego. Culverhouse said: “I’ll happily sit in front of anyone and ask, ‘Why are you trying to do this?’ I’ve probably talked myself out of business before because I look at a client’s money as if it’s my own.”
- Kinetic – making sure the agency creates experiences that move people and build momentum for both businesses and attendees.
One judge said: “The submission provides a clear strategy which is innovative in approach but also operationally embedded through planning, delivery and ensuring events leave with a positive footprint. In its short existence it has a clear strategy driven approach and has received positive feedback from clients.”
One of the judges praised Made Human’s ethos of “being less transactional, more transformative”, describing the agency as an innovative approach to changing the traditional thinking within the events industry. The judge said: “Made Human makes sure that sustainability stays embedded in the events landscape and not just as a tick-box exercise. With the guest experience at the forefront of the way the events are shaped, it is a refreshing vision filled with inclusivity and learning.”
Culverhouse said: “What was nice about reading the judges’ feedback is that it’s very easy to talk about values and culture, but we actually live and breathe them every day. They’re not just words on a slide or words in an office. They’re values that we genuinely created and live by every single day. It was nice to hear that this was appreciated.”
He added: “From reading the judges feedback, I think they like our take on what we’re trying to achieve and how we’re trying to do things differently.”
In its first year, Made Human has supported global organisations to rethink the role of events, delivering senior-level strategy, shaping long-term portfolios and redefining what success looks like beyond attendance and spectacle. Culverhouse said: “I think events are probably more important than ever. I think people have ripped up the traditional marketing funnel. Real-life experiences are now becoming a crucial element of year-on-year strategy. When clients talk to us now, rather than simply giving us a brief, I’ll happily allocate time between myself and our strategy lead to dig into why they’re actually doing this.”
He speaks to clients about why they are doing the event – is it just because competitors are doing it or that they think customers expect it or are they sitting down and considering what they are really trying to achieve and what event would be best suited.
Sustainability, accessibility and inclusion are treated as a design principle, not just bolt ons for Made Human. Culverhouse said: “Sustainability isn’t just a buzzword to us — it’s something we embed into everything. We’ve been following ISO 20121 principles from day one, even though we haven’t been trading long enough to be accredited yet. We’ll also be going for B Corp status as soon as we can because that’s important to us.”
In terms of the future plans for the agency, Culverhouse says: “We are a startup in terms of age, but not in terms of ambition. I’m not looking to take over the world or become a massive global enterprise. I’ve run large agencies before, and I’ve also run boutique agencies like TEN6. I want to maintain a boutique agency.”
He adds: “I’m absolutely client-obsessed, and everyone who works for us, whether freelance or full-time, needs to be client-obsessed too. In a world of acquisitions and consolidation, I want to make sure clients never feel like just a number. We want to maintain close relationships with clients, because the only way to truly understand them and their business is by having that tight-knit relationship.”
He continues: “Although we’re a small agency, we have a global footprint. We’ve worked across three continents already in the last nine months. We may be small in number, but we definitely have global appeal.