The end of the year is drawing near but things certainly aren't slowing down at the Biz offices, especially as work on our annual future insights project, #BizTrends2017 is well under way. Curated by Louise Marsland, it features insight from some of the industry's best and brightest thought leaders and futurists and will begin publishing early January 2017. We'll also have live coverage from this year's Financial Mail AdFocus Awards this Wednesday evening, so keep your eye on Biz to find out who is walking away with the coveted Agency of the Year titles.

Keeping things award-centric, Alistair King, co-founder and chief creative officer of King James Group, shares his views on this year's Loeries' rankings and their determination to keep fighting the good fight.

Shifting focus to the here and now, brain cancer survivor, creative strategist and founder of Cancer Dojo, Conn Bertish, writes exclusively for us on the importance of purpose marketing, especially in a time when most are riddled with fear for the future based on the way 2016 has taken shape.

Robin Richardson, associate at KISCH IP, also shares tips on how to play the game of social media brand dodge ball, particularly when it comes to unauthorised use of your brand's trade mark.

Then, rounding out the content mix, #EntrepreneurMonth continues full steam ahead and we have the latest iteration of cartoonist Jerm's #Bizcommunitoon, this time on the prevalence of fake news.

Dig in and get motivated for the final push of the year.

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