The day kicked off with a very early start, hopping on the 8:40 train. We were excited for two of the early seminars, so we wanted to insure that we would have great seats. After a delicious (and much needed) cup of coffee, we headed straight to the Debussy seminar in great excitement for the day.
The first seminar on the schedule was AgenciaClickIsobar- Fiat. The Brazilian based agency told us their story of their partnership with Fiat, a car manufacturer. Brazil is the fourth largest car market in the world, which I was very surprised about, and Fiat produces 2.5 million cars annually. While the information was interesting, I felt I could not relate to the topic as much, especially with monotone speakers. But it was interesting that the Fiat was the first open source car in history to be developed collaboratively. Consumers were able to send in ideas about what the car should include, what features were important to them, etc. It was a great example of mass communication and collaboration.
The first seminar on the schedule was AgenciaClickIsobar- Fiat. The Brazilian based agency told us their story of their partnership with Fiat, a car manufacturer. Brazil is the fourth largest car market in the world, which I was very surprised about, and Fiat produces 2.5 million cars annually. While the information was interesting, I felt I could not relate to the topic as much, especially with monotone speakers. But it was interesting that the Fiat was the first open source car in history to be developed collaboratively. Consumers were able to send in ideas about what the car should include, what features were important to them, etc. It was a great example of mass communication and collaboration.
The second seminar, which was my favorite seminar of the day, was IPG and WLN's (Women's Leadership Network) panel moderated by Soledad O'Brien and participated by Martha Stewart, Kimberly Kadlec, Gail Heimann, and Carol Lam. A statistic that started off the entire discussion was that women hold only 3% of the top creative positions but women affect 85% of the buying decisions. How is that with that large of a purchase affect, we aren’t holding more creative advertising positions? What’s going on? Each woman had an opportunity to answer the initial question of gender differences within the workplace. Martha stated that she pays no attention to gender differences—a job is a job. She concentrated on the work at hand. Carol Lam said that in China, she doesn’t feel like women are getting discriminated against in the workplace. Women’s lack of huge male ego allows them to be more adventurous and more open-minded. Gail started off in travel public relations and it never donned on her at the beginning. But she stated that women need to be defiant and courageous in their values, statements, and contributions. Kimberly (my personal favorite of the panel) was aware of gender differences when she started working part-time and stated the importance of women being very clear about what they want to the people who can help them get it. The entire discussion really empowered and encouraged me for my future in advertising.
The third seminar was Yahoo’s Interview with Robert Redford. Sitting next to a Yahoo exec in the audience also made the whole experience extremely exciting. Robert Redford spoke of how he got started in the business, not just as an actor, but as a creator, director and entrepreneur. He is the founder of Sundance and it was refreshing to hear how he devoted he is to storytelling and to up-and-coming artists—the main inspiration for Sundance. I loved his message to take risks and how life is a risk. It may be negative, but it may turn out to be positive. That’s how Sundance was viewed. Now it is one of the most famous film festivals in the world.
Along with the seminars, we also had the opportunity to speak with four different professionals in the industry. From Porter Novelli, Julie Winskie told us about her PR career. She spoke a lot about who and what they look for in a new hire. Camp counselor-type experience is highly valued and now I am wishing I had more of that experience. But hopefully my skill set could apply. Talking with her got me very excited/nervous about the future, but I’m thrilled to see what will come. After that, we met with Noelle Cottrell, Creative Director of Fitzgerald & Co. in Atlanta. He started off copywriting and worked his way up in the advertising world. Hearing the differences between advertising in America and South Africa were very interesting. I loved hearing his stories and he had a great sense of humor while talking to us. Our final meeting of the day was with Nancy Seliger and Greg Pinelo. Seliger is the Senior Vice President of Fleishman-Hillard in NY and Pinel is the Creative Director at GMMB in D.C. They both were very interesting and gave us a lot of great advice. Pinelo focused on having good interview skills, being prepared, and having a solid “pitch” about yourself, including reasons for wanting to go into advertising and also having prepared questions for the interviewer. Seliger spoke of the importance of internships and getting involved with the on-campus career center to help with this. Both of their jobs/personalities are very different, but I enjoyed visiting with them both.
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