War of the Words...

You could be one of these folks...

Hello gang.

There will be very shortly be a round up of all of the grad schemes. Honest. In the meantime, the lovely people at Brand Republic have been in touch to talk to me about the forthcoming War of the Words event.

It's squarely aimed at you, AdGrads folks. Sadly, for the studenty types, going along to see it will cost a bit of cash, but there are other opportunities (see the bold type) which you should try to get involved with.

Here's some of the blurb:

"Campaign's War of the Words, in association with The Huffington Post UK, is a new half-day, fast-paced event where speakers (all aged 30 or under), will present ideas that may shape the future in profound ways.

Like the Advertising Association's Front Foot Initiative, it will show the industry the reality of the world in which these speakers - advertising's future - have grown up.

Each speaker will be drawn from different disciplines and territories. Each will present for 15 minutes maximum. Speakers will address how creativity, planning, brands and media might change the face of advertising, and the way it works.
The X Factor-style judges will be Nikki Crumpton, the chief strategy officer of McCann London, David Hackworthy, a founding partner at The Red Brick Road, and Johnny Hornby, a co-founder of CHI & Partners.

There will also be an open-mic strand, open to agency talent of 25 or under, students and any madly hungry young people. In this section, promoted by The Huffington Post UK, ten people will be asked to pitch an idea that can be expressed with a statement starting with two words: "I believe." They will explore their idea in just three minutes."

You wouldn't usually get access to the likes of those big, advertising names usually. To apply for one of the ten open mic places, email wotw at huffingtonpost.com (EMAIL ADDRESS CHANGED) with a piece of up to 500 words on one of things you're most passionate about by (UPDATED DATE) the 31st of October. Creative submissions are actively encouraged, and then Campaign and the Huffington Post will ask the best to submit their 'I believe' 3 minute presentation, and the final ten will be asked to speak at the event.

FURTHER UPDATE: AdGrads readers can now get discounted tickets. The first fifty can buy tickets for £50 plus VAT when they email.

FINAL UPDATE: There's just a few tickets yet....get 'em now.

I hope many AdGrads readers get involved.

A Point For Awesomeness

Campaign - 14 November 2008

While getting my early morning Facebook on Musa gave me the heads up about AdGrads getting into Campaign for laying the smack down on BMB and giving some love to TBWA. That's awesome, but we won't stop calling it like we see it or let the fame get to our heads :)

And come January, when all the dust has settled from the graduate recruitment stuff, we'll be asking all of y'all to give us your best and worst applying/interviewing experiences so we can do a graduate recruitment report card. By you and for you. I had to put a cheesy line at the end. Whatever.

Walking The Walk

Because JB expressed..ahem..skepticism at my claim that we had had 1000+ hits since we started, I took a screen grab of the Statcounter page to help convince him:

And in less petty (!) news, Brand Republic have very kindly invited us to write a featured blog on their site about the trials and tribulations of breaking into the industry. We'll be sure to let you know when we go live...