FALL INTERACTIVE TOUR 2011
Ditching Class
Friday September 14th we ditched morning AND afternoon class and went to the Fall Interactive Studio Tour, hosted by Oddly Studios. Technically, it's not really ditching if your teachers go with you.
FTI Tour page
Oddly Facebook Page
Oddly Presentation
Ditching Class
Friday September 14th we ditched morning AND afternoon class and went to the Fall Interactive Studio Tour, hosted by Oddly Studios. Technically, it's not really ditching if your teachers go with you.
FTI Tour page
Oddly Facebook Page
Oddly Presentation
We gathered at 9AM at the Spadina Underground Cinema for a debriefing from Oddly Studios about how our day was going to play out. We got a little swag bag and a binder with some paper and pens. I was part of the Orange group where I met a bunch of great people in similar programs, some undergrads and a few people from industry. While other groups left for their tours our group stayed in the theatre where Tim, founder of Oddly Studios spoke a bit about his career path and how it led him to founding Oddly Studios.
Oddly Studios
Oddly Studio Website
About 30 minutes later we were whisked away to Oddly Studios for an early lunch and a presentation about some of the work that get's done around the studio. They showed us some fun stuff they do on the side and some promotional games they had made for clients.
Click here for Oddly's portfolio page
NuRun Inc.
NuRun Inc. Homepage
We walked to the NuRun Inc. office at 96 Spadina Avenue, on the 9th floor. Did I mention 9th floor! It was tiring to walk up 9 flights of stairs, but definitely worth it. They delivered a great presentation about what their company does and went a little in depth about their process which was great to hear. We also got to sit in really neat space chair stools, at least I was impressed by the interior design elements, it was quite an impressive office. We visited both floors, the 9th floor being more design and accounts people and the bottom was where the big server lived in it's own room, and the developers had a great open concept office area (including a ping pong table in the kitchen). We then had a 10 minute networking session with the staff of NuRun where they provided cute Halloween inspired treats. I spoke a bit about internship opportunities and just like that it was over and we had to go. They do take interns so send resumes and portfolios to: intern.toronto@nurun.com
Click here for NuRun's Blog
Boost Agents
Click here for Boost Agents Homepage
Click here for Boost Agents LinkedIn page
After our NuRun Inc. studio tour we headed back to the Underground Cinema for a presentation from Trina Boos founder of Boost Agents and Ad Lounge. They are a recruitment company specializing in creative, digital and marketing industries. Ad Lounge was something Trina started when she was attending the Sheridan advertising program about 10 years ago, before facebook and social media sites really took off. She wanted to unite the advertising class because they had all been slit up into groups and never got to socialize or get to know one another. She realized they were all eventually going to end up being colleagues and competing for the same jobs and thought why not start up with website for her class so they can all help each other out with job opportunities and like minded things. The next year something strange happened. People from all different programs across Toronto in similar industries started signing up for this group and the whole thing took off from there, now it's a local networking hub for advertising professionals.
Trina a lot spoke about do's and don'ts meeting industry folks and about their new event "The Dinner Series" where many young professionals apply to have dinner with CEO's and highly ranked advertising professionals. The whole point is to get the selected candidates networked with important people and comfortable speaking to people higher up on the food chain.
Trina emphasized the importance of having a life outside of work. Having hobbies and taking initiatives to start groups is very important. Be passionate about the work you do, and also be really passionate about things outside of work. Twitter and LinkedIn is also very important to maintain and update, goes a long way to show you are serious about your career. She was a great speaker and it was obvious she really loves what she does for a living, so all in all a great speech.
Check out the Ad Lounge site and Twitter feed below:
Click here for Ad Lounge's Homepage
Follow Ad Lounge on Twitter
JUNIPER PARK
Click here for Juniper Park's Homepage
At this point our group was running late so we speed-walked over to the Juniper Park headquarters, who have moved into Organic's old office space. We did not get the tour of the office, but apparently it's massive. I did notice their front reception area has an entire chalkboard wall, illustrated with all sorts of great cartoony things, I'm assuming done by staff members. Very cool touch, definitely on par in the coolness factor with the space chairs at NuRun!
Juniper Park really focuses on strategy and then how design and advertising come together after that. They did not show us any of their work in their presentation but rather spoke about why they do what they do. The presentation was very quick and fast paced, but I did learn they are hiring digital designers and send your resumes and portfolios to: iwantajob@juniperpark.com
Click here for Juniper Park's Portfolio
HENDERSON BAS KOHN
Click here for HBK's Website
We were rushed out of Juniper Park and practically ran over to Henderson Bas Kohn. We were led through their beautiful rustic office, almost entirely constructed of hardwood. This place was a little different from all the rest of the studios, they almost had their own little culture. Friday's are drinking days, they have patio parties in the summer, they bring their dogs into work and they work really, really, really hard. They also gave us Halloween candy which really went a long way to keep our energy up.
They showed us a lot of their work which was really insightful. They spoke about the iCoke Site, the Tim Horton's Facebook page, which I didn't know is SUPER popular (number 1 in Canada)! I actually just "Liked" it so I can see what they are doing to make it so interesting. They actually commented that they hardly had to go out of their way and ask people for content, everyone was just so happy to share their Tim Horton's experiences. Obviously they are doing something right!
Follow HBK on Twitter
We toured their office which was very neat and then walked next door for our next tour.
TAXI
Click here for Taxi's Webpage
At Taxi we all gathered in their kitchen with their huge flat screen TV to watch a great presentation. We were shown a bunch of their work they had done for Mini, Viagra, Canadian Tire, Boston Pizza, and a video put together from their Amsterdam office.
I loved listening to their Viagra campaign, which is not shown on their site, I imagine because the broadcasting law's kept changing because of the nature of their ads. It was interesting to hear how they found many loopholes and stretched their limits on how to get around saying all the side effects Viagra might cause - a mandatory requirement when advertising prescription drugs on television. Their presentation was really entertaining and really displayed how they really do embody their motto to "Doubt the conventional".
Follow Taxi's blog
JUNIPER PARK
Click here for Juniper Park's Homepage
At this point our group was running late so we speed-walked over to the Juniper Park headquarters, who have moved into Organic's old office space. We did not get the tour of the office, but apparently it's massive. I did notice their front reception area has an entire chalkboard wall, illustrated with all sorts of great cartoony things, I'm assuming done by staff members. Very cool touch, definitely on par in the coolness factor with the space chairs at NuRun!
Juniper Park really focuses on strategy and then how design and advertising come together after that. They did not show us any of their work in their presentation but rather spoke about why they do what they do. The presentation was very quick and fast paced, but I did learn they are hiring digital designers and send your resumes and portfolios to: iwantajob@juniperpark.com
Click here for Juniper Park's Portfolio
HENDERSON BAS KOHN
Click here for HBK's Website
We were rushed out of Juniper Park and practically ran over to Henderson Bas Kohn. We were led through their beautiful rustic office, almost entirely constructed of hardwood. This place was a little different from all the rest of the studios, they almost had their own little culture. Friday's are drinking days, they have patio parties in the summer, they bring their dogs into work and they work really, really, really hard. They also gave us Halloween candy which really went a long way to keep our energy up.
They showed us a lot of their work which was really insightful. They spoke about the iCoke Site, the Tim Horton's Facebook page, which I didn't know is SUPER popular (number 1 in Canada)! I actually just "Liked" it so I can see what they are doing to make it so interesting. They actually commented that they hardly had to go out of their way and ask people for content, everyone was just so happy to share their Tim Horton's experiences. Obviously they are doing something right!
Follow HBK on Twitter
We toured their office which was very neat and then walked next door for our next tour.
TAXI
Click here for Taxi's Webpage
At Taxi we all gathered in their kitchen with their huge flat screen TV to watch a great presentation. We were shown a bunch of their work they had done for Mini, Viagra, Canadian Tire, Boston Pizza, and a video put together from their Amsterdam office.
I loved listening to their Viagra campaign, which is not shown on their site, I imagine because the broadcasting law's kept changing because of the nature of their ads. It was interesting to hear how they found many loopholes and stretched their limits on how to get around saying all the side effects Viagra might cause - a mandatory requirement when advertising prescription drugs on television. Their presentation was really entertaining and really displayed how they really do embody their motto to "Doubt the conventional".
Follow Taxi's blog
CLOSING PRESENTATION
After Taxi's presentation we headed back to the Underground Cinema for a closing speech from Tim. There was a re-iteration that when it all comes down to it, it's your personality, drive and passion that matters. Be real, don't be phoney and pushy, just do what you love and do it well.
At this point I was in love with the idea of food so a bunch of our Sheridan group went out for dinner up the street. We had a great time sharing all our different experiences, it was great to catch up with everybody when it was over. We've been so busy and seem to be split up for the majority of our classes it was nice to spend time outside of the classroom to get to know everyone a little better. Even though the day was long and tiring the tours and presentations were very valuable and incredibly interesting. It's always great to see companies and established professionals helping us newbies out! Cheers!
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