Ad Club: Where Things Get Real, Real Fast

By Danielle Talbot

We kicked off last Tuesday night, Sept 12th, with our first meeting of the semester. We put out a call and encouraged all to attend who were passionate about:

• Advertising
• Public Relations
• Communications
• Business
• Marketing
• Digital
• Graphics
• Film & Video
• Photography

The response we got was absolutely incredible. No seat was left empty, but 6 pizza boxes soon were.

 

This first meeting had a lot of weight riding on it. While it was only our first meeting, it was also probably our last for the entire semester… Yes, you read that right.

Now, I know what you’re probably thinking. “No bi-weekly meetings? That’s absurd!” But you know what’s even more absurd? How ridiculously fast one’s time in college moves! Which leads me to explain why we nixed those bi-weekly meetings.

Because things get real, real fast.

The title says it all, folks. Life moves by at the speed of light, metaphorically speaking. College especially! One second you’re fresh out of high school, then, in the blink of an eye, you’re graduating college, being forced out into the real world, and searching for your first “big kid job.”

This process can be scary, and the time sneaks up quick. The best things you can do during your time in college, other than learning, are to make valuable connections and equip yourself with useful skills you can use outside of the classroom. Our new structure reflects this. We know students are busy balancing classes, jobs, and extracurriculars.

By not having our members attend an hour-long meeting every other Tuesday night, we feel that we are giving them more time to attend events that will inevitably give them an edge when they enter the “real world”

Agency tours, workshops, and professional speed mentoring

Why hear from just one professional in an hour, when you can spend that hour in a room full of professionals? Ad Club this year is becoming event based. We are giving students workshops to help expand their skill base, a plethora of local advertising agencies to tour, and more opportunities to network with the pros.

What you learn in the classroom can only get you so far. It’s important to note that students who get their name out there are more likely to have that name remembered later. The easiest way to help you land your dream job is by networking with professionals who can make it happen.

We have a full lineup of events planned for this semester and some are still in the works. So far our Calendar looks like this:

September 22nd: Agency tours with PRSSA in Holland, MI. We will be teaming up with PRSSA and touring Next Creative Co., Fairly Painless Advertising, & Haworth.

October 12th: Adobe workshop with a professional. Ray Cashbaugh will be taking a couple hours out of his busy schedule to teach students some adobe basics.

October 25th: Mentor Speed Dating. To make network connections, not romantic ones! This event gives students a chance to mass network with a room full of fun and brilliant professionals.

November 9th: Tour at DVS: Digital Marketing Agency

We are also busy finalizing one of our most anticipated events of the year: Creative Crawl. This event was such a big hit last year that we wanted to do it again! Grand Valley students will be hitting the streets of Grand Rapids and touring multiple agencies back to back. Think bar crawl, only sober and much better in the long run.

Stay in the know

We’re hitting the ground running this year and encourage you to join us. Ad Club is a great way to make lifelong connections with professionals and other students.

Membership is only $30 for the entire school year OR you can pay per event. Each event will be roughly $5 to attend if you are a non-member.

The best way to stay up to date on what we’re doing is to connect with us through email, Facebook, Twitter, and Orgsync.

You can also stay up to date on all things Ad Club related with our text reminder service! Simply text @gvsuad to 81010 for updates.

Ad Club is bringing the real world into the palm of your hands, so take advantage of it before it’s too late. You won’t be in college forever, so this is your time to prepare for the real world because things get real, real fast.