We had an absolute blast here at Ad Club this past semester, with having guest from all over the world join us and engage in a discussion about the industry. We all learned valuable advice, networked, and just had fun! This has been one of the most important times for advertising, so we were so glad we were able to spend it connecting you all with professionals around the world. Let’s take a look back at who we met and what we learned with our ADventure!
First Stop! – Kelly Butler
We started off the year with Kelly Butler, all the way in California! She has been a creative director, copywriter, freelancer, and more! She gave us a great look into the world of advertising and taught us a lot about how we can build our professional career, as well certain trends she has been seeing in the advertising world we should be aware of.
Our Flight Back – Rob Jackson!
We had Rob Jackson and Rick Issepi from right here in Grand Rapids join us next, and we learned all about billboard advertising. They had an incredibly cool array of billboards to show us and explained to us how different physical advertising is from the digital kind we are so used to. It was very insightful and was a great time looking at all the cool work they’ve done, you may have seen some yourself driving around! Kim Kardashian even reposted one of their works!
Next Stop, London! – Michael Moszynski
Our next meeting had us meet with Michael Moszynski, all the way from London! The CEO of London Advertising was a guest we would have never expected to join us, but our new online format allowed for these kinds of guest we would never have had before! Michael was extremely knowledgeable of the industry, and we have a fantastic time talking with him about every corner of the advertising world. He told us stories of work he had done with world famous celebrities, how he started up his business, what exactly makes a good advertisement, and shared with us how he sees the industry changing in the future. It was definitely an experience we won’t forget!
Flight Back – Randy Borns!
Our next meeting was with Randy Borns of Borns B2B, a business to business agency based here in Michigan. It was great to meet with him and learn all about the business to business industry, because we discovered just how different it was from typical consumer advertising. We don’t always see a lot about B2B or learn much about it, so hearing from someone who owned their own agency was a great opportunity! Randy told us all about what the differences are between the two types of advertising, and it really showed us that we have a lot of different career paths to chose from that we didn’t know about and it’s something we couldn’t appreciate more.
Next Up, South Carolina! – Derek Walker
Our next meeting brought us down south with none other than Derek Walker of Brown and Browner! Derek was a very entertaining and funny guest, but at the same time was extremely professional and talked to us about a lot of serious topics in the industry. He explained to us certain issues that remain in the advertising industry, and explained to us how we could overcome them and how to prepare ourselves for it. We don’t often hear of these kinds of issues such as lack of diversity, lack of creative freedom, being underpaid, and it was very inspiring to hear from someone so passionate about advertising tell us how to overcome obstacles and how we be the change change in the ad industry.
Last Stop! – Alumni Panel
We finished off the semester with an alumni panel, having former Ad Club board members who are now professionals in the industry join us. This was a great way for many of us who struggled finding internships, networking, or those of us who are generally nervous about stepping into the real world soon, to engage with people who were in our same exact shoes only a few years ago. So often we can become overwhelmed by school and work that we lose sight of ourselves, and become filled with unnecessary stress and fear when we shouldn’t. They reminded us that we can all be the successful professionals we desire to be if we put in the effort. We were able to talk about how exactly they got their first internships, job, promotion, and more and understand what we as students can do to ensure we find the same success they did. It was a fantastic meeting to finish off yet another great semester of Ad Club!
Because things get real, real fast 
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