Roadshow opens doors to the digital world

24 March 2010

BU graduate Andy Oakes, publisher of New Media Age, at IAB Talent Roadshow

The first talent roadshow organised by the Internet Advertising Bureau’s (IAB) Talent Taskforce drew a capacity audience at BU.

The IAB Digital Talent Roadshow welcomed Media School students from courses related to advertising, marketing and public relations who enjoyed a succession of presentations and breakout sessions by creatives from the UK’s leading digital agencies and organisations. Speakers included Natasha Spencer Warren, Digital Account Director for Mindshare; Nick Turner, Group Creative Director of AKQA; Sam Michel, CEO of Chinwag and May Race from the Central Office of Information’s (COI) interactive service.

Kieron Matthews, the IAB’s Marketing Director kicked off the roadshow with an overview of today’s digital marketing industry and encouraged students, through a series of professional career tips, to get under the skin of what is going on right now in the digital world.

“The communication landscape is fundamentally changing and it’s important that you recognise that everything is becoming more digital,” Matthews said. “Most of you are of an age that you’ve grown up in a digital environment but in terms of your careers, you need to start the ball rolling now, especially if you want to be seen as being digital by people in the industry.”

BU Communications graduate Andy Oakes, now the publisher of ‘New Media Age’ magazine, told the group that he was excited to be back at the University.

“One of the reasons I wanted to be here today is because the people in this room are the people whose visions we hope will prevail,” Oakes enthused. “We hope that we will be reporting on what you guys are doing in the future – exciting, innovative work – and in five years time you’ll be winning awards and earning far more than me, as a publisher, and you will say thank you for that, you made us think about doing some innovative work.”

Amber Burton, Lecturer in Digital Media and Advertising, praised the success of the inaugural IAB Talent Roadshow as an ideal opportunity for BU students to gain such invaluable insight into the expectations and future prospects within the interactive world.

“We’re delighted that BU was chosen to host the first roadshow of this kind,” said Burton. “The fact that so many leading creative talents from the industry took the time to come and share their experiences with our students is a tribute to the University’s reputation and the talents of our staff and students which I don’t think we should ever underestimate.”