Cohort
Session Details
During each session, there is time for the mentee/mentor pair to catch up, general employability skills, a task relevant to creative and digital industries skills, such as coding, pitching, presenting and a Ted type inspirational talk about someone’s journey into their job.
Session 1: Wednesday 13th April 2016 – 6 - 8.30pm
Session 2: Wednesday 11th May 2016 – 6 - 8.30pm
Session 3: Wednesday 15th June 2016 – 6 - 8.30pm
Session 4: Wednesday 13th July 2016 – 6 - 9.00pm
Mentor Induction session: Thursday 7th April 2016. Induction - 6.30 - 8.30pm
Mentee Information and Recruitment session: Wednesday 30th March 2016 – 6 - 8pm
Our mentors came to us from:
Supa Academy, VCCP, Somethin’ Else, Wearedotdotdot, Decoded, Century Films.
Our first programme was funded by the RSA Catalyst Fund.
Wednesday 13th April 2016
The first session included a workshop led by Somethin’ Else, advising the mentees on how to hone their CV writing and job application skills. The mentors had an introduction to the programme and to the mentoring role. The mentors and mentees were then introduced and paired together. The evening also featured a talk by Nihal Arthanyake - DJ, Broadcaster, Journalist, on his 20 year journey from young music plugger to now. The talk discussed topics such as mentors along the way, obstacles, top tips, the importance of diversity in the creative industries and changing cultures.
Wednesday 11th May 2016
'Curriculum Vitae'
The second session featured a talk from Centre for London's Jess Tyrrell about the link between the creative and the digital industries. The mentees were then set a digital brief, encouraging them to develop skills as digital innovators. The mentees and mentors were given an opportunity to catch up and discuss their progress. The evening also included a poem, talk and a Q&A with the Young Poet Laureate for London, Selina Nwulu.
Wednesday 15th June 2016
'Creating Something From Nothing'
Our third session took place at advertising agency Karmarama and began with an introduction to their company and the work they do. This segued into a talk from one of our mentors and VCCP Business Partner Louisa Tapper, who in keeping with our theme, set an advertising and marketing task for the group encouraging them to work in teams and think about how they might work to a client brief. The mentors and mentees had the opportunity to catch up before an inspirational guest talk by Cathy Runciman, acting CEO at Open Democracy and Co-Founder of Atlas of the Future. The title of her talk was 'Creating Something From Nothing' and documented Cathy's unconventional and exciting route into working in media and publishing. Cathy's advice was to 'say yes', seize opportunities and definitely not be scared to take risks.
Wednesday 13th July 2016
'How making mistakes can turn out to be great'
The final session was hosted at Made by Many and the evening began with a presentation about Made by Many's unique approach to the work they do. This fed into a workshop on a step by step approach to creative problem solving. The workshop focused on understanding and identifying real life problems and collaborating to find innovative solutions. This task encouraged the group to work together, think big and not be wedded to finding one solution when solving problems. The guest speaker for the evening, Phil Kemish CEO of Disrupt Media, titled his talk 'How making mistakes can turn out to be great’. Phil's honest and interactive talk charted his career from Southampton school days to becoming co-owner of GRM Daily and co-founding Disrupt. He talked about the things that didn’t go so well, which then propelled him to try again and turn things around. Phil ended on how important it is for him and Disrupt to make something that is 'culturally relevant’.
