Programme Six - Meet a Mentor

Programme Six

Our sixth programme ran from September to December 2019

Meet a Mentor is delivered in partnership and with the support of Create Jobs.
 
We forge mentor and mentee partnerships by introducing talented young creatives to established creative industry professionals so that they can develop a mutually beneficial working relationship.

The Meet a Mentor format

Session 1 - Wednesday 11th September 2019
Session 2 - Wednesday 9th October 2019
Session 3 - Wednesday 13th November 2019
Session 4 - Wednesday 4th December 2019
 
The Meet a Mentor programme takes place over four months. Through a structured series of workshops, sessions and meetings, mentors offer mentees support, encouragement and advice on how to get that bit closer to their chosen career path in the creative and digital industries. Mentees offer mentors a chance to work with a younger generation of creatives, impart valuable wisdom and learnings and holistically understand what the new generations bring and the challenges they face when entering the creative industries in this day and age.
 
Each evening’s structured sessions comprise time for the mentor and mentee to spend together working on the mentee’s goals, a group task led by a creative professional that all take part in, and end with a short TED-type talk from an inspirational speaker.

Cohort

Mentors Shenagh Cameron - WriterClaire Campion - Senior Creative, Anyways CreativeSteve Carrigan - Managing Director, Working EyeMarina Garvey Birch - Freelance Producer and Project ManagerKiran Gill - PR/Cultural Communications consultantMercedes Graves Johnston - Senior Project Manager, Anyways CreativeJessica Ings - Marketing and Partnerships Manager, It's Nice ThatRazia Jordan - Producer, Barbican CentreYung Kha - Head of Press, DogwoofNaz Lewis-Humphrey - Workplace Coordinator, Berkeley GroupFrancis Lisk - Business Developer, The EconomistNaana Orleans-Amissah - Global Strategist, Crabtree and EvelynDarrell Vydelingum - Creative Director

Session Details

Wednesday 11th September 2019

The first session of the sixth programme of Meet a Mentor was launched in style at Airbnb's London offices. The new cohort of mentors and mentees were paired and spent the first hour of the session getting to know each other, set goals and intentions for the next four months and beyond. The session then fed into networking as a cohort and ended with an inspirational talk from DJ PAULETTE on the glossy highs, gritty lows and everything in between of a career spanning over two decades.

Wednesday 9th October 2019

For the second session of the sixth programme of Meet a Mentor, we were hosted by Cheil UK. We dove straight into mentor/mentee catchups, soon followed by a fun and engaging session hosted by The HudsonBec Group. This skills session the group into creative directors, photographers, set designers and more to recreate famous film posters. The session ended with a brilliant, witty and poignant talk by Nate Agbetu on what it means to be creative.

Wednesday 13th November 2019

The third session of this Meet a Mentor programme took place at the media group Omnicom. The session started with a tour of their incredible and aspirational offices and a short introduction to the space before mentors and mentees broke out into their pairings to catch up. For the skills portion, Create Jobs ran a fast-paced, high intensity session called 'My Special Fruit' on agile working, collaboration and out-of-the-box thinking before the group heard from Jennifer Byrne of The Face.

Wednesday 5th December 2019

The fourth and final session, Studio Wayne McGregor in Here East, Stratford, was about celebrating the mentoring pairings and reflecting on goals set in the first session. The group wrote pledges to their future selves, setting intentions for 2020 and acknowledging the wins of 2019. The session then opened up to a wider group with people on Create Jobs' courses and training programmes joining the group to hear about working in content production roles at Studio Wayne McGregor and the V&A. The evening ended with an in conversation with David Knight, editorial director of the UK Music Video Awards and Meji Alabi, music video director and photographer.

TalksIf you're interested in mentoring or being mentored, need a career-related motivational pep talk, thinking about taking part in the next programme and are curious about what we get up to, check out the below: