Programme Three
Our third programme ran from April to July 2017
Session Details
Each session comprised time for the mentor and mentee to spend together working on the mentee’s goals, a group task led by a creative professional — e.g. creative problem solving, pitching & presenting techniques, digital skills training that all take part in. The sessions end on a short ted-type talk from an inspirational speaker who has a tale to tell about their job and their journey to get there.
Session 1: Tuesday 25th April 2017
Session 2: Tuesday 16th May 2017
Session 3: Wednesday 14th June 2017
Session 4: Wednesday 12th July 2017
Mentor information session: Monday 27th March 2017, 6 - 7.30pm
Mentee recruitment session 1: Monday 3rd April 2017, 4 - 6pm
Mentee recruitment session 2: Wednesday 5th April 2017, 6 - 7.30pm
Our mentors came to us from:
Persuasion PR, Nicholas Kirkwood, Somethin' Else, Wall Street Journal, Serious, The Pool, Reading Room, Silverspace Pillows, Paul Smith, Puma Select, Selfridges, Wired.
Our third programme ran in collaboration with Create Jobs.
Tuesday 25th April 2017
'An Inadvertent Journey: From Office Temp to Red Carpet Regular'
In the first session of the third programme, mentees and mentors were welcomed to the programme and the venue space, A New Direction and Somethin' Else. The mentees and mentors were given the task of finding their mentee or mentor pair before settling down get to know each other and set goals. The session included a networking section, which encouraged the participants to get to know each other and hone their networking skills. The evening ended with a talk from Zoe Sands, Senior Publicist at Sony Pictures UK. The talk was titled, 'An Inadvertent Journey: From Office Temp to Red Carpet Regular.'
Tuesday 16th May 2017
Our second session at the Reading Room launched with one-to-ones between the mentees and mentors. This included updates and further goal setting. The pairings fed back to the group, sharing successes and pitfalls. This then fed into the 'Life's a Pitch' session, which was back by popular demand and led by Somethin' Else's Hannah Lury. The session included ten top tips for pitching and allowed the groups to add their own creative flair to a radio show pitch. The evening ended with a interview-style talk, 'Nikita Chauhan in conversation with her mentee, Antonia Odunlami'. The talk covered Antonia's career progression, passions and her role as the Music Editor and founding member of gal-dem.
Wednesday 14th June 2017
'Fly Your Own Flag'
The third session took place at Somerset House and began with one-to-one catch ups between the mentees and their mentors. The pairings shared their latest updates and what they had learnt from each other. This segued into the evening's workshop 'Capturing and sharing the world’s moments.... whilst adding value to your brand' led by Teneo Blue Rubicon's Managing Director, Kathryn Hull. Kathryn introduced key concepts when using Instagram to build brand presence. The evening ended with a lively talk by Visual Storyteller, Harris Elliott. Titling his talk 'Fly Your Own Flag' Harris reminisced about his exhibition - held at Somerset House - 'Return of the Rudeboy’, which launched 3 years to the week of his talk. Harris also offered advice about carving out a freelance career and going from "Rags to more rags to some change to more rags to paper and back to rags.”
Wednesday 12th July 2017
'And you may ask yourself, how did I get here?'
The fourth and final session of the programme was held at Made by Many and began with a one-to-one session between the mentees and mentors. This was a chance to reflect on the programme and the goals the mentees had set before the start of the programme. The skills session titled, ''Identifying brand values' was led by Made by Many's Charlotte Hillenbrand and Vivienne Berryman. The session used the Meet a Mentor programme as a case for brand analysis. The evening ended with a talk by Chris Pearce, CEO of TMW Unlimited. The talk, titled 'And you may ask yourself, how did I get here?' charted his career in advertising.
Charlie Duffield, mentee
"One of the best things about Meet a Mentor is the honesty with which people can talk about their career journeys and conundrums. Instead of high-gloss stories, we can talk about the realities of building a creative career, and some barriers to success."
Mentor, programme three
"I've enjoyed witnessing my mentee gain confidence and become a professional in a short amount of time."
Dan Gaba, Wall Street Journal
"Thank you for letting me be part of meet a mentor. I really enjoyed it and it was challenging in all the good ways. Kudos to you and yours for providing this service."
Caroline Taylor, The New Craftsmen
"I’m really enjoying helping my mentee shape her career plan, sell her story, rewrite her CV, giving her focus, giving her confidence and helping her make some industry connections.
If you want to be a mentor this is a well-structured programme, one where they match mentors and mentees thoughtfully. A programme that enables you to help a young person on their way and one where you can’t help but get inspired yourself. Just brilliant."