Last Fall on November 8 in New York City, Adrants and the Business Development Institute held its first Advertising Industry Diversity Job Fair and Leadership Conference. We had 500 job candidates show up to hear industry professionals talk about what life is like in advertising as a minority and how agencies are approaching the issue. The timing of the event was well planned as it closely followed hearings held by the New York Human Rights Commission at which New York City Councilman Larry Seabrook stated agencies “ran like chickens with their asses plucked clean” when asked to appear at the hearings during last Fall’s Advertising Week.
As with all things racial, things got heated surrounding the hearings and there was a lot of chest beating by politicians and agencies but that wasn’t the case at our event. There was insightful commentary and job candidates had access to industry professionals they (nor anyone) never would have had normally had they simply mailed in their resume. We aim to accomplish the same again, this time in San Francisco when we, along with the Bay Area Interactive Group, host the second Advertising & Marketing Industry Diversity Job Fair & Leadership Conference March 12-13 at San Francisco’s Academy of Arts University. You can check out all the details here.
This event’s sponsors and exhibitors include AAU, BIG, Carol H. Williams, Community Connect, DraftFCB, GMR Marketing, Modem Media, Ogilvy, Organic, Porter Novelli, T3, and Goodby, Silverstein & Partners.
Moving forward, we have an event planned in Boston as well at Boston University’s School on Management May 16 with Arnold Worldwide as the primary sponsor.
If you’re in San Francisco or Boston (or anywhere for that matter), we urge you to attend one of these events and pay more than just lip service to what is an issue that merits serious discussion and action.
