Presentation with Simon Wood 11/25/2015

Managing your online presence

What is an online presence?

An online presence is having a voice on the internet that shares your ideas with anybody who is interested.  It is also a way to get in touch with your community and industry. Keeping up to date with important information and hearing other ideas from people with similar situations to your own. You will be able to find out about your specialist field and see what you can do to stay relevant. 

Why does having an online presence matter?

 Simon talked about employers googling the applicant before interview and even admitted to doing it himself. I was under the assumption that this was not allowed but apparently it is rather common.  

Managing your profile is just as important as keeping your CV up to date. Simon even went on to say CVs are becoming less and less relevant which sort of contradicts what our career adviser tells us. This is interesting and something I think you have to work out with personal experiences. 

Offline presence?

At first I had no idea what this meant or imagined it would be helpful. Simon himself admitted to never thinking much of an offline presence until the last 5 years. What he means by this term is going to exhibitions, meetings, socials with people in your industry. Get your name out there and gain contacts by meeting people in person. It is a lot easier give off a stronger more accurate impression in person.  This leads on to another point he made with how important profile pictures are. This allows you to present yourself online and then be recognized offline. Having a simple picture of yourself rather than a graphic or art allows you to become recognizable at events of which people may be looking out for you.

Conclusion

Simon Wood was a good talker and really sold me on what he was talking about. He also spoke about a job offer that seemed rather interesting. I have become more aware of online presence and have already made changes and tried new things as a result of this presentation.

Pitch 3 11/18/2015

Pitch 3

The 3rd pitch was about making an application for the Gulbenkian. I didn't actually know much about the Gulbenkian or there Christmas show the Snow Child and therefore didn't have much of a creative spark with brainstorming. After a bit of researching we agreed to make an application for children to create a pre and post theater experience.

I was in charge of branding the company and application. I created Logos for each using Photoshop and Illustrator. My company logo was smart and very readable as are many of the business logos I researched. With the application logo I looked up big apps on the app store and all of them were very simplistic for example Whatsapp, Messenger, QuizUp etc. For this reason I created a snow globe and inside a silhouette. This was to represent one of the features in the app which a team mate when on to explain. I also didn't tailor the logo to the Snow Child so I could talk about working with the Gulbenkian in the future.

On an individual note I was very happy with how my part went. I introduced the presentation confidently and talked about the company and the overview of the application.

What these group pitches have taught me 11/18/2015

What these group pitches have taught me

At the start of this module I was very nervous about being graded primarily on our confidence to speak in front of people. Talking to people is no problem for me but being told to talk in front of people stressed me out.

Struggles I have faced including arranging meetings with a team of people. Often people had other things arranged outside of University and therefore couldn't be present. This was frustrating and made things increasingly stressful but something you have to overcome in the real world. Another issue was the level of input each member had on the project. For example if people don't pull there weight this can be a real pain for the rest of the team but again something the rest of the team need to get past and meet deadlines.

When I did my first pitch I needed to read my notes a fair bit despite rehearsing an awful lot. I would be rehearsing whenever I had a spare moment whether I am in the gym or walking to town. I learnt for the second pitch it was a bit easier as I could have a slide to put notes on which would remind me of the topics I was talking about. For the third pitch we were not aloud notes which initially panicked me. Though I found the subject of the pitch a lot more interested which made me more invested in the pitch. I found I had a lot more to say when I was passionate about the work. This has put my mind at ease with the final pitch as the brief is far more broad and therefore can be something I care very much about.

Overall I think the progression of the pitches have been really good. It was a really steady process which allowed me to ease into being able to present without notes. I also found myself a lot more relaxed when I was standing in front of the class.

Pitch 2 Feedback 11/6/2015

Feedback

My group and I received our pitch 2 feedback nearly a week ago and overall was quite positive. As a team we had clear evidence of good research and had made a real effort with chasing information. Though we were often unsuccessful with getting what we needed, it was just as important that we had tried. Individually we are quite confident in our verbal ability and speaking to an audience. Our presentation had good structure showing pre and post war fashion trends. Next time we should try to present our pitch without notes or cue cards and our presentation should have more of an overall design as last time it was clear we had individually created our slides. For our next pitch we will be joined by a new member which we agreed to bring in as he does not currently have one.

Pitch 2 preparation 24/10/2015

Pitch 2
Pitch 2 is about copyright and how to access and use archives. I have learnt about the restrictions involved with using copyrighted work. I phoned up Marks & Spencers to inquire about some archives but was unsuccessful as there was a fee involved. As a team we went to the library to look at books but had no luck there either. I then found Corbis images which were very helpful and supplied all the information I needed.

The team agreed on the fashion industry for our topic and all chose different time periods to research. I have chosen the 80s and have chosen two images to talk about. The group have all done one slide each and then sent to me to put together. Millie and I worked on the first and final slide talking about copyright as a whole and how much our exhibition will cost.

Copy write is incredibly confusing and difficult to find any clear information on. This brief was difficult and had to really venture out on our own to find answers. It was completely about knowing where to look. Once you had found a site like Corbis it became really easy.

Pitch One 18/10/2015

Pitch 1
Our group had a meeting on three occasions to discuss the idea for the pitch and distributing the jobs. I was the producer and had to talk about:

Why is it a winning idea?

Why is it suitable for the BBC?

Who is our market audience?

How will we market our idea?

I have never pitched something before so I was very nervous and constantly rehearsed my pitch everyday. I am happy with my performance in the pitch despite having to look at my notes. Overall I felt I was confident in my speaking and stuck to my time slot.

LinkedIn Profile 18/10/2015

LinkedIn Profile

In the past week I have put together a LinkedIn profile to connect with people in my preferred industry and to get myself out there. I have included work experience, qualifications, skills, personal information and followed various interests of mine.  This is a part of my Professional Practice module. This module has shown me how important it is to get your name out there and LinkedIn is a good place to noticed.

I have been communicating with my classmates and connecting with one another. It is important to make as many connections now as it is likely the majority of us will be in similar industries. I have also found the guest speakers from previously lectures and connected with them. This is important as they are employers and use sites like LinkedIn to find potential workers.

Soapbox Guest Speakers 06/10/2015

Soapbox Guest Speaker

Today two guest speakers came in and gave a presentation about there job and a possible placement. They spoke a bit about what areas they specialize at including Publication design, branding and website design.
 They talked about past projects they have been involved with for example a 1 page website for IRC. They used SGB animations to make the site more engaging and that it needed to be very interesting as scrolling websites tend to drag on.

What they want from us

• Passion
• Good with time management
• Priorities work
• Communicate clearly

Though I was not interested in the position they were promoting I still enjoyed watching how members of the industry presented a pitch and was a good experience to learn from. It is important to observe these presentations as you don't get these opportunities thrown at you and you can learn a lot from there body language, confidence and ability to engage the audience. 

Introduction 06/10/2015

Introduction

I am a Student at the University of Kent studying Professional Practice which is where we will be learning how to present ourselves in our industry of choice. We will be learning how to pitch our ideas,  become more confident and making ourselves more employable.

We will have to pitch 3 pitches in a team in front of our seminar group and a final one by myself to a client. We must also have an online presence using LinkedIn which will benefit us outside of this module as it is a good way of making connections. Finally we will be assessed on my reflective blogs which carry's the most marks joint with the final pitch.

I am looking forward to this module as unlike some modules where I find it hard to be invested in the subject as I don't enjoy it, this is relevant to the real world and can be associated with more than just Digital Arts.