How to make CreateAthon better
Off the top of my head, CreateAthon could probably had e a bigger impact if everyone stayed up for TWO days instead of just ONE. Think about it, if in one night we can make a ton of awesome stuff, in two days we could have TWO tons of awesome stuff. Basically, the good we do for the non-profits would be doubled!
Ha. Ha.
Honestly, the CreateAthon process seems pretty solid. The only things that need to change are general awareness and reach. The awareness is mainly to get more companies on board to help with donations and sponsoring deliverables and such. As far as reach goes, CreateAthon helps 12 non-profits in profound ways in one year. If there were CreateAthons held everywhere in the US, the number of non-profits heaped in one year would be huge. In turn, the amount of good done by all of them grows.
More easily said than done I suppose, but we can wish. The more good the better.
Carrying the Torch
CreateAthon is a part of my blood now, so I plan on carrying the torch in two ways, first:
TALK ABOUT IT
For me, that means social media. I follow the blogs and and tweets and all that stuff. I love the tips and news they share, and pass along certain pieces. I can’t wait to hear what happens at other CreateAthon/onCampus events, and share the proceedings with my friends.
To further carry the torch, I also plan/hope to
BE ABOUT IT
If I’m still in Richmond come next year’s CreateAthon at VCU I would love to be a mentor (if I’m even allowed?) It would be really interesting to experience the event from three different perspectives over the course of three years, from team member to team leader to mentor.
Either way, just because my experience at VCU is coming to an end, I hope my experience with CreateAthon continues for a while.
Carter Printing & Little Dots
Carter Printer is not only providing the printed deliverables that were made during the CreateAthon onCampus event, but they also invited the CreateAthon@VCU crew behind the scenes to check out the printing process. It was a blast! Not only is everyone down at Carter unbelievably awesome, they REALLY know what they’re doing. For a place that handles MILLIONS of sheets a paper to transform them into posters, books, or pocket folders all on a time crunch, and despite the constantly booming sound of the massive printing machines, the place had a sense of calm and order.
Here I am with Chad, Summer, Alana, and Matt while Mike from Carter Printing explains how this printer works. If I’m not mistaken, this is the printer that Carter owns and just so happens to be the largest sheet-fed press in the state of VA. Imagine the printer you have at home. Now imagine it was the size of a dump truck. Now double that. That’s almost how big this thing is.
Here I am again with Alana and Matt looking at the magenta roller mechanism. This thing was pretty mesmerizing. Since so much paper runs through the printer in a short amount of time, ink has to be in steady flow. The curly Q pattern on the top of the roller appears as the machine on top dollops down ink in a very particular way to ensure everything is printed evenly.
And here I am again, geeking out as I look at a test print of my letterhead! You can’t really tell, but I’m looking through this little super microscope eyepiece (loop) thing over the new CAT Theatre logo, and I can see the pixels, the ittttty bitty teeny weeny dots that make up the new identity me and the five ladies on my team created.
Little dots. That’s what I took away from this experience. You can hold the letterhead as close to your eye as you want and you still won’t know they’re there. It’s pretty cosmic, dude.
(P.S. All of these photos were stolen from CreateAthon@VCU social media maven Kristen Ablamsky!)
My First CreateAthon
A little over a year ago I left my first CreateAthon and started walking home. I had not slept for well over 24 hours, I looked haggard and probably smelled a bit off, but I remember having this little extra pep in my step. Though I should have been dragging myself to bed, I felt this wave of energy wash over me from the excitement of what I had just done. I didn’t have time to stop and just take in the proceedings of the previous 24 hours until just then, and the weight of it hit me.
I just did something, something big and awesome, and I could do it again. Maybe not right that moment, because I ended up sleeping about ten hours straight, but I could do stuff. Real stuff, stuff that matters. In school we learn by cramming facts and taking tests. In our advertising classes we make mock ups and plan proposals for fake campaigns. But this was something real, and I had a real part in it.
The CreateAthon experience is one that everyone should have the opportunity to be a part of. By participating, you’re helping non-profits (which is awesome), you’re helping your community (which is awesome), and more importantly you’re helping yourself by helping these others. I walked away with confidence from CreateAthon, and that’s important in this creative environment we students are hoping to throw ourselves into. If you don’t trust yourself and your ideas, you won’t be able to notice when one of those ideas is killer. You have to trust your gut, to make snap decisions, and that’s not something you can learn by taking a test.
I think everyone deserves to feel as impressed with themselves as I did walking home after my first CreateAthon.
Team Time
Any great effort requires collaboration, whether the arena is business, activism, or something more personal. Collaboration is necessary, but anyone who has been involved in such “coming of the minds” to reach a common goal can attest to how stressful it can be, especially when starting a project from scratch. First you have to study up on the nature of the work, hoping to quickly become an expert in your group’s field of focus. Then, you have to learn the dynamic of the groups’ members, determining their strengths, and hoping you or someone else in the group can cover for their weaknesses.
It’s stressful stuff. Recently I’ve been in a bunch of these situations, with CreateAthon, school, and the community, so I’m going to share some stories on collaboration: the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.
GOOD: CREATEATHON! It would be a blessing to have every group project run as well smoothly as CreateAthon. I have to give myself some kudos for the dossier I provided to the five ladies who made up my team. It gave a thorough analysis of everything I had learned about my non-profit leading up to the event. After some introductions we went around and read through the dossier and then the brief, I answered their questions and we started discussing strategy. Knowledge is power, and being on the same page helped the brainstorming process.
The rest of the good I attribute to our group dynamic. We had a medley of strengths, from copywriting to graphic design to web design to brainstorming to art direction, but everyone provided ideas to every to piece of our puzzle. More importantly, the spirit of CreateAthon was in the air. Everyone was excited and driven and focused, otherwise they would not have signed 24 entire hours of their life away. A group of such dedicated individuals working together towards a common goal can rarely go wrong.
BAD: I was recently selected to join GOOD Ideas for Cities in Richmond. In fact, I was selected to the same team as CreateAthon goddess Peyton Rowe, so that should give you some indication of how awesome the rest of my team is, and what an honor I feel being selected as student. Our project involves proposing ideas which could help the public middle schools in Richmond.
In this case, I am the BAD. We recently had our first meeting, and I ended up pulling an all-nighter the previous night, so I wasn’t at my sharpest. Unfortunately, I hadn’t really thought of middle schools since my time in middle school, so the subject was a bit over my head. The worst in my badness is how nervous I allowed myself to get before meeting the members of my group. I try to evoke confidence when I’m working with others, even if I’m not that sure of myself. In this case, I allowed myself to become intimidated before even starting, so I sat through our first meeting jotting notes, not saying a word despite having plenty to say. In reality, everyone in the group was super nice and not as scary as I worked myself into thinking. I plan to speak up in our next meeting.
UGLY: Everyone taking Portfolio classes during Spring semester is required to submit work to the One Show. My group happened to include a fellow CreateAthon team leader, and our team settled on working on PETA’s anti-fishing campaign. After a short time, we realized that though we weren’t apathetic to the cause or the brand, we didn’t have strong feelings either way. We still produced a ton of concepts. Flaws were found in what we initially thought were awesome ideas.
We eventually get started on a campaign based on popular movies involving fish or the ocean. We take every film imaginable and manipulate the posters or popular scenes to illustrate the perils of over-fishing. We start losing interest. We realize we’re not at all passionate about this idea. Far too late. With about a week to go we scrap the idea and start from scratch. We brainstormed one last time until an idea with a shimmer of hope starts to materialize, and we work to the very last second to produce it and ship it off.
The process sucked, but the work turned out great in the end. You never would have guessed the last minute hustle, but it was still stressful. In the end, I learned a lot from this project: 1) Everyone should immediately stop creating campaigns using popular movies or movie posters. It’s overdone. It’s lazy. 2) Create a schedule for yourself and your team during every project. Stick to it. I pulled an all-nighter finishing our campaign before the deadline for submitting the project to the One Show - the same all-nighter that set me up for destruction before my first GOOD meeting. 3) Find the passion. We floundered (ha. ha.) because we didn’t connect with the brand and we weren’t having fun producing the campaign. If it’s becoming hard to find anything positive in the experience, perhaps it’s time to start from scratch.
The Day After
Yesterday was the day. I was awake for over 30 hours at the end, and after three naps I feel human again.
I am so proud and grateful of my team for their hard work. All plans I had changed (for the better) when we got together and discussed the CAT Theatre. The mentors and members of other groups were impressed with the volume of things we were able to present, and even more exciting was the client’s reception of our presentation. We put words and visuals to a vibe they have been trying to grasp. The new logo and identity still has to be approved by the board, but I’m confident that won’t be a problem.
And did I mention that I got to drop a TV from a second story fire escape? Yup, that happened. But, more on that and the rest of the 24 hours later. For now, I leave you with a picture of everyone involved in making the magic happen. See if you can spot me! (hint: look for a pop of flannel in the sea of blue)
T-minus OMG
I’ve been a bad, bad blogger. Life has been hectic, and it has come in the way of me staying up to date here, and I apologize. But today I plan to catch you up to speed, because tomorrow would just be too late.
Because TOMORROW is CREATEATHON.
That’s right, the main event is upon us! We’ve had client meetings, site visits, and many, many rewrites of creative briefs, and all for this. Tomorrow I will be spending 24 consecutive hours cranking out work for the CAT Theatre, and not just with the five incredibly talented members of my team. When we converge on the T. Edward Temple building tomorrow at 8:30 AM, there will be well over 50 students and dozens of teachers and professionals from the area, marketing/advertising/PR gurus, writers, photographers, videographers, designers, web designers - we’re even going to have a yoga instructor!
It’s about to be RAINING CREATIVES in your FACE.
Naturally, I’m in panic mode, but I’ve made myself a to-do list of preparations, and to keep me sane. In just a few minutes I can cross out “Post to Tumblr” and the list will be just a little bit shorter. I want to be well rested tomorrow, so I’m planning to be in bed by around 10:00 tonight, something that hasn’t happened since junior high. I think I’ll be able to manage since I woke up at 5am this morning for work. I just need to keep going-and-going-and-going for the rest of the day to wear myself out. That includes meeting with Peyton and the gang a little later to help set up for the big day.
For now, I am away to scratch a few more things off that list. Stay tuned tomorrow for updates and pictures (maybe some videos if I don’t get too shy) from behind the scenes of the event.
Better yet, follow me on Twitter @Curtlepower for updates as they happen. Any encouraging words you have to offer would be fine by me too!
-C
All The Worlds a Stage, including RVA
Some interesting things are happening in the world of theatre at the moment, nationally and locally.
Let’s start big, with the new NBC show “Smash.” (If you haven’t heard, Smash is a television show following the production of a stage adaptation of Marilyn Monroe’s life, starring Debra Messing, Anjelica Houston, and Katherine McPhee.) Though ratings have dropped slightly over the past three weeks, the show premiered to over 11 million viewers. The buzz has been huge, and the show already has a loyal following after only a few weeks on air. This buzz is similar to the buzz around the release of the film Chicago. The two mix theatre and normal television/film storytelling the same way. Some people love it, other’s hate it, but either way people are talking about it, and more importantly, people are talking about theatre again.
More close to home, the Landmark Theatre has welcomed Broadway’s Lion King to to town in it’s Richmond premiere. Tickets started selling out quickly before the production even made it to Richmond. The enormous sign which hung over a huge swath of the Landmark was Instagrammed and Twittered and Tumblrd across RVA’s social networks, and the stars of the show, young Simba and Nala, appeared on CBS 6:
So we should totally be trying to ride the coattails of the situation. Since there is some buzz happening on the national level and some on the local, now is the most opportune time to convince people to try Richmond theater for the first time.
Local professional theatre seems to be a niche entertainment source, though it shouldn’t be. Why do people not patronize local theatre? What stops them from making the first move towards seeing their first show? Maybe they thought about going for the first time, but felt weird asking a friend to go see a play with them. Maybe the whole idea just seems daunting. And maybe it isn’t the first time. Maybe (like me) they used to go watch live theatre often, but just stopped.
Who knows the reason. But now would be a perfect time to reacquaint RVA with the idea of going to the theatre.
Sign up for CreateAthon
Are you a student that has been looking for the perfect opportunity to do some good in the Greater Richmond community??
Now is your chance.
Today is the last day to sign up for CreateAthon onCampus, and WE WANT YOU! Writers, artists, graphic designers, PR/advertising folks, thinkers, strategists, web designers, creatives, social media gurus, boys, girls, gophers - if you think your skill set can be utilized to help our non-profits, then CreateAthon is right for you!
Click here, scroll down, and fill out the form if you can lend a hand with some deserving non-profits.
DO GOOD!
