Portfolio Night 10 returning to Austin

I wrote about Portfolio Night before and I even asked Ignacio if he could expand to Austin. Well, it's back.

More info and $30 tickets are on sale now!

Recap of Portfolio Night 8 - Austin

Note about the illustration:
Austin is famous for having N. America's largest colony of Mexican free-tailed bats underneath the S. Congress Bridge(750,000).

Portfolio Night is a thirty-five city event where aspiring junior creatives and advertising students show their portfolios to seasoned and highly regarded art directors (such as Ignacio the founder of Portfolio Night), copywriters and creative directors. This year on May 20, Austin was included in the creative host cities for the first time.

READ MORE...

Austin ADDYs Show at Seaholm - February 12th

View it online.

AIGA Austin Annual Membership Party

AIGA Austin will host its annual membership party on December 17th from 7 to 10 p.m. at the Mohawk Greenroom and Deck on 912 Red River in Austin. AIGA Austin will celebrate the chapter’s accomplishments in 2009 and recognize all members for their contributions throughout the year. Featured speakers will be AIGA’s National President Debbie Millman on what national is providing for members and AIGA Austin’s President Jennifer Idol will introduce the new board and local initiatives.

Advertising and PR Speed Networking Event This Thursday

Advertising and PR Speed Networking Event, Nov. 12

Event: Advertising and public relations students and alumni are encouraged to bring their business cards and elevator speeches to a Speed Networking event hosted by the Department of Advertising.

When: 6 to 8 p.m., Nov. 12, 2009

Where: The West Atrium of the University of Texas West Pickle Research building (formerly the MCC building) at the corner of Mopac (Loop 1) and Braker Lane. A map is available online.

Background: This networking event is intended to foster quick introductions among students, alumni, faculty and friends of the Department of Advertising.

Attendees bring business cards and their "elevator speech." In a timed, organized rotation we'll introduce pairs of people. Each pair has three minutes to "elevator speech" each other. Where mutually appropriate, they exchange business cards. A timer sounds and the cycle repeats itself.

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Contact:
Gene Kincaid
Department of Advertising Lecturer
AdGrad Founder

Video from Rebecca.

Making Shiner an icon

When the beer is synonymous with the town, the branding has to speak for both. By using Shiner’s own voice, McGarrah Jessee has taken a quaint Texas town’s charm and spun it into a national brand. Don’t miss out on the Shiner brand story, the discussion afterward, and the beer throughout.

Austin AdFed Presents:

Turning an Assignment into a Legacy:
Shiner Brand Case Study by McGarrah Jessee.

Nov 3, 2009 • 6-8p

Scholz’s Biergarten

Click here to buy tickets.

Big Wig Voting for Ausin Ad Fed

It's that time of year again for the Austin Advertising Federation's Big Wig Horror Show (Awards Show). The Ranch bloggers Matt Crump and Jocelyn Lai are nominated in the "Best Up-and-Comer" and "Ad Person of the Year" categories, respectively. In the "Educator of the Year" categories are also several worthy and deserving UT professors.

Go. Make your voice heard. Vote.

Be the change

The Austin Ad Fed has helped start a website connecting creative professionals and non-profits in the name of public service.

The future of democracy is here

Piryx is a website designed to help the democratic process through new technologies. Check out their blog. The following is from Naveed

Our company, Piryx Inc., has recently been backed by angel investors – providing us with the focus to achieve our vision. We are passionate about empowering people, and through our endeavors we aim to enhance the democratic process. Our vision site will be launching very soon, so stayed tuned for more information!

Most importantly, we want to extend a huge appreciation and thanks to those who have supported our vision along the way. There are many of you out there, and without your help we wouldn’t be here today. This is just Chapter 1, and we look forward to showing you more.

Lastly, we ask for your support again in helping this Austin Startup get into the 2009 SXSW Interactive Festival. Vote for our panel discussion “Politics, Technology, and Pop Culture – Bridging the Gap" and feel free to comment. Visit our preview page for more information on how to help, and get a sneak peak of our upcoming launch.

Thank you again,

Tom Serres
Chief Executive Officer
LinkedIn

Naveed Lalani
Chief Interaction Officer
LinkedIn

The future of coworking is here

Conjuncted is a coworking concept that recently launched in Austin where freelancers or others can pay a small fee to share a professional work environment with others. The following is from one of the founders and Texas Creative alumni Cesar.

Coworking is quickly gaining popularity in our backyard. Just this Sunday, Conjunctured was featured with our friends at LaunchPad Coworking and Caroline Collective (Houston) on the front page of the Statesman's Life & Arts section. Our pal Omar did a great job capturing the developments with the story, video and pictures—view the extensive coverage here:


Since July 1, we've had time to repair the A/C (whoo Texas!), stock the place with snacks and drinks and get some superfast wi-fi installed. We even acquired a few temporary pieces of furniture (folding/rolly chairs, plastic tables) so we could fire up our laptops. Check conjunctured.com/rates for a list of current features and amenities and a wish list we need help with. Our goal is to furnish this place well-enough by the end of the month then throw a shindig to celebrate, which you're totally invited to—more details as they develop.

We're working with a local interior designer, Adrienne Breaux, to help sketch out a dream plan for the interior that will encourage work + play + community. Moving forward, we don't expect to have this plan fulfilled right off the bat, but we're fine with that. Just as several of you helped us lease the space by paying months in advance (you are rock stars!), we're bootstrapping this all the way.

When the plan is complete, it will serve as our vision—something to work towards. In the moment, however, let's get coworking in the space, and in Austin, ASAP! The free coffee's a-flowin' and we're paying rent regardless of ugly paint or a lack of furniture. :) Come see the space—help us imagine the layout, share your thoughts. Or, if you're like us and excited about the opening of Austin's first coworking space, come work with the five paying coworkers who are willing to work on the temporary furniture we've got!


As always, thanks SO much for helping us bring Conjunctured Coworking to Austin.


Lots of love,
Cesar, David, Dusty + John
Conjunctured


PS: As always, we're looking for desk or conference room sponsors (we want to keep costs as low as possible for everyone) and new great people like you to be a part of the community. Contact us if you have questions/leads!

The importance of college brand perception

disclaimer: For obvious reasons, the opinions expressed may, actually they probably will, contain a pro-longhorn bias.

A while back, I read an ESPN article about Todd Reesing and Chase Daniel. These two college quarterbacks are very talented and desperately wanted to attend UT-Austin on a football scholarship. UT didn't want them.

Like thousands of Texas high school quarterbacks before him, Daniel had wanted to be a Longhorn. But the Horns, who were in the midst of the Vince Young revival at that time, did not reciprocate.

When I read that, I realized what a true statement that is. In Texas, UT-Austin is the name brand school. Sports teams help define a university's "prestige" and brand image. Certain sports are always associated with specific colleges. Univ of N. Carolina, Duke, Univ. of Connecticut = basketball. University of Oklahoma, The Ohio State University, Univ. of S. California, Univ. of Michigan = football. Those sports also have a historical association with the schools. Commentators always say that school has a "winning tradition."

The clout developed in the community by successful sports and academics also helps define the school's brand image. Schools constantly tout their school rankings (based on the controversial US News rankings) and number of National Merit or Rhodes Scholars. Why? To establish themselves as having high standards. I noticed that Davidson College, this year's Cinderella team, even has this as their school statement.

Davidson College is a liberal arts institution founded in 1837 by ministers of the Concord Presbytery. Its 1,700 students come from almost every state in the nation and many foreign countries. A highly selective admission process brings students who are proven scholars and leaders to a close campus community in the small town of Davidson, North Carolina.

For those schools with unsuccessful athletics, advertising is helping them sell their brand image. Two Texas schools, Baylor and Texas A&M, hired two Austin agencies, Kolar and GSD&M Idea City, to help them. With the exception of Baylor women's basketball and baseball, those two schools have had few winning teams. It seems like no matter how well a school's branding is, the perception often comes down to historical prestige and athletic success.

update: I just read in the Dallas Morning News that there are different levels of universities. The highest is being accredited as a Tier One Research University. According to the Association of American Universities, only 62 universities in the US and Canada have this status. Texas has three: Rice, Texas A&M, and UT. Apparently, it's a big deal to be classified a Tier One Research University as that brings in a lot of money.

Woes continue for GSD&M... err, Idea City.

AT&T gave a major slap in the face to Idea City on the VERY DAY of GSD&M's name change!

Read what they did. Dramz!

The Woes of GSD&M

Adage has an interesting article about Austin's own GSD&M. The agency will officially change its name to GSD&M's Idea City tomorrow. They haven't announced a reason for this, but I am going to venture a guess and say, maybe it's because they want the acronym to be GSD&MIC?

Read the full article, which discusses recent ups and downs of Austin's biggest agency, here: http://adage.com/article.php?article_id=120090

Austin Agencies: Goings-On

Austin agency, Door Number 3, has launched "Behind the Door", a SXSW blog covering the Interactive & Film Festival as well as the music scene. A quote from Bryan Keplesky (Art Director), "We are digging into all the lectures, panels, films and events that we believe have relevance to the world we work in everyday." Check it out to get an advertiser's take on the craziness that is SXSW.

On an unrelated note, Adrants and the Acadamy of Art: SF are hosting an Advertising and Marketing Industry Diversity Job Fair and Leadership Conference in San Francisco tomorrow. Austin ad agency, T-3, will be there in the morning and Gay Gaddis, president and founder, will be speaking on a panel discussing "What it's like to work in the advertising and marketing industries". If you're in town, check it out (you can crash at my place if you need to, Longhorns are always welcome).