Core hosted the launch of ICAD’s UPSTARTS programme earlier this week, welcoming 20 participants and 20 mentors to its CoLab at 1WML.
Neil Rooney, executive director of ICAD, provided the audience with an overview of the programme and its benefits to the Irish marketing sector:
“UPSTARTS programme has been running since 1998 in a couple of different forms but the idea has always been to provide mentorship for emerging creatives and also to place them within an agency environment, where they can answer live briefs, get feedback on their briefs and also get to know how agencies work. They have a mentor as well that works with them throughout the programme to help them to steer them on the briefs that they’re answering,” he said.
“On the industry as a whole, it’s always been seen as a good stream of talent going through your agency. We find that over the years, 70% of UPSTARTS are in employment, within six months of completing the course. So you have something that’s brilliant for the UPSTARTS, brilliant for the agencies, good for the mentors. It’s a total win-win,” he added.
This year, Core is acting as Lead Partner on the UPSTARTS programme. Speaking about the launch event, Core CEO Aidan Greene said: “We’re very excited here in Core to be hosting the kickoff of this year’s UPSTARTS programme in partnership with ICAD. I think uh as communicators, it is up to us to properly reflect society and the changes in society but also aspire to what society can be and I look forward to Irish communication benefiting from initiatives like this.”
TBWA\Ireland is also a Programme Partner, and Bairbre McGlade, Creative Director at TBWA\Ireland and ICAD Executive Board Member, talked about her work on developing the current version of the programme, having had experience as a participant of the programme a number of years ago:
“I fully believe in the programme. It’s gotten so many people starting in the industry and the ICAD programme is why I joined the ICAD board. Without the UPSTARTS programme, I probably still wouldn’t be in the industry and I think a lot of former UPSTARTS say the same thing.”
The evening included a lecture and workshop from two members of Core Creative, Associate Creative Director Nadia Marlène Karim and Senior Copywriter Conor McDevitt. The workshop focused on demystifying the brief for UPSTART participants, encouraging the group of creatives to embrace the opportunities that a brief can present.
