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Submitted by students Colten Goyak, Georgia Rollings, and Sara Nogueira
On Thursday, January 18th, second-year Advertising Marketing Communications (AMC) students and Media Arts Fundamentals students attended Converge 2024: Navigating Trends at the Intersection of Arts, Media and Design, a panel featuring industry professionals, each equipped with years of experience to share.
Seven panelists, all experts within their fields, covered every skill set under the marketing sun. The panel spoke on the future of their sector and AI's ever-changing role and offered advice and encouragement to students entering the workforce.
The panel consisted of David Robinson, founder of Fractal Workspace; Karan Pal Singh, student, graphic designer at SPARK, and NFT artist; Micah Imomotebegha, student, Digital Programs Assistant KEDCO, and Bitcoin enthusiast; Kelly Bergeron, CEO of Poptronic VR; Soren Gregersen, "Little Friday" co-owner and videographer; Melissa Eapen, Director of Improbable Escapes; and Neha Kanwar, Tech Lead for Salesforce Marketing Cloud. The panel gave students an understanding of new trends and connections and the knowledge that business is a field where lifelong learners thrive.
On the future of the sector, the panelists discussed art and storytelling, the importance of human connection, and some of the challenges that people working in the field are facing today. Kelly noted the learning opportunities available with VR and hyper-immersive storytelling, and Melissa shared that "gameplay" has similar uses. NFT art, according to Karan, is another example of technology interacting with and enhancing art. Styles are also changing, as retro and maximalist styles have come back into vogue.
Everyone, Soren said, has a phone that can capture photos and record videos, giving them a creative outlet at their fingertips, and most social media platforms favour these forms of media. This is resulting in video industry professionals having to work harder to prove their proficiency against a flood of content. Neha shared that marketing is becoming more personalized, and Micah believes experiential marketing is the future. User personalization and recommendations are crucial for market segmentation.
David Robinson spoke about the shift to remote or hybrid work in the field and believes hybrid will be the future because of the importance of human connection. This applies to other aspects of the marketing world as well, as people require social connections to be successful.
It wouldn't be an informative panel without talk of emerging trends and Artificial Intelligence (AI). AI is a powerful tool for creativity, but it is still very controversial. Businesses should consider the sustainability and environmental impact of AI in terms of its circular economy. Implementing AI means mistakes may happen, and businesses should be prepared to own up to those mistakes to learn and grow. Karan believes AI will help the creator economy and that marketers will need to learn how to write prompts and use AI for ideation. Kelly warned, however, that AI should be used carefully, as the information it provides is not always accurate. She noted as well that people entering the workforce should be careful to make their resumes and job applications stand out, as many are now written by AI.
As a final question, the panel was asked to give advice to students who want to go into these emerging fields. Many bits of valuable information were imparted, including: "Experience, learn, fail, learn from it, repeat," "Just do it." Film for fun," "Be social! It's more important than being good at technology," and "Explore and experiment all the time. Trust your Gut!" But perhaps the most poignant answer came from David, who communicated that 40-year-old managers have more social skills and younger managers have more tech skills. We need to learn to communicate better because we all have so much to learn from one another. One helps develop relationships throughout the company, and the other is better at keeping up with trends and understanding the fast-paced, digital world we live in.
The biggest takeaway from this panel could be boiled down to that. At the end of the day, we are all students and all continuously learning, and the best way to learn and grow is through communicating with one another. Communication is key, and there's a reason it takes up a third of our program titles: we use it to learn, teach, advertise and market. In essence, communication is what makes us human.
This panel was hosted as a collaborative effort between faculty Jessica Bredschneider, School of Business, and Shaun Withers, School of Arts, Media, and Design for their courses on Emerging Trends.