Creative Data Academy: Eloise Thomas' Experience

2018’s Creative Data programme is well underway with Birmingham and London’s Academies having already taken place and Edinburgh’s coming up next month. We’ve created a short video to give you an idea of what the Creative Data Academy is and you can see it here.

Both academies have been great successes and we’ve received some great feedback so far. Eloise Thomas, a student of this year’s London academy, has written about her experience, here’s what she had to say about her time on the academy:

“It sounds cheesy but completing the Creative Data Academy is one of the best experiences I’ve had the opportunity to be part of since beginning my degree. I was nervous about starting the academy but quickly met many enthusiastic fellow students from a wide variety of university courses and started to learn about how data is used responsibly within marketing. We were welcomed by the managing director of DMA Talent, Kate Burnett, and enjoyed talks and interactive presentations from a whole host industry professionals across the three days.

We also visited two agencies, Wunderman and RAPP. We learnt about the types of projects Wunderman handles and also got the chance to talk to employees over pizza and drinks. At RAPP, we had to work in mini teams to invent ideas to solve customer issues for some of their clients and present them back to members of the RAPP team. This was a great experience and one of my favourite parts of the week.

The most challenging part of the week for me, was the networking event.

I have never had the chance to attend anything like this before and thought that it would be really formal and scary, which it was not at all. Everyone I had the pleasure of meeting was very happy to give me advice on progressing my career within the industry or to discuss their role within the industry. It was really nice to see that so many members of the DMA were genuinely interested to help all of the students and has given me more confidence for future networking events.

The presentation from Gemini People was also incredibly helpful and gave guidance to the CDA students about what to include on your CV, where to position certain sections of information and generally how to stand out when applying for jobs.

The industry professionals that gave their time to speak to us, the sponsors of the Creative Data Academy and staff of the DMA always spoke about their work within the industry with smiles and enthusiasm. Most of the presentations and conversations throughout the three days included discussing what’s next for the industry, which was always spoken about with a buzz of excitement for what the future holds.

Completing the 3 day academy has made me see for myself why everyone says that it is the most exciting time to join the industry. I would highly recommend the academy to other students as it has given new knowledge, new connections and new ways of thinking that you can’t get from a university classroom.”

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