Hopes, dreams and goals

Working with education and learning is working with people’s hopes, dreams and goals in life. A huge part of my role as education manager is actually on individual basis, through personal conversations and emails. A quick talk in the corridor or a scheduled meeting in my office.

Having a 17 year old son who’s biggest dream is to sit at Blizzards office and create the most amazing online gameworld I have a very close and personal view on this thing we call education. As we as parents tell our children you can be anything you want this also applies to students. No matter what background you have, what age you are, it is never too late to educate yourself. It will always be an investment.

Some of my students have not yet been out there in the business world and some of them have been working for years. What connects them is their dream and goal to work within marketing & advertising and it is my job to secure the level of quality, to introduce them to this world of marketing and to enable them to pursue their dream. From there the responsibility is theirs. Education is nothing you receive; it is something you work for in order to get.

I have a great team around me supporting the students. If it takes a village to raise a child it takes the world to educate the students. Working with education is intense, it is takes ones breathe away and it is one of the most rewarding things in life!

8 tips for more creative thinking

Mind block. Feel the word – blocking the mind, the horror!  Deadlines are being chased and you have achieved total meltdown, perfect timing of course. No creative ideas what so ever. We have all been there. It feels like your brain is stuck like an old LP record and you are slowly sinking in quicksand. What to do? Here are some of my best tips to get started again;

• Get moving

Recent studies show that children learn more and faster with exercise and improves their memory skills. A good heart rate and fresh air makes the blood flow go.

• Change location

Changing your location can also help you change your perspective. Seeing things from another angle can promote new thinking. Simple and most effective.

• Clean your office & work area from clutter

Clutter can hold you back. Just by looking at it makes your mind wonder off and makes you think about all the things you should have done but haven’t.  Clutter free makes more space even for your mind.

• Boost your brain

Eat for your brain. Most likely you have read all about the benefits of Omega 3 but did you know that the brain loves Zink? A handful of pumpkin seeds per day are all it needs. Especially under times of stress and flue seasons you might need more of it as the body doesn’t store it.

• Boost your mind

Beautiful scenery can make all the difference. Go to botanic gardens, read a book or solve a Sudoku game. Sit at your favorite coffee shop a whole day.

• Boost your heart

Helping someone else is a great gift to others as well as yourself and can make you forget your own problems and worries. Seeing the world through someone else’s eyes can be powerful.

• Try something new

We are all creatures of habit. We do what we have always done. We chose the same thing over and over and therefore the brainwaves are already there, same old familiar patterns. Nothing new comes in. In order to grow new brain wave patterns we need to do things we have never done! It can be as simple as eating something new, trying out a new way to work or why not a new form of exercise?

KM09 goes lateral.

KM09 is right now reading the course Lateral marketing with Hans-Erik Duch. The client is Klippan municipality, culture department. The assignment is to locate what young people wants to do in their spare time and will be presented in one exhibition in Klippan and one project presentation in Malmö.

The course started out with introduction with Hans-Erik, followed by briefing by Camilla Alexandersson and then a trip to Klippan for a full day of information on location. The students are divided in to groups of 4 or 5, each student has their own work title; project manager, planner, AD, copy and project assistant. 7 weeks of lateral thinking will take place and I know the students are so looking forward to work with this.

Photos taken by Jenny Chiem in KM09.

Update Creative Marketing 09

KM09 is currently very busy with their course sales & crm with Micael Hörberg from Chelix Sales & Management. 4 weeks of intense theory and practice. Let’s face it, if you can’t sell yourself how can you sell anything else? Micael is also involved with BNI in Malmö and has an extensive knowledge and knowhow in the area of sales. Only two courses remain this year and that is lateral marketing with Hans-Erik Duch and after that Media & new technology with Anders Printz.

At the moment I have 23 students who are seeking internship for week 1-20 next year. The area ranges from information, communication, PR, sales, event, marketing and advertising. The students themselves seek internships as AD, Copy, project manager and strategic planner. Stockholm or New York doesn’t matter. Do you look for the greatest students for internship, look no further. I have them right here! Send me an email at donna.carlsson@academedia.se or pay us a visit.

Donna

TBWA + KM09 = TRUE

Last Wednesday I took my class KM09 to visit TBWA in Copenhagen, one of the world’s leading ad agencies. Paul Clements who is Media Arts officer welcomed us and held a very intense and passionate lecture about the company, about their method and their work.

For almost two hours Paul engaged us and gave some very important advice, tips & tricks of the business. Because it is not what that makes a difference, it is the how. Dialog & conversation are key elements to how TBWA work with their clients and foremost their clients clients. Most impressive.

Thank you so much Clem for taking the time for us!

Donna & KM09

KM09 is back in business.

Class KM09 is back at school after 8 weeks of internship and 6 weeks of summer vacation. Time to read some law and ethics with Setterwalls lawfirm in Malmö. This is a 5 week course with Magnus Friberg and Josefine Leiman as tutors.

Magnus Friberg works mainly with issues regarding a company’s advertising and other market-communicative operations in a wider context. His areas include specific marketing practice acts as well as agreements in the advertising business, media specific legislation, protection of integrity, intellectual property rights, competition law and purely product regulatory legislation regarding for example food and pharmaceuticals. Magnus assists Swedish as well as foreign clients and has experience from Pan-Scandinavian issues and from appearing in front of authorities and courts. Josefine is new to teaching at AcadeMedia Masters and has extensive knowledge in Intellectual property, advertising & marketing, trademarks and trademark registration.

Welcome Magnus & Josefine!

Donna

KM08 has left the building…

Last week I had the pleasure to see my class KM08 leave AcadeMedia Masters. Two years has passed and it was time to leave the student life and enter the world of business.

Almost half of the class of 30 students already had jobs waiting for them.  That is outstanding in these rocky financial times when companies are struggling and downsizing.

From my personal perspective as the education manager for Creative Marketing it was mixed feelings, sad to see them go and happy to see they leave. Did I do whatever I could in order to prepare them?  Did I do my job?

Working with education is an ongoing process, everything can be done better. I never rest and think this is as good as it can get. Never! For me personally dialog & communication is high on the list: with students, with the business world and with teachers. Everything and anything must be available for review by all participants. Check and double check. Open and transparent is the method.

What did the teacher learn then? You can never give out to much information.  Create time for reflection and foremost a reminder of Bodil Jönssons words of wisdom: Thoughts take time!

If there is anything I would like to remind my former students of is that always keep a critical review of everything. Start with yourself and work from there. Make time a friend and don’t let it be an enemy.

 Thank you KM08 for everything you taught me and I wish you all the best!

Donna

The return of KM08.

Class Creative Marketing 08 is doing their last week of internship. 20 weeks are over and now they are heading back to AcadeMedia Masters for their final project: 6 weeks of writing their examination paper. Almost 2 years of studying is over and a search for the perfect job is starting.

There have been several people involved in creating the education we call Creative Marketing. The students have been visited by Hilanders and IKEA. They have visited TBWA in Copenhagen. They have attended network meetings at BNI and they have also themselves lectured at MiM and for KM09. Some of them have been doing their internship in Stockholm and some of them in South Africa.

As a group of individuals they are demanding and inquistive.  They are dedicated, involved and engaged. As the responsible education manager for Creative Marketing I ask myself many questions; have I done everything that I could to increase the value of the education? Have I asked enough of them? Did I ask the right questions? What could I have done better? As far as I know, to put too low expectations on people is saying they are not good enough and let me tell you all that my students are more than good enough! Actually they are great!

My expectations for the students and of the students of Creative Marketing 08 are huge but I know it is nothing compared what they expect of themselves.

6 weeks left. One project. One presentation. Perception is everything.

Welcome back!

donna

Social media Code of Conduct for teenage parents.

Ok. I am a parent. To a teenager. 2 metres tall game development student and I believe I am extremely qualified to give you tips, tricks & advice on this issue due to my many failures in social media according to my teenage son. I am on strike 2 with a brisk warning.

First things first.

This is me;

I am an addicted social media user and spend my evenings preferably with the computer before TV. YouTube is a passion of mine and I can so get lost in it! I am also a very heavy user of Facebook and Twitter and of course I have linked my tweets to my facebook account and my linkedin profile.

This is my son:

17 year old WoW player. Loves YouTube and can’t really understand the hype of Facebook. Twitter is for people with an egocentric personality. Unless there is something called play or game in it he is not interested.

This is us:

We are both aries, social and outgoing people with a huge network and we both live very busy lives with a very hectic schedule. We both love soccer, he used to play it and I am on the youth board at Högaborgs Bollklubb. We could also give our right arm for chocolate. And yeah, we don’t like domestic things at all. So geeks in our own way so to speak!

Conclusion:

Now, when it comes to facebook my son is very protective and I should never ever write ANYTHING on his profile. He doesn’t like when his friends add me and believes that facebook status updates are boring.  My take is that of course I add his friends! I have known them since they were babies most of them anyway. I write status updates a couple of times every day and I have only written on his wall two times. Two times too many!

So I am on strike 2. The lesson for us parents is to respect but also make a choice. To be present and available but not showing. Can I do that? Well if I don’t want my son to block me I think I have too

Please dont block me!

Donna

Geek Girl MeetUp Öresund 24th of April 2010

Last Saturday I had the pleasure to participate in Geek Girl MeetUp at Dunkers in Helsingborg.

The set up is simple; network. It is the participants within the network that determines the program, the content and agenda. It is what you make it to be! Sharing and pay it forward is key elements to this group. All girls that come together with common interests and work within media, marketing, web development and design.

I had the pleasure to listen to Michaela Schmied, art director and run the SweetAR agency who talked very passionately about augmented reality and 9 reasons why she thinks the future for Internet is mobile but not like you thought.

Another great lecture was Build your own conference by Kristin Heinonen who works as an internet strategist at Good Old. She was one of the forces behind Sweden Social Web Camp last year and she spoke about the importance of involvement and came with great tips and advice.

It was a great day that gave new contacts, new ideas and new possibilities. I am already looking forward to the next one! The question is what can I bring?

For more information visit the website; http://geekgirlmeetup.com/geekgirl-meetup-skane/

Donna