3D Print Show – www.3dprintshow.com

Posted on 11/19/2013 by becomerecruitment

Nov 2013 Design Business Centre.

“The internet changed the world in the 1990’s. The world is about to change again.”

So say the organisers of the international 3D Printshow and they do have a point.

I attended the 3D Print Show in London in early November primarily to find out about the software implications of these incredible machines and whether a completely new skill-base would need to be found once 3D Printers become more commonplace.

I was pleased to discover that one of the biggest players in the 3D Printing software market is actually Autodesk (www.autodesk.co.uk/) known primarily for its industry standard 3D software “Autocad” and “3D StudioMax”. Autodesk have a suite of free Apps for use with 3D printers under the Autodesk 123D banner.

These include: 123D, Creature, Design, Make, Sculpt, Catch, Tinkercad, Meshmixer and Circuits.

The guys on the Autodesk stand were informative and the software seems pretty easy to use particularly if you are up to speed with 3D Studio Max. This is definitely good news for the creative industry (as well as others), as there is good pool of people with strong 3D software skills who will only need to extend their knowledge slightly to get to grips with this dynamic software.

See and learn more at: www.123dapp.com

Whilst there I also spoke with the guys at Uformia (www.uformia.com) who have alternative 3D Printing software called “Symvol” which again works as a bolt on to the already popular 3D software Rhino. Symvol allows you to create both organic and mechanical objects that are always watertight and ideal for 3D printing. Their software “MeshUp” lets you blend shapes and allows your imagination to run riot.

Click below to find out more:

http://www.uformia.com/products/symvol-for-rhino

http://www.uformia.com/products/mesh-up

All in all a good informative afternoon. The future really is bright, the future is 3D!

Pictures include, the show, 3D printed car, fashion wear, movie props.

Other interesting applications and uses for 3D Printing:

http://tinyurl.com/qdt9ere

http://3dprintingindustry.com/medical/

Become Internal Training Academy!

Posted on 09/05/2013 by becomerecruitment

Here at Become we realise and understand how important training is for our junior consultants and that’s why we try to invest as much time in our juniors here as possible. Every two weeks we get together for our ‘Internal Training Academy’ a bespoke training programme that focuses on either an area of recruitment we need to improve on, the changing faces in the creative industry or even the recruitment market in general so we can continue to learn and become better at our jobs, in order to make our candidates careers better too.

The ITA, as its known at Become, is a training programme, which is organised and facilitated by Sue Pilgrim, our MD. Each session has a specific topic, which we decide on together beforehand and we then set specific objectives that we want to achieve from the training program. A few that we have recently covered are – Managing Client Expectations, Overcoming and Handling Objections and Client Visiting. All of these sessions and the idea of the ITA in general was put in place so we could make the most of opportunities for our candidates and so we can provide the right recruitment partnership to our clients.

When you join with any recruitment agency – or any company I’m sure -you are given an initial induction programme. However, after that initial period, ongoing training is often left on the back burner or not deemed viable due to time and cost restraints. Here at Become, we realise that we are only ever going to grow as consultants and as a reputable business within the creative sphere, if we continue to train in our field, continually improve our offering to clients and candidates alike and deepen our understanding of the creative and digital industries. In these training sessions we learn where and how to make the most of opportunities from clients, where to take risks for our candidates and where we can tap into other creative streams – whether in digital, mobile or even training onsite for our clients.

Since introducing the ITA the juniors across our international offices have had the chance to learn from each others experiences of the creative and recruitment industries and learn from the more senior consultants who have an impressive foundation of reputable clients and loyal candidates under their belts. The ITA has become a key part of Become’s training offering and has seen us working across locations together to achieve the most for our clients and candidates.

Barca Networking Event – A Tropical BBQ

Posted on 08/22/2013 by becomerecruitment

Since joining the delightful Become Manchester team at the beginning of August, I’ve had a warm welcome and what better way is there to celebrate by attending the C-I-N-G, Bondi Beach BBQ Networking Event at Barca in Manchester. A chance to meet impressive creatives and talk to like-minded people across a broad background! Not only that, we had THREE organisers to appreciate and of course, a very fine BBQ. I was absolutely thrilled be a part of this event with Become.

First up, a familiar face for Become; The Creative Industries Networking Group (CING.) They support members in the creative industries by representing the sector through monthly networking events, bringing together: designers, photographers, animators, musicians, film makers, artists, architects, graduates, new creative businesses and lucky for us, recruiters! Additionally, they host business skills workshops for freelancers and business owners looking for advice on many issues in the creative sector. Marvellous.

Secondly, we had JCI on the roster. They are a ‘Personal Development’ organisation for young professionals aged 18 to 40 offering: a network of contacts, expert training for skills and needs and professional speakers at events to enhance knowledge of business topics. Additionally, they cater for businesses looking to network, recruit, market and enhance opportunities.

Our last organiser was Creative Pro Manchester. A corporate membership organisation, they bring together the local professional and financial sectors with the creative sector aiming to support sector growth and generate new jobs. They establish this through relationship building network events, generating new opportunities for businesses and professionals.

The Barbi was somewhat tropical, suiting the Australian theme including: Kangaroos, Crocodiles, Cocktails and guess what? RAIN! But this didn’t prevent a lively turnout on the Barca balcony with enthusiastic networking vibes and the old “Elevator” pitch making a return from the Become team.

We went straight into the deep-end and started speaking to people about Become. I quickly noticed, if you get further than your name, company and what you do – they are curious and business cards get exchanged. I handed out my very first business card following a long exchange with a creative.

Since starting at Become, the learning curve has been steep, but my knowledge on recruitment and the creative industry has been enhanced rather quickly. This allowed me to have independent conversations with all types of people and I am looking forward to the next one. I found the event to be very insightful on the world of creatives and how far it can extend.

Mobile is Power

Posted on 08/01/2013 by becomerecruitment

It’s Thursday 18^th July and time for the annual Figaro Digital Marketing Conference. As always, Emma Robson has gathered a seriously impressive list of delegates and speakers for the event and in the sweltering heat we made our way down from our nicely air-conditioned offices in Covent Garden, to the Royal College of Physicians, Regents Park.

Arriving for the afternoon session we began in the Dorchester Library with a great talk from Louis Georgiou and Sarah Jordan of Oxfam on, ‘Enabling Business Change within Oxfam UK’. Both gave fantastic accounts on why it’s necessary to enable the organisation to communicate online more effectively with their audience. One key discussion point that Sarah called P.E.T – ‘Persuasion, Emotion and Trust’ – was one of the vital ways that Oxfam engage givers and potential givers within their digital platforms.

After an inspiring first seminar, there was a quick beverage break to refresh the palette and then back into the Dorchester Library. The next talk was all about ‘Using Mobile Experiences to Turn the Negative into a Positive’ so, who better to hear from, than British Gas’ Mobile Experience Manager Neil Swanston. Not only did he revive my trust in British Gas (!) but he hit us with a few interesting mobile facts. With nearly the whole world going crazy for mobile at the moment, SmartPhones in the UK alone are up 62%. It’s here we continue to learn that mobile marketing is more powerful than ever with businesses learning they need to jump on the band wagon and utilise it!

After another toasty session in the Dorchester Library we made our way down to the Wolfson Theatre, to accompany Antony Robbins in his talk on ‘Transforming the British Museum’. Having created the award-winning ‘Street Museum’ app, they are well on their way to enhancing their digital platform. His high-energy personality and interest in the digital sphere was inspirational.

After a great Q&A session we heard from the last two ladies of the day. Firstly Channel 4’s very own Gill Whitehead, she began to engage a packed theatre full of digital creatives on ‘viewer engagement and building audience relationships’. This was followed by Just Eat’s Tess Tucker. Tess not only made me want to head home and order a take-a-way through her nifty website, but she also provided us with some hilarious social media photos and how this creates engaging content for Just Eat’s audience. What we learnt here is that cute pictures of puppies and kittens don’t ALWAYS secure the interaction ratings that companies and agencies strive for (we love them anyway)!

And finally, the moment we had all been waiting for…the Become sponsored drinks. After a glass of cold vino everyone could relax and enjoy a bit of mingling before heading back out into the blazing sun. What a fabulous day…

We can’t wait for the next #FigDigConf already!

DBA Harness your Agency Culture to Get Results

Posted on 06/21/2013 by becomerecruitment

Sue and I attended the latest DBA breakfast meeting in Patisserie Valerie, Spitalfields, on a warm Thursday morning at 8am. Fresh coffee and huge croissants were on offer, and there was a great vibe as delegates arrived to listen to Greg-Orme, founder of Kirkbright – speak about ‘Harnessing your Agency Culture to Get Results.”

Greg’s holistic approach was evident from the outset as he talked about the soft side of business, the magic dust, and the spark of electricity you feel within some creative agencies. Having said that, as time went on he showed his steely side too, in a positive and engaging way.

The essence of Greg’s speech was how core values can influence an agency’s culture and crucially how that culture drives an agency’s performance.

Greg talked about creative businesses being full of paradoxes, e/g creative but commercial; serious but fun, how the agency culture is influenced through core values and the link between values and behaviour. It’s these values that are linked to the bottom line and explain why it’s so important that ‘values match’ specifically when hiring.

Greg talked further about the importance of purpose, strategy, values and behaviour being important aspects of the cultural glue and how having a specialism is really important.

He also covered employee engagement and the link to absenteeism/retention, how communication is key to strong leadership and specifically the differential between management and leadership. Therefore management is about output; leadership is about change and effectively influencing that change.

As a recruitment agency specialising in the creative industry, rather than a creative agency per se, a lot of Greg’s findings applied can be applied to us too. Particularly how important core values are in establishing the cultural elements of our business.

I was inspired, thanks to the DBA team and Greg Orme for a great morning!

Tonight You Want a Chip on Your Shoulder …

Posted on 06/11/2013 by becomerecruitment

It’s Thursday and officially the start to the weekend, well in our eyes at least, and what else would you rather be doing on a sunny Thursday evening than venturing south to Ministry of Sound for the 10th annual Chip Shop Awards!

The Chip Shop Awards is a well known and respected ceremony amongst creatives as its the only awards – save the D&AD – where you respond to a brief without conforming to client expectations, social and political conventions or even your own moral conscience – gulp. Thus, the work entered ranges from the witty to the down right wacky. We were invited along by the lovely Lynn Lester from The Drum and were treated to beer, burgers and a night full of laughter and raw creativity. As well as an Irish hip-hop duo – Abandoman– – who literally bought the Ministry down with their blend of improvised rap and tongue in cheek crowd humour.

Our favourite Chip winner of the night was from the agency Dappy, whose advert ‘Sensitive Tooth Man’ won the “Best Work for any Brand you Haven’t a Hope of Winning”. Funny, clever and a brilliant example of what can be achieved with a killer script and on a barely there budget. Take the time to watch the video, if you need a chuckle at your mac on a dreary Tuesday morning.

Primarily, the whole reason why these awards exist is to showcase original talent in an informal and relaxed setting and to point fun and regard how utterly serious the world of advertising takes itself, which of course we loved! Its an important awards ceremony, in fact we felt that they were very relevant and necessary to encourage raw talent within the design industry to flourish. Brilliant night in a wicked setting, thanks so much to The Drum and the Chip Shop Awards for inviting us along, we’ll definitely be back next year for more laughs and gags.

DBA Lock, stock and seven smoking steps to success

Posted on 05/17/2013 by becomerecruitment

It’s 8.30am on a rainy Wednesday morning and Dianne and I are comfortably sat snacking on the world’s largest croissant and sipping on piping hot coffee in Patisserie Valerie, Spitalfields. Casually breakfasting on Become profits your thinking, however you would be slightly mistaken, we are here today as part of the Design Business Association’s breakfast meeting, a morning of conversation led by speaker Chris Merrington Founder of Spring 80:20. A successful coaching and consulting company that aims to help design and advertising agencies increase their profits through understanding the culture of their agency, the importance of their people, the agency’s positioning and the relationships they have with their clients.

Chris was a brilliant presenter, full of energy and insightful findings into the success of advertising and design agencies. The crux of Chris’s presentation was in order for organic growth to be founded and for profits to increase, agencies must keep thing simple and take the time to step back and think about their specific specialism and their unique positioning within the creative industry. Through establishing this, they can then plan their approach to new business, be confident and no when to turn down specific opportunities that could deter the agency from their long-term strategy and tailor their current client –agency relationships into long lasting ones where communication is based on a peer-to-peer relation rather than buyer to supplier.

Other findings in successful agencies was a strong culture – not just Friday afternoon drinks – but a strong sense of pride and belonging within the agency, a strong senior team that encourages more midweight and junior creatives to step up, avoiding dependency on one or two demanding clients, an understanding of the financial aims and gains of the agency across the whole team and knowing when to be niche and specialist either by sector or brand.

Although we are a recruitment agency, not a design one, we both came away feeling that a lot of what Chris had presented was very transferable to our agency too. The importance of good people is always key and something which we of course know being specialists in that field, but there was many other valid points that Chris raised about positioning, the culture of a business, knowing your specific offering and tailoring new business plans that can be applicable to many different businesses including creative recruitment.

Thanks DBA for a great morning!

The Roses Creative Awards 2013

Posted on 05/09/2013 by becomerecruitment

Become UK were delighted to be one of the main sponsors for the 2013 Roses Creative Awards. The event was held at The Mercure Manchester Piccadilly Hotel which had stunning views across the heart of the city. It was a beautiful spring evening and we were greeted by a champagne reception.

It was mine and James’ first time at an Awards Ceremony, so we were really looking forward to the evening ahead. The room was stunning and well suited to an Awards Ceremony. It was the perfect backdrop to a night of Creative excellence across advertising, design and digital disciplines.

There were multiple awards to be presented during the night, which highlighted just how much creative talent there is within our industry! All the winners received beautifully crafted glass trophies and had their pictures taken.

The much-coveted “Grand Prix” and “Agency Of The Year” awards were both won by BJL – and they managed to amass 16 awards on the evening in total. Their Creative Director, Tom Richards, gave a great speech at the end.

After the awards the dance floor opened and some unusual “shape-throwing” occurred! Everyone was in high spirits and celebrated their fantastic achievements.

Overall everyone had a fantastic night, which included a lovely meal and a few drinks to top it off. I am definitely looking forward to the next Event already!

You can view on the photos from the Roses Creative Awards here

Apprentice Of The Month

Posted on 03/28/2013 by becomerecruitment

After working with Become for several months and developing my skills as an Apprentice, I was delighted to be awarded “Apprentice Of The Month” for March 2013!

I’m very proud of my achievement and I hope to keep up the good work with the Manchester team. Everyone at Become has been extremely supportive and made me feel very welcome – they’re a great team!

Along with my award, I was asked to shoot a short video to showcase my time at Become so far and help any Apprentices looking to start their new career, get more of an insight about what it is like to be an Apprentice.

To view the video please click here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xDVQVuUN6ns

I have also been asked by The Apprentice Academy to shoot more videos in the future to help other young Apprentices when they join The Academy.

Thank you to Become and The Apprentice Academy, for all of your support so far and helping me achieve my award!

Become Interactive

Posted on 03/22/2013 by becomerecruitment

After attending a recent Figaro Digital seminar with Francesca I came away feeling inspired and intrigued, in particular after a presentation made by Mark Challinor, Director of Mobile Platforms at The Telegraph. He gave a really engaging speech and an insight into The Telegraph’s digital mobile journey.

As part of the speech he spoke of an ‘interactive room’ at the telegraph, the projected image of which reminded me of something from the film Minority Report. He extended an open invite to anyone who wished to visit so we of course took him up on that.

The Telegraph always seems to be ahead of the game when it comes to mobile and web development. They were the first newspaper in Europe to launch a website, the first UK newspaper to allow its readers to blog, the first newspaper to launch a news app on the Google Android platform, (you get the idea…).

It was therefore with great delight that I headed over to visit Mark at The Telegraph’s offices in Victoria to check out their latest efforts to remain at the forefront of digital mobile development. In the middle of the room is what looks to be a fairly standard coffee table until you step closer and touch it. It’s like a huge I-pad, only much, much better. Picture a family of the future, they come down for breakfast and sit around the table. Instead of the dad sat wrestling with the papers of a traditional, tactile newspaper, they all share the news of the day over this ‘tablet-table’, selecting and swiping anything of interest, which then beams that information up onto the wall in one seamless motion. It’s much more responsive than an I-pad, and when you press your finger down on the home screen it recognises this and a little label pops up pointing to it, entitled ‘finger’. Lovely. Picture yourself, coming home from work, grabbing a bottle of wine, putting it down on the table (it’s waterproof, by the way), and this thing recognises not only that it’s a bottle, but that it’s filled with wine, the exact type of wine and wait for it – suggests a recipe that would complement perfectly your bottle of choice. Unfortunately it won’t cook the food for you (not yet anyway), but it’s an incredible machine, really wonderful.

I said ‘picture a family of the future’, when really, the future is already here. The technology is there… no one can be sure of exactly what form the next big thing is going to take, but I think what the Telegraph have done here shows fantastic initiative and insight into the way things are going and it was a pleasure to see what they have been doing.

We really appreciated Mark giving up his time to explain the technology they have at their fingertips, including a fascinating timeline journey, projected from the table, showing how they reported the London riots over mobile and web platforms. Some of the stats are astounding and it gives a real insight into the importance of the digital platform in the news industry.

Mark has a great enthusiasm and it was a real pleasure spending a bit of time with him and getting to experience ‘the interactive room’.

Now I need to get myself one of those coffee tables for Christmas…