The Manchester Masters Blog

I have to admit I have fallen behind in my blogging duty. The truth is I have been so overwhelmingly busy since starting the Manchester Masters programme that I have struggled to find any free time to sit down, clear my mind and reflect on the past four months.

My time at my first placement with The Market Creative seemed to fly by and looking back now, I am not surprised! From day one I was expected to pitch in and help with any and (nearly) every project which this busy agency seemed to undertake. I couldn’t believe my luck when I was asked to work with some of the biggest brands in the home sector and terrified when I found that I would be accompanying Sue Benson (the MD) to a real-live pitch for G-Plan sofas. Fortunately, everything went well and after 11 weeks I reluctantly left The Market Creative taking with me numerous rewarding and invaluable experiences.

I am now currently working at Million-2-1 and desperately trying to live up to the high standards Tom McKenna set during his time here. However, I am not going to talk about my second placement in this blog (don’t worry I’ll fill you in at the end of December), instead I am going to talk about one of the amazing events I have participated in recently.

When my mentor Tony Kane recommended I attend the annual DMA conference in which he was involved I was immediately keen. What a great chance to meet some professionals from the industry and practice my networking skills! I was allowed to bring a friend with me (we all know how intimidating these events can be on your own…) and Caz seemed like an obvious choice. How right I was! Caroline turned up equipped with business cards and a well rehearsed introduction to both herself and the Manchester Masters scheme.

The day was filled with seminars, tea breaks, lunch and I couldn’t believe how relevant all the seminar topics were to both our placement projects and our dissertations. I found Lisa Tomlinson’s (BJL) presentation on customer concentric planning particularly inspiring and was very grateful to receive her contact details at the end of the event. She has since very kindly offered her support in the initial planning of my dissertation project.

I am going to take this moment to thank Will Kintish for our excellent networking tutorial in July. Handshakes and ‘open-two’ conversation formations worked a treat and Caz and I both left the DMA conference having learnt a thing or two (or a few) and met some great people. I sincerely hope this will not be the last DMA event I attend and thank you very much to Tony for the opportunity.

Click here to visit the Kintish website.