“Here Are All The Black People” is a one-day event funded by the proceeds raised annually at The One Show, which was originally created following a panel discussion between Jimmy Smith and Jeff Goodby. The pair were discussing the lack of diversity in the creative departments in advertising agencies, at which time Jeff asked, “Where Are All The Black People?.” Jimmy, Jeff, and The One Club decided to answer the question and launched the event to address the imbalance and the annual, New York-based event was born.
The event, which was held on Friday last week (September 30) at The Times Centre in New York, provides multicultural students, recent graduates, and creative professionals who are interested in exploring careers in advertising and design the opportunity to showcase their talent to top agencies in the industry. The career fair aims to provide real-world solutions to the lack of diversity in the advertising and design industries’ creative departments. This year the event was extended to include aspiring strategists and account planners/managers as well as creative hopefuls.
Now in its seventh year, recognition of the event has grown considerably, with this year’s sponsors including Verizon, as well as FCB Health, Wunderman, Deutsch, Amusement Park, Leo Burnett, GSD&M, Y&R, DigitasLBi, Carmichael Lynch, VCU Brandcenter, Miami Ad School, Droga 5, Swim, McCann Worldgroup, The City College of New York, AIGA, and BBDO. Support from these companies is central to the running of the event, as they assist not only in providing funds but panellists, portfolio reviewers and mentors; all of which are crucial to making the Here Are All The Black People a success.
Head of Diversity at the One Club, Traecy Smith, said: “We’re so excited to have these sponsors on board. This event was created to give participants unprecedented opportunities to interview, network, learn, interact with and gain invaluable knowledge from top creative professionals. Many participants have walked away from the event with a second interview or a lead to an internship opportunity. We all win when we cultivate work environments where diversity of thought, experience, education, talent, and culture are encouraged to flourish. We win when we acknowledge that the best ideas are often born out of a team with diverse perspectives. When we work together to embrace diversity and create a culture for everyone to bring the best aspects of ourselves to work, we create a better company.”
Every year, participants have unprecedented opportunities to interview, network, learn, interact with and gain invaluable knowledge from top creative professionals. Throughout the day, attendees are invited to join portfolio-building workshops, portfolio reviews, and participate in the increasingly popular live elevator pitch, which awards the winners with interviews with all of the sponsoring agencies. Indeed. Many participants have walked away from the event with a second interview or a lead to an internship opportunity. This year also saw the actress, comedian and video blogger, Franchesca Ramsey, take on the position of keynote speaker. Ramsey was supported by a panel of industry heavyweights including Droga5’s Susia Nam, APE’s Jimmy Smith, Anomaly’s Karina Wilshner, and Carmichael Lynch’s Mike Lescarbeau.
