AEF Speakers Program Links Theory and Reality
Jan 26, 2009
Click here to download the PDF of the AEF report.
Professors work hard in their classrooms to bridge the gap between theoretical teachings and the realities of the workplace, and AEF is there to help.
The Inside Advertising Speakers Program sends some of the advertising industry's most accomplished professionals into the classroom, giving their time and talent to provide students with the rare opportunity to gain firsthand knowledge of what it takes to create and produce good advertising.
AEF member John Partilla, president of the Time Warner Global Media Group and AEF's new chairman, has spoken at several colleges and universities as part of the program over the years. He is grateful for the opportunity to face students directly.
"The students are by nature an intellectually skeptical lot, as they should be," he says. "My job with the speaker series isn't necessarily to change their opinions, but it is to provide the information to them to give them a balanced view of the advertising world and let them decide for themselves."
But it's not just about teaching the students, says Hayes Roth, CMO of branding firm Landor Associates, part of the WPP Group. It's a chance for executives like him to interact with young people and discover their perceptions of the ad profession.
"For me, the exposure to students is always incredibly inspiring because they inevitably think and ask about things in a different way than we do," he says. "I've been a regular speaker at schools on behalf of the AEF for nearly 20 years and each time, it always leaves me refreshed and stimulated, and I end up learning something new and valuable from the students and professors."
Roth is not alone. Hundreds of universities and colleges have participated in the speakers program over the years, and its impact is being felt in tangible ways.
"We've hired many first-rate interns and even full-time employees from a number of schools who were exposed to the profession through the speakers program," says Roth.
For more AEF coverage:
A New AEF for New Times
The Advertising Educational Foundation COmes of Age
Professors Swap Classroom for the Agency World
AEF Speakers Program Links Theory and Reality
ADText
The Big Project
