There were introductions, questions, hugs, business cards, beer and post-it notes

COLABORATORY orientation was on Friday and all of the above was a plenty.

As you all can tell from my last post, I was a wee bit anxious before orientation. I arrived on time and ready for whatever was behind the doors of POP ART, the agency hosting the event. What I found was an immensely welcoming bunch of familiar faces--ones I had seen on agency websites or Twitter profile pictures--all eager to meet me. There was also a killer post-it note art wall, but I had little time to gawk with so much to get started on.

First, all the agency representatives introduced themselves and their companies. The hour or so of client/agency run down is likely more than most could hope to figure out in the first month of working in a new town. It was really insightful into the tone and personalities of each and made me feel very affirmed in my assignments to work at Ascentium, Grady Britton and Anvil Media. While they all varied in client base and offerings, each seemed to have a common thread of strong mission and strategy focus which made me happy.

And then it was on to meeting the fellow interns and finding out which teams (or mini agencies) we would be on for creating our campaigns for Columbia Sportswear. Classic red rover style, they called us out one-by-one to our groups. Then they gave us 15 minutes to come up with an agency name, tag-line and strategy and then present it to the whole room of ad executives, our client, COLAB committee members and even a reporter from the Oregonian. No pressure... really no pressure at all.

My group is great. We all meshed together quickly and eagerly jumped into our assignment. At the end of 15 minutes, we emerged with --

Wet Paint
Every brand could use a fresh coat.

Agency team Wet Paint!

The other group of five interns named themselves Silo 5 - Ideas that ignite. I'm excited to see the directions we each go with our campaigns. (Video of the presentations soon to come!)

After a thorough and informative client meeting with Mark Shea from Columbia Sportswear, the day transitioned into a social event with more PAF members flooding through the POP ART doors, all kicked-off with the unveiling of our new COLAB shirts.

Shirts for each Lab Rat/Colab Intern.

Mingling+Networking+Snacks+Beer

These pictures and others can be found at the COLAB Flickr group.

I think my big takeaway at the end of the orientation day was how immediately impressed I was with the intense community feel of the PAF group. I suppose it was evident all along considering I was jumping into a program in which "competitors" literally share employees and students are allowed to have creative control of a real advertising account--but, wow. Perhaps it's a Portland thing? I took this internship with the intent of exploring the Portland business scene in comparison to Seattle's. I feel already this much more potent sentiment of group-good. Jamie Sexton, the director of PAF, stressed to us her belief that Portland has this ability to be a creative hub for business in the country if all the agencies work together to build a stronger network of entrepreneurs, new thinkers and young talent. I'm excited to see what this mentality looks like from the inside during my next weeks interning.

Big BIG thank you to all of the PAF COLABORATORY Committee members, Mark Shea from Columbia Sportswear and POP ART for hosting a most fabulous shindig. I feel really lucky to be a part of this program and this community.


Tomorrow marks my first day of interning with Ascentium.

Looking Forward To...
Having the veil that is the first week of being an intern over me when asking as many gosh darn questions as I like, whenever I like.

Scared about...
Making this transition from the graphic design world of project management to the ad/marketing realm. My work before consisted of brawls over Pantone color chips. This media buying stuff and multi-outlet campaign craziness has me on my toes.