They say some of the best ideas come to you whilst in the bath. And that’s certainly true here at Creative Resource. We always knew we wanted to move beyond just being a traditional recruitment agency… yes you can rely on the tried and trusted techniques of understanding sector challenges and attending recruitment fairs… but who wants to just do the same things forever!
A Creative Director from the other side of the world called David Campbell had approached us about running an ‘Ad School’ type initiative to help develop creative thinking skills for existing industry professionals as well as offering an opportunity for those who wanted to break into advertising which became School of Thought… and that really lit a spark in our heads here at CR. So much so that a few years down the line we now have engaged with 1000s of students and graduates, and future talent through our events and 1000s of experienced and respected professionals through our events and our Lockdown Learning Masterclasses.
“We never expected it to become this popular, but it has and we are over the moon and the wide range of businesses who recruit through us have felt the benefits as we are able to find them the right talent quickly through our huge black book of contacts.”
Julie Ollerton, Creative Resource MD
So, what are the events we run exactly we hear you cry? Here’s a little bit more about them:
Two+Two
We run this one-day collaboration event annually. Two+Two is a competition bringing together marketing and creative students with mentors from over dozens of agencies and brands to tackle a brief in just one day. Over 1500 students have attended the 7 events so far, many of whom come back in future years as mentors to help the next generation.
School of Thought
Creative Resource is proud to be the co-founder and sponsor of School of Thought, a 12-week intensive training programme in Manchester and Leeds which aims to develop the skills of creative professionals to develop and pitch big ideas. The initiative has seen 192 people complete the 16 programmes so far and alumni are scattered in agencies throughout the North and beyond.
Handle This!
Handle This brings together networking and learning for the agency account handling community in a relaxed environment that has resulted in some fantastic knowledge and experience sharing sessions.
Portfolio Review Night
An annual event that delivers speed portfolio reviews and connections, with creatives of all levels spending 5 minutes with multiple senior figures from the creative community in order to receive feedback on the portfolio and build connections within the industry.
Lockdown Learning
During Lockdown we connected with a wide range of experienced professionals, from agency owners to marketing strategists, planners, marketing directors and copywriters to create a suite of invaluable online sessions that have inspired, educated and entertained both fellow professionals and students across a wide range of creative, marketing and digital subjects.
“How these events have changed our business has been incredible. We now find it easier to find the best talent and we’re inundated with CVs from new and established professionals who see us as the go to agency when it comes to finding their first or next role in the industry.”
Phil Cookson, Creative Resource Director
It’s great to see that the events we created from a seedling of an idea in the bath one evening have now become key events in the marketing and creative events calendar.
If you’d like to know more about these events or how Creative Resource can help you find some new or established talent for your team. Give us a call on 0161 477 3221. Or email Julie at julie@creativeresource.co.uk or Phil at phil@creativeresource.co.uk