Contacting industry professionals

Getting hold of industry professionals to try and convince them to attend Ravensbourne2012; this is something that I must admit that I have been apprehensive about during this unit.  I am not exactly in touch or personal with anyone from industry.  I have sent numerous emails and CVs for work experience in the past, to no avail but I don't really know anyone.

For this unit, I therefore had to utilise the loose connections that I had made with industry professionals over both Twitter and Linkedin, as well as rummaging through leaflets and contact cards that I had been given at numerous industry exhibitions that I had attended over the past 3 years.  As I did not know these people well, I would have to approach them in a friendly manner and I would need to convince them to see our work at the degree show.

Linkedin

One of the first places I looked for industry contacts was Linkedin; primarily because it is a social networking site which is made strictly for professional networking.  When I looked at my list of connections I was quite surprised by the small number of industry people that I was connected to.  Most of my list consisted of fellow Ravensbourne students.

I was, however, in was connected with a Recruitment Manager from the Moving Picture Company.  Recruitment Managers seemed like an appropriate choice of contact, as they will be the ones that will be looking out for talent at these shows.  Furthermore, at any industry days or visual effects festivals that I have attended, there have always been primarily Recruitment people at the stalls for studios.  As I have been a little apprehensive about approaching people in industry, I managed to write a personal message to Ben Owen, who was the Recruitment Manager at MPC

I attached numerous links that relate to Ravensbourne2012; the details about the degree show are still vague, but as these are mostly social network profiles, they will update the recipient as the details about the show unfold.  As I am in touch with them, I will also be able to fill them in on any developments.  I tried to reword this a few times to make it sound persuasive; as well as polite and professional.   Many people that have communicated with me while I have been at Ravensbourne, on varying levels have commented on how professional I am in dealing with people and communication.

I also asked Ben Owen if he is able to pass information about Ravensbourne2012 on to anyone else at the Moving Picture Company that would be keen to attend degree shows and see the work of students and graduates, which will hopefully mean that I will have more people to contact.

Response to Linkedin Message

The following day, I actually got a reply from Ben Owen.  I was actually in disbelief that I got a reply to my message, and on top of that, I would say that it was successful.  The message that he sent went straight to my email address and reads as follows.

This has certainly improved my confidence in approaching people in industry, even if it is in a non-personal form such as email or telephone.  He does not necessarily confirm that he will be attending, but he does say that he "will be happy to attend" and for me to keep him informed; which means that a dialogue between him and myself has now opened up and I am able to keep him informed and anyone else in MPC recruitment that he gets hold of also informed.