Digital Media CT Blog

DMCT Partners with The Village Community Foundation

Digital Media CT is pleased to announce a new partnership with The Village and The Village Community Foundation to support their Career Discovery Program. 

 

The Village is a 133,000 square foot facility that is, “a community for creating, collaborating, connecting and content.” It is the perfect combination of a modern office, fine dining, and venue space. The village is home to several media companies including ITV America, the largest producer of unscripted content for television and more.  

Digital Media CT has partnered with The Village Community Foundation to support their Career Discovery Program, an exciting program designed to help students explore their passions or interests by introducing them to different careers and Industry Leaders in finance, media and entertainment, and venture capital. 

Through this partnership we provide diverse students from different universities throughout Connecticut the opportunity to participate in these great events. During the program students gain valuable insight on these industries from guest speakers and end the event with a more intimate industry-specific breakout sessions where they have the chance to ask questions.  

DMCT is also be partnering with The Village Community Foundation for our Interactive Digital Media CT Summit, coming September 2024.This event, aimed for college students and alumni, will include a day full of keynote speakers, panel discussions, group challenges, and more! Stay tuned for more updates as the event approaches! 

Signup for the DMCT newsletter to stay connected with these events and more.  

See Also: Select+CT Podcast Episode 7 – Wheelhouse and The Village

DMCT Emerging Professional Badge

If you’re a student unsure how your skills connect to Connecticut’s growing Digital Media industry, we encourage you to enroll in DMCT’s micro-credential course, The Emerging Practitioner. This course covers many topics to assist you with your transition from University to a Career in CT and beyond! If interested, you can learn more about our course here. 

Digital Media CT Blog

Community Engagement

“Thinking about your digital, virtual, self online and how that looks is really important.” 

 

Episode 18 of Select+CT with Jon Winkel – CEO, The Stamford Partnership

 

 

Community engagement by definition is working collaboratively with groups of people in order to attain some sort of goal or aspiration through them. Jon Winkel – CEO of The Stamford Partnership (and now Director of the Wheelhouse Foundation), revealed that for the past year or so, everyone has been exclusively online until recent months. And everyone has faced this question: how do you find an audience to engage with?

Jon defined community engagement in three terms: identification, outreach, and planning. They all work together to make up what we know as engaging with our community. Intertwining your ideas and passions with those of others has the potential to maximize their impact and empower a community.

See Also: Digital Media’s Influence on Public Broadcasting

There are many examples of community issues, but after the pandemic, a work community challenge centered on virtual interactions and feelings of disconnect during the one-way transfer of online meetings: a creative solution for some was virtual meet-ups and utilizing the breakout feature in platforms like zoom to facilitate real-time interaction among attendees better. Most importantly, the issue was identified by a community of workers, and the solution engaged that same community of workers in the development of a solution. 

Jon also emphasizes the importance of staying firmly connected to the university you graduated from. Even if it’s ‘not relevant’ your alumni network will be robust over the course of your career. It’s the sincerity of staying connected to your peers that will help you get along if you happen to apply to a company they’re currently employed by or perhaps they can share a similar experience to maximize your chances of success.

Still, being a community member works both ways, you need to make yourself available to other members of that community and contribute ideas, and stay invested,  it’s simply not as genuine if you wait to reach out only when you need their recommendation. So consider community groups who share your values or interests and look for ways to support that community, and in return, that community can support you.

Connecticut has many community groups, including groups focused on different forms of content production. For game developers, check out GameDevCT, and for filmmakers, look into the CT Film and TV Alliance and various CT-based film festivals.

Written and verbal communication is a key skill needed to engage in a community successfully, and the best way to grow your confidence in that skill is to use it!

Featured Program

Speaking of communicating, Southern Connecticut State has a great Communications program. Located in New Haven, CT, you can learn more about the Department of Communications here.

DMCT Micro-Credentials

If you are unsure how your skills connect to Connecticut’s growing Digital Media industry, I encourage you to enroll in DMCT’s first micro-credential course, The Emerging Practitioner. I am a course graduate and learned many things to assist my transition from University to a Career in CT and beyond!

Digital Media CT Blog

Wheelhouse and The Village

“We’re right on the water so we have these beautiful views and glass windows.. but how do you make the acoustics just right so that there’s not a lot of leak through the glass.” 

 

Episode 19 of Select+CT with Chelsey Trowbridge – SVP of Post Production, Wheelhouse

 

 

The Village, located in Stamford, CT, is one of CT’S hidden gems for content producers. The Village operates from its parent company -The Wheelhouse- and that routine can be applied to any successful business. Chelsey Trowbridge – SVP of Post Production, is an employee at this gem. She kindly offered to share the opportunities that exist at The Village and why digital content producers need to stay connected to the long-term goals of this facility. 

See Also: Entrepreneurship in Connecticut

The Wheelhouse has several different sectors, one of which is Wheelhouse properties. It is responsible for building out The Village. A lot goes into a successful business such as this one. “It’s not solely the entertainment industry, people. There’s a lot of diverse opportunities there to meet people that aren’t just in this entertainment industry,” said Chelsey. There’s a balancing act between the investment opportunity side of the company, and the entertainment side, where Chelsey spends all her time.

I gathered from the interview that diversity in any company is the main success component. If you have a creative side going hand in hand with a tech side, you can bounce art and science off each other to maintain sustainability. The place itself is an impressive combination of an indoor and outdoor premium waterfront and is home to ITV America, the largest producer of unscripted content for television. It was designed to cater to creators of art, music, health, and much more. 

Featured Program

Usually I would recommend a specific college with a program related to the podcast’s topic, however, I feel The Village deserves its separate blurb. The property accumulates to a whopping 133,000 square feet. It is described as an outstandingly energy-efficient commercial building, which is hard to come across nowadays. Check out the website here, and be on the lookout for more digital media companies heading there for events and office space. 

DMCT Micro-Credentials

If you are unsure how your skills connect to Connecticut’s growing Digital Media industry, I encourage you to enroll in DMCT’s first micro-credential course, The Emerging Practitioner. I am a course graduate and learned many things to assist my transition from University to a Career in CT and beyond!

Digital Media CT Blog

Social Media Listening

“There’s always somebody interested in how people feel so that they can meet their consumer where they live.”

 

Episode 16 of Select+CT with John Murphy, University of Connecticut, Digital Media Department 

 

 

Whether it be sneaky advertisements that are way too accurate, or weirdly timed pop-up ads, I think it’s safe to say that we might occasionally ponder or joke about the fact that our phones might be “listening” to us. Well, it’s true; mostly.

John Murphy, Assistant Professor at the University of Connecticut’s Digital Media Department, spoke with David DesRoches about the art of social media listening. The phrase “social media listening” is often misinterpreted for something less noteworthy; it’s the ability for anyone in any industry to use a platform(s) and listen in on publicly available conversations. 

The social media listening industry is going online and listening in on anything public on websites, social media, and broadcast media; basically, whatever data we make available online is potentially sold to these platforms for analysis. Tweets, Reddit threads, Instagram comments, and TikTok videos are all public whether or not you’re aware of it. This trail of content allows marketers, brands, and anybody who wants to find out what our online behaviors say about our interests and potential buying habits.

“Topics can range from politics to how you feel about Nike sneakers,” John said. “There’s always somebody interested in how people feel so they can meet their consumer where they live.”

See Also: Content Marketing

Social media listening companies have agreements with Reddit, Twitter, etc., to gain insight into what we transfer from our minds to the screen. When you’re employed by one of these info-seeking agencies, balancing social media listening so that it doesn’t carry over into cyberstalking (a crime) is required. From a company perspective, John emphasizes that you need to know from an ethical standpoint what you will do with collecting that legal & public information.

“Rule of thumb is if it feels icky, don’t do it,” he added. How far do you go into looking into the data? You don’t want to be tracking a human being by their every online move, “you have to take it upon yourself to run an ethical and clean chop of the data.” he said.

This particular topic reminds me of the Netflix series called “The Social Dilemma.”  The film exposes social media creators & employees for building massive collective profiles of us using our many accounts. This means there is a digital persona of us in their databases that they can use to sell advertisements or commercials to determine what they think we might like or how we could be influenced in political campaigns. 

For digital content creators, understanding social media listening is crucial because not only could you be producing content in response to data gathered from this process, but you are also sharing content that contributes to the social media listening system.

Featured Program

Fairfield University (located in CT) offers two excellent bachelor’s of arts in communications and public relations. One of their statements is “We examine the verbal and nonverbal messages that people exchange in various settings.”. Check out these programs here

DMCT Micro-Credentials

If you are unsure how your skills connect to Connecticut’s growing Digital Media industry, I encourage you to enroll in DMCT’s first micro-credential course, The Emerging Practitioner. I am a course graduate and learned many things to assist my transition from University to a Career in CT and beyond!

Digital Media CT Blog

Alumni Experience

“Especially at this point and time in the pandemic, connections really are a huge part of this industry.” 

 

Episode 13 of Select+CT with Bryan Murphy, NBC Sports Group | Leah Myers, WTNH-TV | Erick Jean, The Game Agency

 

 

Having the status of being an “undergrad” can be overwhelming because we don’t know what will happen after surpassing it. Even if we as students know where we want to work, it’s still challenging to pinpoint if what we think will work out or if what we think is a reality given our location and skillsets. 

The purpose of the Select + CT recordings is to emphasize that there are so many great digital media jobs in Connecticut. It also helps us understand how our skillsets connect to the industry. The first episode of season two invites three alumni from three different CT-based higher education institutions to share their professional experiences since graduating.

Bryan Murphy, NBC Sports Group, Leah Myers, WTNH-TV, and Erick Jean, The Game Agency, conquered those fears for us! Leah is a digital content producer, Bryan is a digital editor, and Erick is a front-end developer. Bryan admitted how hard it can be to break into the industry.

See Also: University to Career

I will use Bryan’s experience as an example because he had the most challenging time, which I think makes him the most relatable. He says he applied to more jobs than he could count and only got 2-3 interviews. The job he ended up landing didn’t require an interview because he’d interned there before. He doesn’t know where he’d be working if he hadn’t made the connections in his prior internship.

As unfair as it sounds, having to make connections to prosper has proven true for Bryan and many others. In 2017, LinkedIn did a study that revealed a whopping 80 percent of professionals consider networking just as important as an actual portfolio or other professional work experience. Seventy percent of those people were hired at a company where they had a connection! That is more than half the workforce who felt this way.

I am guessing since the pandemic; this number has increased even more as we are now in a recession. Bryan’s story is one of too many, but he succeeded. Listen to the full episode to hear Leah and Erick’s stories; maybe their experiences will relate more to yours. View the full linked-in article here. 

Featured Program

The University of Hartford has a unique take on digital media; they offer a dual in both digital media and journalism. This means you are more than likely to land a job in either! You are prepared for a career in digital media production, broadcast journalism, sports media, or as a media business professional.Using a combination of real-world and classroom experience, you build a strong portfolio through internships and by working in one or more of our media-oriented student firms.” Learn more about this program here

DMCT Micro Credentials

If you are unsure of how your skills connect to Connecticut’s growing Digital Media industry, I encourage you to enroll in DMCT’s first micro-credential course, The Emerging Practitioner. I am a graduate of the program and learned many things to assist my transition from University to a Career in CT and beyond!

Digital Media CT Blog

Entrepreneurship in Connecticut

“I think more non-digital media students need more digital media skills, and digital media need more than just the art side of the skill set.”

 

Episode 15 of Select+CT with David Noble, UConn’s Peter J. Werth Institute for Entrepreneurship & Innovation

 

 

After 2008, Connecticut’s economy didn’t rebound as quickly as the rest of the nation. Because of this, there’s been a focus on UCONN and other universities to drive more students into entrepreneurial spaces. Entrepreneurship is something that has successfully grown in alignment with Connecticut’s economy.

fun fact – ESPN was actually started in Bristol, CT in 1979!

Starting a business as a CT-based entrepreneur is easier than I thought. And in a Select+CT podcast episode, Professor David Noble from UConn’s Peter J. Werth Institute for Entrepreneurship & Innovation shared information on how entrepreneurship relates to students in Digital Media Design. 

See Also: Building a Digital Media Company

Professor Noble said it’s crucial to increase the cross-discipline of students with specific skills. Non-digital media students need more digital media skills, and digital media students need more than just the art side of that skill set. This ties into Connecticut because we have a successful history of bringing industry to the state. Companies engaged in the same industry can help establish “talent hubs,” which further encourage more entrepreneurship as there is a cluster of skilled professionals specializing in a particular area.  

Shortly after the economic events of 2008, politically and economically, growth forces started to look to entrepreneurship. David has seen the rapid importance of scale and scope in the digital media space. “We’re seeing a growth sector of self-employed digital media groups,” he added.

Since then, many have relocated to CT since the events of 2020, but even without the pandemic, numbers have skyrocketed in the past decade! My point is that you’re lucky if you want to be your own boss and happen to live in Connecticut (also, studying digital media doesn’t hurt, considering the value that people like Professor Noble place on this field). 

Featured Program

Gateway Community College has an entire program dedicated to Entrepreneurial Studies. Located in New Haven, this school offers two certificates to earn while learning to be your own boss! You can also use the credits earned to pursue a Bachelor’s in the field, so this plan works perfectly if you’re indecisive about continuing your education or already engaged in a side hustle. See here for more information. 

DMCT Micro Credentials

If you are unsure of how your skills connect to Connecticut’s growing Digital Media industry, I encourage you to enroll in DMCT’s first micro-credential course, The Emerging Practitioner. I am a graduate of the program and learned many things to assist my transition from University to a Career in CT and beyond!

Digital Media CT Blog

DMCT Partners with the CADC Annual Awards Show

Digital Media CT is thrilled to announce a new partnership with the Connecticut Art Directors Club (CADC) to support the Annual CADC Awards Show.

 

The CADC Awards Show celebrates the very best in advertising and design from Connecticut’s creative community. It’s a chance for local creatives to showcase their talents and compete for recognition from their peers. The award ceremony includes ten student categories ranging from Student Photography and Print to Student Online & Interactive and Student Animation. 

Digital Media CT has partnered with four categories to celebrate emerging Digital Media talent in the four branches recognized in the DMCT 2020 Digital Media Manifesto. They include:

  • Student Animation
  • Student Online & Interactive / Published
  • Student Online & Interactive / Unpublished
  • Student Video 

The work must have been produced between May 2, 2022, and March 14, 2023, and submitted before the Apr. 22 deadline. Visit the CADC website for more information on the submission guidelines.

See Also: What is Digital Media? 

DMCT Emerging Professional Badge

There are many opportunities for those skills in Digital Media and Content Production; learn how to connect your talents to Connecticut’s growing Digital Media industry. The DMCT Emerging Professional badge guides students and alumni through the process of connecting core competencies to job opportunities and provides other ideas to support continued professional growth after graduation.

Digital Media CT Blog

Digital Media’s Influence on Public Broadcasting

“How can I not only get this beautiful storytelling – or this amazing piece of journalism – onto all these platforms but how can I tell it in a way that makes sense with that platform?”

 

Episode 20 of Select+CT with Lauren Komrosky, Chief Digital Officer, Connecticut Public 

 

 

 

Television and radio programs have been broadcasting to the public since November 2, 1920: when KDKA station made the nation’s first commercial broadcast. It was election day, and Americans around the country got to hear the election results. Warren Harding had won the race for President. 

Since then the content broadcast has grown exponentially and we enjoy new and evolving forms of news and entertainment from various platforms. In this episode of the Select+CT podcast, Lauren Komrosky and Jake Volckso from Connecticut Public discuss Digital Media’s influence on traditional broadcasts. 

See Also: Community Engagement

Lauren has been with the company for about 6 years, she started with marketing and research and ran a community engagement digital content initiative called the Yup Network. Within these networks, she has made it her mission to work with creators of color because representation is important to not only her, but her company. Her co-worker Jake is in a similar position. 

Both employees shared that their company started as a television station, but is now completely multi-platform. “We are watching and learning how people consume content, our content, what they want from us,” said Lauren. When expanding to other platforms to broadcast, she suggests catering your content to fit each platform best individually. How can you tell the story in a way that makes sense with that platform?

Jake shed light on the fact that public media is in a prime position to excel for you if you’re considering entering the digital media space. You have to have a “digital mindset” and be comfortable pushing the boundaries on the types of content you’re putting out there. It’s about trial and error, but you might have to try and fail a couple of times before you get it right. 

Featured Program

Did you know that Quinnipiac University offers a Masters degree in public relations? Through their online program, you can learn skills and strategies needed for every aspect of communications in todays world! For more information visit their website.

DMCT Micro Credentials

If you are unsure of how your skills connect to Connecticut’s growing Digital Media industry, I encourage you to enroll in DMCT’s first micro-credential course, The Emerging Practitioner. I am a graduate of the program and learned many things to assist my transition from University to a Career in CT and beyond!

Digital Media CT Blog

Building a Digital Media Company

“I think it really just comes down to starting a vision in your dorm room and being able to get great people around you.” 

 

Episode 12 of Select+CT with David Salinas, Co-Founder of Digital Surgeons and Innovation District in New Haven, Pete Sena, Co-Founder and CEO of Digital Surgeons

 

 

Since listening to the Select+CT podcast, I’ve felt motivated to hype up Connecticut through these blog posts. Although this is a Connecticut-centric podcast, the contents of this particular episode can apply to anyone, anywhere. It’s about entrepreneurship, passion, belief, and commitment. 

In an episode of the Select+CT podcast, the co-founders for one of Connecticut’s largest Digital Media agencies participated in an interview about their company and how it started in their University dorm room. 

At first, they shared that the experience began with understanding who can make 2+2 equal 5 -a.k.a: getting the most out of a business partnership- is crucial. A collaboration between two individuals who want to move an arrow in the same direction can make or break a business venture. Sometimes it only takes two people, but other times it can take many.

“Your network is your net worth,” said David Salinas to Pete Sena when they first met. David started working for a digital marketing company in New Haven and was trying to get a music business going. An engineer working for that marketing company told David he had to meet Pete because Pete was a “wizard with computers.” Since David was influencing sales, and Pete was working in tech, together they figured a partnership would be a good match; it was. Where Pete was weak, David was strong. It was a balance, an interconnection between the two. This created a “yin and yang” exchange which later contributed to the success of their company and also future companies. “Nothing great was never done by a single person,” said Pete. 

See Also: Careers In Creative Technology

Understand that there is a need for how design and tech come together. This is why it is so important to have those interconnections when constructing a digital media company. A partnership doesn’t always mean two people; sometimes, it’s when you reach out for mentorship or advisors that can amplify your goals. David says you should rely only on one another to fill some gaps. If you find someone who has an opposing weakness to you, then your strength can be significant. How many business partners you need depends on the nature of your business venture. Is it a small business, and do you intend to keep it that way? Or are you planning on expanding into a massive corporation? That second one might take more than two people, no matter how badly you want to succeed.

As I reflect on this episode, I realize I never thought much about starting a company, but David and Pete have proved it’s possible.

Featured Company

Digital Surgeons is one of Connecticut’s largest Digital Media agencies. They work on various Digital Media and marketing projects and always looking for Digital Media talent. Learn more about the company and its current opening here.

DMCT Micro Credentials

If you are unsure of how your skills connect to Connecticut’s growing Digital Media industry, I encourage you to enroll in DMCT’s first micro-credential course, The Emerging Practitioner. I am a graduate of the program and learned many things to assist my transition from University to a Career in CT and beyond!

Digital Media CT Blog

Content Marketing

“People don’t just want to see an ad anymore. They want to see content that means something to them.” 

 

Episode 7 of Select+CT with Colleen Sherry, Henkel

 

 

I can never take those medication ads seriously. 

They conform to the same rigid formats that require a list of the severe side effects that may occur, all while playing upbeat elevator music!

No amount of skip ad buttons can make up for the stampede of companies that follow it, and this is only one of many forms of adverts we routinely see when watching content. However, do advertisers have any other choice when reaching a large audience?

I recently reviewed a 2020 Select + Podcast on this topic and discovered that brands are getting more creative in producing and distributing content to their audience.

According to the US Digital Marketing Lead at Henkel, 71 percent of people are turned off by “sales-y” content. She also advised that 63 percent said they’d think more positively of a brand if it was more valuable, relevant, or interesting to them. So Colleen engaged her creativity and explored other ways to market one of Henkel’s hair color and styling brands to millennials and gen Z. 

See also: Social Media Listening

Colleen noticed that viewers craved content of value. As gen Z and millennial consumers develop more sophisticated and personal views on ad preferences, digital landscapes (in alignment with consumer landscapes) have evolved. Brands must evolve with their consumers. Instead of just advertising to someone with a product, feature, and price, you should bring content to the consumer that they will enjoy while valuing that core information of price and product. The Ad should align the brand with what the consumer wants. The audience will be more likely to engage with your product because it directly relates to them. Colleen also noted that brands like Nike or Addidas have the upper hand because they slap their logo onto anything. So, if you’re wearing a Nike t-shirt with the brand’s logo on it, you are advertising Nike for free (not that Nike needs more advertising at this point).

Colleen Sherry worked with an external agency to develop a 9-episode series of short-form videos distributed on YouTube. These videos told the story of a young female DJ that wanted to secure her career. She eventually developed her own means of self-expression through her music, which is what Colleen’s brand is about; self-expression but through hair. “Millennials don’t trust traditional ads. So it’s not just that we don’t want to do traditional advertising. We’re not going to get through to our consumer if we do.” Said Colleen. As I reflected on this episode, I was not only impressed with the creativity of social media strategists like Colleen who pursue new ways to produce and share content for marketing, but also the new opportunities this may create for film and video producers.

Featured Program

For our CT-featured undergraduate program, check out Central Connecticut State University’s marketing major. The staff treats this as a “Bachelor of Science” study, which differs from the typical BA or MA in marketing. The courses are more analytical and train your mind to think of marketing strategies from a scientific perspective.

DMCT Micro Credentials

If you are unsure of how your skills connect to Connecticut’s growing Digital Media industry, I encourage you to enroll in DMCT’s first micro-credential course, The Emerging Practitioner. I am a graduate of the program and learned many things to assist my transition from University to a Career in CT and beyond!