College Connections – Marc Edward Agency
Another of our featured industry partners in the College Connections series is Sydney based Marc Edward Agency (MEA). Why MEA? That’s an easy one. The relationship we have with this particular agency gives a great indication of how our college connections work…on so many levels. AND openly shows once again the ‘who’s who’ nature of the event industry. Let’s delve a little deeper shall we?
MEA Connection #1
Nigel Hickey – Managing Director of People, Activation, Comms at MEA. Nigel has been a friend of CoEM since its inception. With an expertise in experiential marketing and events, his background is an impressive one. And like many industry professionals, he’s a big supporter of good event management training.
As a way of giving back, Nigel has generously given his time on many occasions to sit on our industry panel at major project pitch time to offer practical event management advice to graduates as they come to the end of their studies. This kind of advice is priceless for students, not something gotten from a textbook. But like any good relationship, it’s a two way street and over the years Nigel has had his pick of CoEM’s best and brightest, from interns to full time employees. Which leads us to…
Nigel Hickey
MEA Connection #2
Steph Santos – Senior Account Manager at MEA. Steph graduated from CoEM as a Diploma student back in 2013. She was a standout and her trajectory has been ever upwards. Through our college connection with Nigel (above), Steph started working at Red Agency on the brilliant award winning Jack Daniel’s ‘The Bar That Jack Built’ campaign, a touring gig that took experiential events to a whole new level of creativity in audience engagement and prominence. See a case study of this initiative HERE >>
Steph moved over to MEA to once again work with Nigel and has been working on some amazing activations such as these > marcedward.com.au/campaigns
Activation for Glanmorangie at QT Hotel
MEA Connection #3
Kristen Ciappara – Account Coordinator in the MEA Activation Team. Kristen was another standout student from our Event Manager – Diploma program. Her Course Coordinator encouraged her to go for an entry level role at MEA and she was surprised to find that the job was hers within weeks of graduating!
Kristen recently wrote a piece for the MEA blog giving great insight into her transition from studying at CoEM to working in an agency like MEA. Read Kristen’s piece HERE>>
Kristen (in black) with class-mates at a CoEM celebration.
MEA Connection #4
MEA often need an army of workers for their events, and employ many casual staff to work as brand ambassadors, promotional staff, professional educators and hospitality staff. These roles can be perfect for students who need some casual work that is relevant to their course and relevant to their developing career in events.
Other reasons why we love MEA:
- Give back to industry.
- Instrumental in setting up a direct intern program for chosen CoEM students.
- Support ‘best practice’ event management training and professionalism in the industry.
- Actively encourage bright and enthusiastic event management graduates.
- MEA give their time to foster strong industry relationships.
Read more about Marc Edward Agency here > marcedward.com.au
Student stories – Graduates from College of Event Management are job-ready! If you’re wanting to find out more about a career in event management there’s plenty of information on our website about our specialised event courses. Any of our course advisors will be more than happy to chat to you on 02 9280 4912 or you can contact us HERE >>
Postscript: Since publishing this post, Nigel and Steph have moved on to different roles outside MEA.
