R/GA Hosts the FUTURE

On Thursday night, October 20th, BIC held its annual Mix+Mentor networking event at the AMAZING new offices of R/GA on 33rd Street.  A crowd of over 100 guests showed their commitment to the future by meeting and promising to mentor members of BIC's Class of 2018 featuring 30 hard-working grad students from across the globe, around the United States, and right here from New York City.

Industry professionals, consultants, and recruiters from agencies such as R/GA, Ketchum, Interbrand, VaynerMedia, Droga5, Samsung, Night Agency, Hawkins International, VML, NYTimes T Brand Studio, Finn Partners, Kalson Communications, Jack Morton Worldwide, Y&R, The Barbarian Group, Citizen Relations, FutureBrand, Gravity, Publicis, Rooney Partners, Berlin Rosen, ABW Solutions, HA Roth, Porter Novelli, Deep Focus, DigitasLBi, Siegel + Gale, BBDO, 4A’s, PRWeek, and Time Warner offered encouragement, exchanged business cards, and made commitments to mentor. 


Our special guest of the evening was advertising legend and BIC Board Member George Lois who posed for selfies and offered words of wisdom throughout the night. Several BIC alums now active in the industry were also there to celebrate the power of mentorship. Some were caught on tape as our MentorCam circulated the room to document guests who were there to honor this year’s theme Mentor Like You Mean It. 

BIC Program Director Nancy R. Tag congratulated R/GA on its spectacular new space and expressed gratitude for  sponsoring this year's Mix+Mentor. She expressed a special thanks to catalyst Jenny Tieman and organizer Whitney Donaghy of R/GA as well as BIC Program Specialist Christina Castro and BIC Tech Specialist Mira Steinzor. Professor Tag then welcomed the crowd by introducing BIC's latest incoming class, the fourth since the program's launch in 2013. 


She also highlighted some of last year's outstanding accomplishments -- noting a theme of THREE in BIC's THIRD year: three recipients of $5,000 The LAGRANT Foundation Scholarships, first, second, and third place (once again) at the 2016  CCNY Graduate Symposium, three BIC teams chosen for The One Show Client Pitch, a $5,000 Zahn Entrepreneurship contest winner, our third MAIP winner, two articles about BIC students in AdWeek, and... a super heavy GOLD Pencil at the 2016 One Show Student Competition.  All evidence that mentorship matters!

But the focus of the evening was really on the incoming class: "By committing to BIC's two-year master's degree program in order to think more deeply about the issues impacting media and communications today," Tag noted, "these students have already demonstrated a commitment to the industry -- and to everyone in the room who's dedicated to future." Past sponsors of the BIC Mix+Mentor have been Y&R, Ketchum, McCann, and GREY.