Lucky number 7 Portfolio Night

Said to be Singapore’s best Portfolio Night yet, now in it’s 7th year, the evening was hosted for the first time by 7 of Singapore’s top Agencies. And at 7pm , young copywriters, art directors, students and freelancers congregated at the main hall of the Red Dot Design Museum – a trendy Singapore landmark (once a police station) to meet their mentors from the Advertising world.

Some came as far as Mumbai just for the night for an opportunity to meet Singapore’s top few. The 7 Agencies rallied to sponsor the evening this year and put aside usual Agency rivalry to give an opportunity for students and young budding creatives to meet their mentors from the industry. Founders of Portfolio Night are industry website IHaveAnIdea and their Portfolio Night has become a global phenomenon described as the “single largest simultaneous career speed dating night in the world”.

Said Peter Callaghan, Creative Director, BBH Asia Pacific (one of the7 sponsors and pictured left): “This Portfolio Night is really special as it was in greatdanger of not happening – so when 7 Agencies rallied to come together,my faith in the industry was somewhat restored. It’s fantastic to be ina space filled with so much enthusiasm and hope…..and of course youngpeople who will probably take our jobs some day …”

Said RafikBelmesk, Portfolio Night: “Singapore is one of our most popularPortfolio Night cities so we explored every avenue to try and make thisnight happen. There’s something magical about Portfolio Nights allaround the world – great things happen here,”

Tickets for the nightwere reduced this year to encourage more attendees and were sold outwith at least 100 young creatives and 15 Agency heads meeting in thename of nurturing creativity. Stretched out along the Museums mainhall, creatives and Agency Heads sat opposite each other as theyoungsters put their best work forward. Each youngster had theopportunity to show their work to three Creative Heads – an opportunitysome said, will never come their way.

Keshar Bhat, 24 a La SalleCollege of the Arts student in graphic design aspires to become an ADin a leading Agency: “What I liked about the feedback I got was thatthe Creative Heads who saw my work had very different feedback – it’sall about subjectivity. Some liked my wild side while othersappreciated my design work. As a student, I’ll take any feedback I canget,” he said.

Thanks to sponsors Bombay Sapphire and Corbis, allwere able to chat over cocktails and delicious grub in between theirinterview sessions.

The seven agencies and the minds behind the team-up were:

BBH – Steve Elrick, Regional Executive Creative Director

BBH – Peter Callaghan, Creative Director

TBWA – John Merrifield, “Creative At Large”

Ogilvy – Eugene Cheong, Regional Creative President

Grey – Justin Lim, Creative Director

Publicis – Calvin Soh, Chief Creative Officer, Vice Chairman.

Euro RSCG – Victor Ng, Executive Creative Director

Leo Burnett – Chris Chui, Executive Creative Director