SPARKsouth, is an annual conference designed to connect college students with digital marketing professionals who can help highlight different paths to digital marketing careers. This year’s event was sponsored by Nebo Agency, the University of Georgia’s Terry College of Business, Setup, Simpli.fi, and 22squared. 

The conference exposes attendees to multiple marketing career paths by offering three distinct conference tracks - brand, agency, and entrepreneur - with a career development break out room. An entire day dedicated to mentoring and developing students’ professional skills and mindsets, SPARKsouth gives marketers at every level the opportunity to connect. 

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Both students and speakers/mentors alike were raving about the success of the event and the overall impact it had on their day, mindset, and future. Multiple students claimed that the breakout sessions helped them gain “clarity” about their path or confirmed their interest in pursuing marketing. 

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The networking aspect itself proved valuable to both parties - attendees gained access to top notch marketers who shared their experiences, failures, and learnings with attendees. And, with so many experienced professionals in the room, marketers got the chance to network with each other as well! 

Time and time again, seasoned marketers expressed how happy they were to give back to the next generation of marketing talent.

Between the 50+ speakers, 50+ mentors, 10+ career development volunteers, and 180+ attendees participating in the conference, the SPARKsouth keynote speeches highlighted three impactful marketers with diverse backgrounds to shed some light on, offer perspective, and grant advice to the attendees: 

• Luigi Ferguson - Head of Global Digital Media, McAfee

• Jenn Vickery - SVP, Digital Strategy, Nebo Agency 

• Julie Bowerman - Chief Global Digital Consumer & Customer Experience Officer, Kellogg Company

The three themes repeatedly articulated throughout the event were: BE CURIOUS, ADD VALUE, DIVERSIFY 

Be Curious, Be Passionate, Be a Hustler. 

“We look for hustlers,” said Moira Vetter, CEO and Founder of Modo Modo Agency when describing the ideal candidate. 

Having a hustler’s mentality was the common element that each speaker shared as the key to their dream job. With the marketing world in a constant state of change, it’s essential for any marketer to have.

What makes a hustler? It’s simple: Curiosity + Passion. Employers can train a candidate to do the job, but they cannot train employees curiosity or passion. Luigi Ferguson, Head of Global Digital Media at McAfee urged attendees to “be open to learn more...[and then] give it your all. That can’t happen unless you’re passionate about it.” 

Multiple speakers emphasized that attendees should explore their passions in order to find happiness and purpose in a career.

Ronnie Roberts, VP of Technology at DEFINITION 6, asked attendees what piqued their interest and encouraged them to go after that. 

“When you’re good, you’re going to excel,” Roberts stated. “When you’re passionate, it will just happen. Pay attention to the cues inside that excite you.” 

Be curious about experiences

While speakers advised students to have self awareness, they also emphasized the importance of openness to unconventional opportunities. Moira Vetter emphasized that her experience - which involved her finishing her degree later in life, working at a gas station, and taking on multiple roles in companies along her journey - shaped her into the marketing leader she is today. 

“You can learn from every experience,” you just need to “get your foot in the door. Being in a career is a constant state of restarting.”

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Alternatively, Ronnie shared, “Don’t take the first job offer - ask yourself if this job is something you really want to do. That being said, it’s not too late to go elsewhere - marketing is lucrative and outside skills translate.”

Julie Bowerman, the Chief Global Digital Consumer and Customer Experience Officer at the Kellogg Company, recommended that young professionals move to another city, claiming it would force them to experience new things. “It will give you growth and a story to tell future employers that you are risk taking,” she claimed. 

Even working for a smaller company could be considered a risk, but speakers like Dylan Floyd, an Associate Manager at The Home Depot, offered that working in a small company teaches ownership and prepares anyone to adapt to the next role. 

Be curious to learn more

Capitalizing on relevant coursework in school is an excellent strategy to prepare for future roles. Internships are a test-run of a company’s operations and also provide immense value.

Derek Reimherr, Analytics Lead at AKQA, said, “Look for upward mobility and test different avenues/rotate different departments or roads to understand what you’re good at. Identify what would make a job better and apply it.”

Learning more can also mean learning more about yourself. Lindsay Howard, Sr. Product Lead for Digital at Chick-fil-A, advised job seekers to take a personality test to uncover the parts of themselves that would make them most effective in a job. She claimed that “a job can only be great if you’re your whole self in it.” By taking personality tests, you can learn about who you are in an objective way, which better equips you to predict how you will fit into the culture of any given team.

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Add Value. 

“Bring your best self every day,” Luigi emphasized in his keynote. Bringing your best self means adding value to every situation - whether that be your job, yourself, or your customers. 

Add value To your company

The best way to bring value to a job is to fully understand it. Julie Bowerman said, “Focus on what you’re doing and do it well. Look for an opportunity to make a difference.”  

Building interdepartmental relationships in an organization can make all the difference. Dylan Floyd advised attendees to reach out to other departments to offer help so that, “not only are you providing value across the organization, but those coworkers can speak to your worth.”

Julie Bowermann echoed Dylan’s sentiment, advising students to “Act like a CEO. Understand all aspects of a company including finance and sales to think holistically.”

Moira Vetter mentioned that an employee who can understand the unspoken and spoken cues of the business can grow into management and tell leaders what they need to hear. 

Add value To your employees + Yourself

Other ways to add value to a job is to maintain a positive attitude. A negative attitude can steamroll an entire operation. Dylan emphasized that she needs to be the person to rally her team and avoid negative emotions or stress that could potentially bleed into work.

Working on oneself is a constant work in progress, but it's easy to get caught up in the negative and compare to other people succeeding in the same field.

It’s important to “run your own race,” Lindsay Howard told the attendees. During your career, you need to “build your own character by adopting a giving attitude to build relationships.” Jenn Vickery, SVP of Digital Strategy at Nebo Agency also emphasized the value of focusing on your own journey. 

To be a better team player and marketer, young professionals need to invest in the “soft skills” that build compassion and empathy. 

The compassion for others should apply to oneself to avoid burnout as well. Throughout the event, speakers warned that overworking leads to becoming easily tired of a passion they once loved.

As a leader, Rob Farinella, CEO and Founder of Blue Sky Agency, tries to be sensitive to this sort of thing as a leader, realizing that sometimes a client needs to be let go in order to look out for the well being of the staff. 

Luigi Ferguson reaffirmed the importance of boundaries, saying, “If I don’t take care of myself, no one else will.”

Avoid becoming tired by setting boundaries, taking necessary breaks, attending the happy hours, being a part of company social events, stepping out when needed, etc. 

Add value To your customers 

At the end of the day, a marketers job is to connect consumers with the product or service in order to solve the consumer’s problem. During Luigi’s keynote presentation, he shared that only 3% of consumers trust marketers. 

In order to earn back the other 97% of consumer trust, marketers need to be authentic. That starts with thinking about consumer problems and becoming a master at finding solutions to those problems. 

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Diversify. 

Diversify your skill set by branching out and taking other jobs to expand your experience, diversify your approach to marketing by evaluating competitors, or literally diversify your staff with a collection of different people with varying outlooks and backgrounds. 

Diversify your education 

Although some moderators shared that further education is not necessary for some fields, some expressed that working towards a graduate degree after a few years of work experience is beneficial. Dr. Alvin Glay, Vice President of Growth and Strategy at Response Media, said getting his Doctorate helped put the studying into practice where he can now use the theory learned to make stronger and more strategic business decisions. 

Read Related: The Importance of Continuing Marketing Education

However, it’s important to note that multiple speakers and marketers in general follow different, unconventional paths - so don’t ever get discouraged!

Diversify your business

Businesses need to evolve to keep up in the modern world. Maintaining the same 20 year old strategy is not going to diversify one business from its competitors. Moira Vetter and Julie Bowerman both get ahead by looking outside of the company they are working with to grow their business. 

Diversify your network + Team

This should go without saying, but networking could quite possibly be the single most important aspect in business. A better blend of people offers different perspectives and an opportunity to grow more. 

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Multiple panels also discussed the proper approach to finding a mentor which involves finding a respected individual who’s journey speaks to you. People ultimately want to help one another. Younger professionals should take advantage of this by asking a mentor to grab a cup of coffee or chat on the phone for 15 minutes to review a resume or cover letter - as long as they make connecting easy for the mentor. 

Read this attendee’s takeaways about what she learned regarding networking.

Special thanks to:

• UGA’s Terry College of Business for providing SPARKsouth with a venue and lunch

• The Metro Atlanta universities that encouraged their students to attend, including The University of North Georgia, Georgia State University, Georgia Institute of Technology, + Kennesaw State University

• The SPARKsouth sponsors which included UGA’s Terry College of Business, Nebo Agency, Setup, 22squared, and Simpli.fi

• And Jason Seagle for the incredible photos!

Plans are already in the works for the 2020 edition of SPARKsouth. To make it even more spectacular, reach out to become a sponsor, speaker, mentor, or attendee at http://SPARKsouth.com/contact

We’ll see you next year!