Adcetera Digital

Hello all! This summer I spent 12 weeks working with the Digital and Strategy departments at Adcetera. I had a great time and I learned so much! I also forgot how hot Houston can be in the summer. I was able to “beat the heat” by staying indoors at Adcetera’s amazing office in Midtown Houston. My major projects included Digital Signage qualifications and assessments, along with Music Licensing research.

Earlier this summer, I and some of my classmates in Austin decided to put together a South by Southwest (SXSW) conference proposal about working internships in the interactive realm. As luck would have it, we created a “solid proposal” in the eyes of the SXSW staff. Our proposal moved on to the next round and is now posted online for voting through SXSW’s Panel Picker. There are just over 2,000 proposals to be voted on, and around 500 will be chosen.

Anyone can vote, so I would greatly appreciate it if any of you would give our panel a “thumbs up.” Speaking at this conference is a great opportunity. My classmates and I hope we are able to do so!

Here is the link:
MBA’s Discuss Interactive Internships

If that doesn’t work, you can go here:
SXSW Panel Picker Registration

Create an account, then under “Interactive Proposals” look for “Pick Our Brains: MBAs Discuss Interactive Internships” by Kathleen Kirk.

And in case you’re wondering, the purpose of the panel is to allow industry execs to ask questions about internships (are they useful?, should they pay?, what to do, what not to do, etc.).

Thanks Adcetera for a great summer!

Hello all! I’m Katie, Adcetera’s summer intern. I am a graduate student pursuing an MBA in Digital Media Management at St. Edward’s University in Austin.  I started my assignment with Adcetera this past week on Monday, May 24^th. I will be working for 12 weeks, and rotating between four different departments. My first six weeks will be in Digital – first with Interactive Services, and then with Motion.

On my first day I met many new people and was introduced to the team at the daily AM meeting. The company gets together every morning to discuss current projects and deadlines. These meetings are actually quite fun and have proven to be the best part of my mornings while working here. The meetings are always preempted over company intercom with some throwback track or something you would hear on Jock Jams Volume 2. No matter what gets played, it undoubtedly puts a smile on my face.

The best part of my first day was going to lunch with Kristy, John, Pagogh, & Scott. We ate at a nearby café and talked about everything from Neil Patrick Harris to high school proms and tattoos. I also recall a few Canadian jokes…

My first week involved research, talking with potential vendors, having my picture taken in the studio, getting to know the digital team, rewriting processes for digital signage, and watching a voice over take place in the studio. Being in the studio and watching the voiceover take place was the highlight of my week. Being in the recording studio environment at Adcetera reminded me of watching the behind the scenes of a Disney or animated film. It was a fun experience. Scott and Gus recorded Matt’s voice for a short video already filmed from the week before. …And who knew that Matt could make 30 or so different coughing noises? …I don’t think he realized he could till he was in the studio as well!

It was a busy and exciting week! I’ll be sure to report back later this summer with an update!

-Katie

This month’s presenter is a force to be reckoned with – Ms. Nancy Zastudil (of The Necessarian blog and @The_Necessarian) will be discussing two amazing projects that she is working on:

Project Athena
Nancy is hard at work raising funds and awareness for a 4-day hike through the Grand Canyon with Project Athena, an organization that helps women who have had medical setbacks or life-threatening injuries meet their athletic goals.

PLAND
An off-the-grid residency program that supports the development of experimental and research-based projects in the context of the Taos mesa (www.itspland.org). PLAND has recently received an Idea Fund grant (www.theideafund.org) which deeply links us to Texas in general, specifically Houston. We are located in an extremely remote area of New Mexico and want to remain camouflaged yet somehow build a strong, visible network of support.

Nancy’s inspiring presentation will beg answers to the following questions:
How to #SLGT (support local, grow together) when you’re a nomad?
How to maintain tech savvy visibility when you aim to stay off-the-grid?

Join one phenomenal Houston Net2 this month!!!

What
Project Athena and PLAND chat with Nancy Zastudil

When
Tuesday, April 13, 2010 at 7:00 PM

Where
Stag’s Head Pub
2128 Portsmouth St.
Houston TX 77098
(713) 533-1199

Learn more and RSVP

Thanks to Katie Laird of Schipul for organizing this event.

1. Unless you’re still pounding the keys on a manual typewriter, stop using two spaces between sentences. Just one space is fine. Really. Personal computers, word processors, and proportional fonts make double-spaces unnecessary and obsolete.
2. The correct figure of speech for adding content to an outline is “fleshed out,” not “flushed out.” If the outline is a skeleton, then details are the flesh. Or “meat,” if you prefer. Gruesome, isn’t it?
3. Periods and commas should be placed before (inside) a quotation mark. For example: “If at first you don’t succeed,” the saying goes, “try and try again.”
4. Apostrophes have three jobs: possession (Mason’s desk), contraction (won’t be clean), or omission (‘til doomsday). NEVER use an apostrophe to create a plural. For example: I have too many DVDs and CDs (not DVD’s and CD’s).
5. It’s (with an apostrophe) is always a contraction of “it is” or “it has.” Its (without apostrophe) is always possessive — like his, hers, theirs, and yours. No apostrophe needed. For example: It’s [it is] not clear how the iPod got its name, but it’s [it has] certainly made its mark.
6. You’re (with an apostrophe) is always a contraction of “you are.” Your (without apostrophe) is always possessive — like his, her, their, or my. For example: When you’re not your own worst enemy, you’re your own best friend.
7. An ellipsis (…) should have spaces before and after it. And just three points, not four. Even when an ellipsis follows a period, it should have spaces around it. For example: A is for apple. … Z is for zebra.
8. Nobody gets this one right: the word comprise means “include” or “embrace.” It replaces (and can be replaced by) the phrase “is/are composed of.” One large thing comprises many small things, while many small things compose one large thing. Nothing is “comprised of” anything. Ever.
9. A semicolon (;) marks a significant break in a sentence — stronger than a comma but weaker than a period. It can separate items in a series that are especially complex or have their own punctuation, and it can join sentences without a conjunction.
10. Avoid using the word impact as a verb if you can possibly help it — use affect or influence instead. And remember that an impact is a forceful, destructive blow — impacts are not good things.
11. Most of the time, affect is a verb and effect is a noun. For example: Rain and weather affect traffic; the effect is frustrating, but predictable.
12. Your palate is the roof of your mouth, or your sense of taste. A palette is the flat tray on which an artist mixes paints, or a menu of artistic choices. And a pallet is a platform on which things are stacked. For example: I burned my palate drinking hot coffee while stacking art supplies (palettes and paint) on a shipping pallet.
13. “They’re” is always a contraction of “they are.” “Their” is always possessive — like his, her, your, or my. “There” is multitalented — adverb, adjective, pronoun, noun … whatever you need it to be. For example: They’re different over there, with their strange foreign ways.
14. There’s (with an apostrophe) is always a contraction of “there is” or “there has.” Theirs (without apostrophe) is always possessive — like his, hers, yours, or mine. For example: There’s [there is] no other music like theirs today, and there’s [there has] never been any like it before.
15. For a strong break in a sentence, use a full dash (—), not a small dash (–) or hyphen (-). A full dash is usually called an “em-dash” because it’s approximately the width of a capital letter M in most fonts.
16. Hyphens (-) can break up numbers like your phone number or social security number. But when you want to show a range of values between two points, you should use a small “en-dash” (–) instead of a hyphen. For example: 10–15 minutes, pages 155–192, 10:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m., Monday–Friday, May 1 – June 31
17. Be careful not to use the word irony when you really mean coincidence or tragedy. It’s only ironic if you think the universe might be laughing at you. Lots of people have a hard time with this. I blame Alanis Morissette.