NABS Gets Set to Fast Forward Rising Stars
NABS’ annual flagship training programme Fast Forward is set to give the industry’s hottest young talent the chance to learn directly from some of the most respected figures in advertising and media.
Over the course of a ten-week programme (Sept 11th – Nov 13th), industry luminaries including Jeremy Bullmore, James Murphy and Stewart Sullivan-Martin will give their time to deliver bespoke sessions on a range of key industry skills covering insights, strategy, briefing, pitching and much more.
The programme is designed to assist the industry’s rising stars who have between one and three years experience to ‘Fast Forward’ their careers.
Delegates are nominated by their companies and work in multi-disciplinary teams alongside NABS mentors responding to a challenging client brief. These teams will put into practice skills and knowledge that they have taken on board during weekly sessions to present against one another in a high tension pitch scenario on 6th November.
This year’s programme boasts new speakers, mentors and judges as well as regular participants from previous years.
New mentor Jo Arden, head of strategy at 23red comments: “The NABS Fast Forward programme is the perfect blend of inspiration, team work and practical application. I'm looking forward to working with the young people that will shape our industry tomorrow and those that are doing so today.”
Mark Lund, co-founder and managing partner of Now (former CEO of the COI), is Fast Forward’s newly appointed chairman. Fast Forward was set up 15 years ago by legendary industry godfather Jeremy Bullmore.
Mark said: "I'm delighted to be chairing this initiative. It's a brilliant course that gets such great speakers and mentors because it's regarded so well by the industry. If you want to learn a lot in a short time it's a must.”
The judges at the final pitch session consist of some of the industry’s biggest names; John Bartle (BBH) chairman of the judging panel will be joined by Nick Theakstone (Group M), Danny Rogers (editor, Campaign and editor-in-chief of the Brand Republic Group), Mark Lund (Now) and Zoë Osmond (NABS).
Zoë Osmond, CEO of NABS said: “Fast Forward offers a fantastic opportunity for hungry, young advertising and media professionals to ramp up their skills and learn from some of our industry’s greatest minds whilst taking advantage of peer-to-peer, cross-sector opportunities that only NABS can offer. It also gives them an opportunity to experience the tensions and drama of a real life pitch scenario.
“Each year we see a wonderfully good natured, hard working but competitive group of rising stars who give their all to deliver some fantastic responses to what is always a truly challenging brief. Although there can only be one winning team, everyone who takes part in Fast Forward learns an enormous amount. What’s more, each year our judges continue to be blown away by the extraordinary young talent that our industry has in its ranks.”
This year’s Fast Forward features a raft of influential speakers including: Jeremy Bullmore (WPP) James Murphy (adam&eveDDB), Andy Nairn (start-up Lucky Generals) Stuart Sullivan-Martin (MEC) Richard Denney and Dave Henderson (DLKW Lowe) Kerry Glazer (AAR) and Helen Welsinger (The Portas Agency).
