Werkhouse weekend
What is werkhouse: Werkhouse is a weekend workshop that introduces young creatives, students or career changers (18-30 year olds) to the creative industry. A creative sprint in preparation for the marathon that is your working life. A taster of how it really works and how quickly you can magic up a bright idea from a blank page; when it really counts.
Werkhouse was the springboard that introduced me to my first job in the creative industry and it was an absolute pleasure to return as a team leader on behalf of Halo this year.
So what the heck is it? Well it’s 35 students, 21 professionals with 2 days to tackle 1 brief. And this is how it played out.
DAY 1: Briefing, interrogation and ideation.
Croissants, coffees and chatter set day one in motion. Followed by a briefing where we met our client. Once again Werkhouse had brought a brilliant real brief to the table! This year it was for Penny Brohn, a charity that helps people to live well with Cancer. They entrusted our students with a real life strategic opportunity, how exciting!
After briefing and with a great sense of purpose, the teams divided and jumped in to interrogate and ideate, getting all those initial thoughts down on paper. They also got the opportunity to question the client and really pick their brains in search of that key insight. If not knowing each other beforehand wasn’t enough, we also threw in a rotation of creative directors throughout the day to stir things up!
Our intermission for the first day was a discussion around workplace health and wellbeing and the expectations from all parties; which was incredibly insightful and honest. Werkhouse has always aimed to tackle industry problems, which I think is a brilliant addition to the weekend. This year seemed to really highlight a variety of issues and also great solutions that are being instilled across the industry.
DAY 2: Refinement, preparation and presentation
After a well needed sleep, we kick off day two. Post-its and scribbles pour from the walls and day two is where we refine and prepare for the presentation. Yep, we put them in front of the client too. But before this we take our lunch and have an introduction into the varied roles across the agencies, giving valuable insight into what career paths are available. Something that I was unaware of myself as a student. Following this short break we regather the teams and presentations begin. A proud moment for all the team leaders as they get to see their teams initial nerves turn into brilliant creative performance. Unsurprisingly the client was thrilled, as were we!
By 6pm it is all wrapped up and we are all ready for a beer and a chin-wag. Another successful workhouse complete. It’s safe to say we are all very excited to see where the client takes the mountain of creative ideas that poured from each and every team, but more importantly where our students go from here. Their ability to take a challenging brief, jump wholeheartedly into working in a new team, take varied feedback and present a cohesive and exciting idea at the end was amazing. They should all be incredibly proud of what they achieved in less than 24hrs.
Why do we get stuck in?
At Halo we believe that business should be used as a force for good. Going beyond our own organisation and playing an important role in our community and industry. By offering up training, knowledge sharing, providing feedback and sharing expertise to upcoming local talent, we can make a positive difference. Werkhouse and our internship programmes enable that to happen and we are proud to have supported this initiative again this year. It also fits in very nicely with why we have become BCorp certified and our goals for collective action. Joining 1000 businesses in the UK who think the same as we do.
