We love being a part of the Grand Rapids community. You probably already know this because you see us EVERYWHERE. Our specialty is to divide and conquer, with each team member taking on a different community event during the week. The past week saw a lot of great events, from fundraising to networking and professional development. Below is a recap of all the events we enjoyed the past week.
Seeds of GROWth, Oct. 4
We were thrilled to support our client GROW at its annual Seeds of GROWth fundraiser. Held at the JW Marriot, the event was a celebration of GROW, all the women who have benefited from the organization, as well as women entrepreneurs making a mark in the world. During the lunch, special awards were given out for leadership, business of the year and the Lee Ann Moss Volunteer of the Year. Shortly after the awards were handed out, keynote speaker Gwen Jimmere took to the stage. Jimmere is the CEO and founder of Naturalicious and the first African American woman to hold a patent for a natural hair product. She went from making her Naturalicious products in her home to having them sold internationally and on the shelves of retailers like Whole Foods. After the keynote speech, two GROW business owners were featured: Mallory Root of Roots Brew Shop and Faye Richardson-Green of Richardson-Green consulting. The afternoon was closed out with remarks by Dr. Jackie Taylor.
AdFed Digital + Physical: A Marketing Love Story, Oct. 5.
Peter Corbett is the CEO of Ad Age’s Small Agency of the Year Award, iStrategyLabs. Peter came to Grand Rapids all the way from NYC to share his team’s amazing work with the members of The Advertising Federation of West Michigan. He showed us some impressive work with Redd’s Apple and how they pulled off a 17-hour-long live stream for Twitch audiences to get hyped up for the show, Mr. Robot. Besides getting inspired by iStrategyLab’s work, we were also motivated by Peter’s background. He took his agency from a one-man-show in his apartment, to a small agency winning many reputable awards. The one piece of advice from Peter at this event that we’d most like to share with you is, if you want to but have not come across the opportunity to create these riskier and exciting campaigns, do so to market yourself!
WMCAT’s Leave Your Mark Luncheon, Oct. 11
The West Michigan Center for Arts and Technology (WMCAT) held a VIP luncheon for members of the community to learn more about what the organization does and get familiar with its #LeaveYourMarkGR campaign. Currently, WMCAT is fundraising to purchase and build out a space on Grand Rapids’ west side. The new location will double the space WMCAT currently uses and Leave Your Mark is a way to raise awareness and funds for the new location and neighborhood revitalization. The highlight of the event was when a WMCAT student named Keloni was brought up to give a speech about how her life was impacted by the organization. Currently studying at Grand Rapids Community College, Keloni has been a part of WMCAT since her freshman year of high school. To learn more about the Leave Your Mark campaign and to donate, visit
leaveyourmarkgr.org.
Harvest Spirits and Social, Oct. 11
We love our clients, partners and friends. To show them some love, we hosted a special event at Brighton Graye’s alongside our friends at Priority HR and Honor Construction. The evening was a huge success, with dozens of awesome people showing up to network, eat and sip on the two signature drinks we had available for guests. We hope all who attended had as much fun as we did and we want to extend a huge thank you to our attendees and Brighton Graye’s.
What about you? Any fun community events you want to share?
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