Events - The Media Event
Joining pack for those attending (pdf or word)
Description of event: This long-established, informal careers event held is the prime focus for Cambridge students who want to find out more about careers in journalism, broadcasting, film, publishing, science communication, media law and media management.
It usually attracts 400-500 students (from first-year undergraduates to final-year PhDs and alumni). They are given the opportunity to meet about 30 employers/professional bodies/course providers and 40 individual graduates who have come along to talk about their opportunities and experiences to the visiting students and alumni.
List of 2009 participants here
Open To: National and local media organisations who take on graduates regularly or from time to time; media course providers and media industry associations; individual graduates now working in media jobs (many are Cambridge alumni); student media societies.
Cost: There is no charge for this event. Donations from organisations are always welcome, and sponsorship opportunities are available. (This event runs at a loss, since many of the participants are individual graduates attending in their own time, and the Careers Service pays their travel expenses.)
Further Information: Benefits to organisations: a chance to get the facts of media life across to enthusiastic students who are willing to learn; free publicity and free information about your organisation on the dedicated Media section of our Careers Service website. 'We have taken on several students on work placements and short-term contracts on the strength of meeting them at the Event' (TV & Radio Production Company CEO)
Benefits to individual attendees: the opportunity to share experiences with your Cambridge contemporaries and with students still at the university, and to make new contacts which may be mutually beneficial.
The format of the event over the last four years has proved very successful. For the 2009 event, however, we decided not to run talks during the Event itself – instead the Careers Service ran 2 informative careers evenings during the preceding fortnight. As a result, students came to the Event better briefed about working in the media and with more time for uninterrupted discussion with the participants during the course of the evening.
Event Programme: A website for our students is created for each event. At previous events, participants were asked to provide a career biography. For organisations, this included text about each organisation, together with a short biography for each representative attending the event. Individual graduate participants were asked to provide a biography only. These texts are published on the Event website and remain live for the whole of the following year, forming a major information source about the participants for our users. Shortly before the Event, we create a printed Event programme from these texts which is distributed to our students attending the Event.
Disclaimer: Submitted booking forms will be acknowledged by us on receipt. We seek to offer our students the widest range of experience within this sector and so must reserve the right to decline a booking request.