The RAF is hard at work.

In these days of governmental shutdowns, I knew I needed to finally log onto this blog as the new RAF President and let our membership know that The Rochester Advertising Federation has been hard at work to kick off the new cycle of programming geared for the marketing and creative industries here in Rochester.

The RAF 2013-2014 season started with the annual board retreat last month. I’m extremely proud of the board we assembled this year. We have what has to be the most diverse board ever assembled by the RAF — a true cross-section of our dynamic communications industry here. The board chairs span agencies (Brand Cool, Jay, Partners and Napier, Martino Flynn, Dixon Schwabl, Truth Collective), photography (Studio 2b), client side/in-house creative and social marketing roles (Wegmans, Rochester Museum and Science Center, Carestream, Xerox), education (Nazareth College), freelancers (Hamilton Creative Ltd, Fishing Poet), production (www.akashea.com), media (Butler Till Media) , and not-for-profit marketing (Ad Council of Rochester).

Our goal has been to quickly shift into high-gear, and this new board is certainly off-and-running. We’re now putting the final touches on the first event of the fall — Wednesday’s Octoberfest edition of 20 Minutes and a Beer. Our first 20MAAB features past-RAF President T.C. Pellett , now PR manager at Brand Cool, sharing his thoughts on the brand impact of sustainability marketing. In addition to giving the floor to our beloved past president (and let’s take a moment to thank T.C. for a serving the RAF so gracefully as president. *Insert golf clap here.*), our 20MAAB event is featuring a new home, the Back 9 Grill in Pittsford. We hope this location can not only provide the right atmosphere for our dynamic group, but also be a convenient destination for both downtown professionals as well as those situated in the suburbs. Please come out to learn a bit about this relevant topic, and partake in some networking, a few laughs and a solid selection of fall beers.

A thought-provoking 20MAAB schedule is just the beginning. The RAF is in full-blown planning and development-mode of several events and initiatives to keep our community engaged with one another and the industry beyond Western New York. Soon you will be hearing about our popular Cannes Lions event, the future of The ADDYs, more opportunities to engage with students of our field, and programming geared toward freelancers building on the success of our Freelance Fresh event from this past June.

We are also looking to maximize the way we communicate with our membership and provide value to our members. We’re currently developing a new website with the help of our friends at We Make Nice Websites designed to continually evolve and better reflect the topics and events we all care about. Additionally, our membership will have new ways to share credentials and connect with one another so the site can become a unique networking resource for our market. Plus we’re looking hard at our membership levels to ensure that this organization continues to be relevant for individuals and organizations of all sizes and types.

Lastly, we are going to try hard to become more consistent curators of content on this blog, as well as in larger forums with the help of the partnership with our steadfast sponsor, Xerox. Together with this global technology and business services leader, the RAF board and its membership has the opportunity to share its perspective on print’s relevance in today’s marketing mix by guest blogging on Xerox’s Digital Printing Hot Spot Blog. We know you’re an opinionated bunch, so why not put your unique point of views to use for this organization and simultaneously boost your own publishing cred with help from Xerox’s worldwide influence. Please let me know if you’d like to contribute a guest post to the Xerox blog.

I’m really excited to connect with you and the rest of the creative community that makes up our unique and exciting membership throughout the Rochester area. Our new board is dedicated to carrying the torch of the Rochester Advertising Federation, but as always we’d love to hear from you and see as much participation in our programming as possible as it rolls out. Thank you for your patience as we’ve gathered ourselves, but I can tell you that the wait for this new RAF year is over. See you on Wednesday night.

Jeremy Schwartz
RAF President 2013-2014
Partner, Truth Collective.