"Why would any company want to engage you guys for a project?"

"Why would any company want to engage you guys for a project?"

The question was asked in all sincerity.

It wasn't meant as a put down or an insult. The person asking was genuinely curious, and truly wondering what industry engagement with the SP MAD School had to offer to any company.

The question was asked in a series of meetings with a local government agency that was organised to learn more about each other's organisations and how we could collaborate on common areas.

So really, why would any company want to collaborate with us?

I paused slightly before answering. Not because I wasn't sure how to answer that, but more so is that I seldom pause to reflect and look back at how far our Industry Engagement & Collaboration Team had come since its formation.

4 years ago, we merged 3 existing schools in SP to form the new SP MAD School. The IE Team was also newly formed with the 4 of us. None of us were trained in business development and we came from differing design & creative backgrounds.

When we started, we were so desperate to get projects and so afraid to say no to industry partners. It was only after 4 months, we began to find ourselves and our purpose and mission became clear to us.

At that point, we were asked to take on a video production project and the potential client was willing to pay $30, 000 to produce corporate videos for them. We were told we had a month to deliver the 3 videos. The potential client didn't want to be involved in the process or meet the student teams and wanted us to simply produce the deliverables. The whole time it felt like a client-vendor relationship.

It didn't feel right, though the payment was good. (By our standards anyway!) And after much deliberation, we plucked the courage to say no, and walked away from the project.

It was this moment that became pivotal for what Industry Engagement for the MAD school stood for. We came to realise what we were not, and what we didn't want to do. It also began to define the type of projects we will take on and the kinds of industry partners we want to work with.

We agreed we did not want to simply be another student creative, talent, media or design agency that simply churns out projects or function like a production house. The projects we take on need to be a win-win, where students are able to engage and learn from industry partners feedback, and in the process produce work that is of real value to our industry partners.

Industry partners come to us because they recognise that our Gen Z student creatives and designers bring a unique perspective to projects, and to a particular emerging target market.

As the Industry Engagement front for the SP MAD School, we are able to bring projects together for industry partners in the following areas:

• Animation & Games
• Sound & Music
• Story & Content Creation
• Visual Communication & Motion Design
• Experience & Product Design
• Digital Media & Communication
• Creative Community Engagement with Psychology

If you want to find out more about the kind of works we do, click on the links below...

Selected Works:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLuBRCuj5wKWweKr9geI0b10JC319UlCpJ

Our gallery of other works...

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCB75doxp2ojBrKcZgwVK2uA

If you think SP MAD will be a good match as a collaborative partner for you, reach out to me and we can have a chat to explore possible collaborations.