CreateAthon on campus 2012 VCU

Check us and the whole CreateAthon journey out at: http://www.createathononcampus.org/ My name is Spencer Woodall, I m a creative advertising student at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond,VA, and I was selected to be a team leader for VCU's CreateAthon onCampus. This is the story of my trip to non-profit awesomeness.

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CreateAthon is electric. Super energetic. Jolinda Smithson talks #CreateAthon as a mentor.

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It’s all here. (Taken with instagram)

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Mounting party. #vcucreates2012 (Taken with instagram)

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:( How will I carry the CreateAthon torch and spread the word?

:( 

This post is bittersweet to me, it is the last one of CreateAthon and I couldn't have asked for a better experience. When it comes to spreading the word of CreateAthon I feel like I already have in so many ways every opportunity I get I manage to tell someone about it. Like for example I had a job interview a few weeks ago and one of the questions was what have you done to change the world, and of course CreateAthon came out of my mouth faster than a speeding bullet. The response to my quickness was, "I knew I was a good person, but it would have taken me 3 times as long to come up with something that good."

CreateAthon is not just something you do and forget about, it is something that the experience will stick with you forever, way longer than that first week at summer camp. I plan on spreading the word though the use of this blog, the awesome work my team and I did, and the same way I said above, using any given opportunity I can to tell someone about it. 

Good luck to all of the future CreateAthoner's I know your work will be awesome and you will experience the same things I have and feel equally as lighthearted. 

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What I Would Change About CreateAthon

There are few things that  come to mind when I think about making changes to make CreateAthon better because it is/was one of the best experiences of my life thus far. Also I'm not really one to complain about things, it's hard for me to do. 

If I could change anything it would be that the CreateAthon experience isn't long enough. (haha) As for the actual event I think that there should be a mandatory no working periods, like when were all eating for example (no working lunch). I would also change the fact that we really only got one meeting with the mentors, I personally thought we should have had another check in with them maybe around midnight. Other than this mini rant I have no other complaints only good things to say and I hope CreateAthon is as successful if not more successful than what it was this year. 

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CARTER PRINTING

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CARTER PRINTING! aka the happiest place on earth

IT WAS THE BEST PLACE EVER!

Pretty much Santa’s Workshop meets Disney World. It was a pretty cool experience, that all of the words that I know cannot do it justice, to see the work you designed going through the process of being printed. It’s very surreal and extremely awesome at the same time. I would have loved to hang out there all day and just learn and watch the whole process over and over again. Its very interesting and I’m getting all giddy thinking about it again, so I’m going to stop before I get over stimulated, but here are some pictures. 

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this is how i work.

I feel like for a very long time I’ve had a pretty good grasp on knowing how I as a human being work and deal with challenges. I knew that CreateAthon was going to be one of my biggest challenges to date so my ways of working were going to be put to the test. 

Things I Already Knew

(in brief)

-       I can not work in complete silence

-       I work extremely well under pressure

-       I have the worlds worst ADHD (I use it to my advantage)

-       I work better with other people than alone

Things I Learned

-       I can stay up all night and focused with out copious amounts of coffee

-       Sometimes I need to have alone time to think

-       I am pretty good at answering random questions

-       ‘Fake It Till You Make It’

-       I don’t mind working on the computer for long periods of time

-       It is possible to not get distracted by Facebook/Tumblr

-       I don’t need my iPhone as a distraction

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What I learned About Working With Clients

1) Communication is KEY 

    One of the great things about my client, among a list of many, was that they were all really good about saying in contact with me and in a very timely manner. Meetings somehow always worked out even when they were on extreme short notice, and when we had a hiccup in communication we always managed to work through it. 

2) Having a Trusting Relationship 

This is something that will come with time and it all depends on how you act. My client was very open to my ideas as I was to theirs, I think this helped in building this relationship that will hopeful last a lifetime. 

3)Even though you may be different you can still find something to connect on. 

4) Not all Clients are created equal. But mine was pretty awesome. I couldn't imagine being stuck with anyone else. (and I'm using stuck in a good way) But keep that open mind and you will be in good shape.

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PROOFS

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me during createathon, ha.

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A CreateAthon A Day Keeps the Doctor Away

Why should you do CreateAthon?  

Good question, right? The answer is simple it is one of the most interesting opportunities you will have in college. The feeling of doing it is something incomparable. After leaving the event I thought I was going to be ready to fall asleep walking home, but it was actually very different experience I felt like I was walking on a cloud, so if you enjoy that feeling CreateAthon is for you!! 

Basically this is one all nighter that you will be excited to pull. 

The main thing to keep in mind if you are applying for CreateAthon is to NOT look at it like it is just something to put on your resume bc it is way more than that, and with that mind set you will get swallowed. This is a great opportunity to gain way more that that, you will gain new friends, mentors, awesome networking, a new appreciation for people who work the night shift and most importantly a taste of the real world. OH and you might make someone cry, but in a good way. 

It is interesting to me that there are not more places that take advantage of such an awesome opportunity, and now thanks to Matt Whitt and the CreateAthon team it will be much easier to spread the word to other schools to jump on the fun wagon. 

And theres a video down here 

Also there another video a few posts ago to future CreateAthoners. 

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Elizabeth Gilbert: A new way to think about creativity

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Collaboration makes us happy.

What the world needs now, is love sweet love. It’s the only thing that theres just too little of.

Collaboration is like a big ol pot of love. As a team leader for CreateAthon this was one of my biggest fears, that my team and I would not mesh well at all. My mind was set at ease when we went to the meet and greet and everything was awesome, actually better than awesome. This whole better than awesome undesirable thing continued to the event. By the end of the event we were all having a huge jam session to the greatest hits of the 90's and cranking out amazing work. We lost one team member during the event, but it was all gravy. If anything losing that person brought us closer together. (i think the lack of sleep also lead us to this, because we also collaborated in a literal sense by having a shoulder to rest your head on) By the end of the event we were all a little sad to leave each other and the room that we had all spent more than 24 hours together in. 

In the real world the phenomenon  of collaboration I feel is not as evident as  in a previous time. People now are more focused inwards and only really come together when something happens to them directly or something happens with something directly related to them. Hopefully though all of our experiences with CreateAthon we can spread a little love and make collaboration for things other than work something a little bit more prevalent. 

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Where Are You Now?

Here we are post event and I realize I have been majorly slacking on blogging about what has been happening in the crazy awesome world of CreateAthon. Also I've been bombarded with the awesome question "now that its over what are you doing?"  Well to answer that, we are now post event we have been working on making revisions, soon things will be sent off to the printer, then we get to have a big party. There is a lot of work to be done between now and then, personally giving the deliverables to ACTS is going to be the cherry on top of this awesome adventure that I never want to end. 

The next little sprinkle (I'm now going to compare everything to and ice cream sunday) is a big field trip we are taking to the printer to see how things work, I have not been on a field trip since maybe sophomore year of high school so I am stoked, too bad my mom isn't here to pack my lunch. 

I don't think I can say enough times how thrilled I am with the work my team and I have done, as well as how much ACTS enjoyed it all. I cannot wait to see the final stuff! I just know that display board is going to be HUGE!!!

As Thomas Edison said, "There is no substitute for hard work." Never really before have these words been truer than now with CreateAthon, but its fun hard work!  

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CreateAthon promo video!!!