This year we joined Think Local First.  We're excited about the potential to work with other local companies and be a part of the success of these businesses as they enrich our community.

Recently I had another experience of thinking local first.  I attended a Career Expo at the University of Michigan's School of Art and Design.  Thanks to U of M's career development coordinator, John Luther, I had the great pleasure of interviewing communications artists on the cusp of graduation who are now looking for employment.  Each has almost completed a very fine program that develops gook thinking as well as good creating. 

I was at the career day because we're looking for new talent.  Over the years we've had significant success through our internship program with students like these.  In some cases we were the launch point to a first job elsewhere and in some cases that first job was with us.  One of the great things for all MOVIANS--intern, strategic partners or staff--is that we have the opportunity to work in the very eclectic and multi-disciplined field of integrated marketing communications.  This diversity of approaches and talent was exemplified for me by the variety of skills I saw in the portfolios of the seven artists whose work I reviewed that day.  Each was inspired by an interest of theirs which led them to develop a capability in some aspect of the business to further this interest.  For one woman who had a passion for running (she qualified for the Boston Marathon) it was applying design skills to generate an interactive training calendar for marathon runners.  For another it was applying information management and type execution to better communicate with new immigrants.  For another it was her love for the theatre that led her to create show posters. 

But after finding should come doing.  So we chose a partner team to work with us from this group of seven whose skills matched the requirements for an R&D project for one of our customers.  We got together at Espresso Royale on U of M's campus, brainstormed how to refine the concept, built a better structure to express these developments and then went into production.  After a few back and forth refinements we had a prototype we could show to the client on a mobile device. 

The moral of this story: There's a lot of talent in our community.  Consider how you can open up to more of it.  I think you'll be pleased, as we are, with the outcome.