Author: Portfolio Creative

If you don’t already have plans to attend, check out the Columbus Arts Festival this weekend. After years on the riverfront, last year it moved to the Discovery District due to construction. I love the new location and hope the event thrives there. There’s just something so right about an arts festival being near an art college, art museum and a giant Art sign! Maybe I’ll see you there….

CCAD has opened registration for summer classes…along with the usual figure drawing and painting fare, this one really caught my eye:

Heists and Forgery: Art History
This course is a comprehensive history of stolen and forged art; who does it, why, and how. We will examine famous cases of museum heists, and explore the debate of institutionalized theft; one country, government, regime, or institution stealing from another. Offering an insight into the controversial reality of the art industry, this course will examine the often hidden side of private and public collections. Students will explore processes professionals use to determine whether an art object is real or fake. This course will include lecture, discussion, interactive activities and extended time at the Columbus Museum of Art.

Theft and intrigue, taught by our very own Brian Williams!

Last weekend I gave the commencement speech at School of Advertising Art in Dayton. With fifty-five graduates, family and friends, instructors and staff from the school, the audience was a total of about 500 people. To be honest, when they first asked me I was petrified and about to say no, but Catherine talked me into it.

What an incredible experience! Feeling completely unprepared for what I had just agreed to, I spent two weeks of intense work with a speech coach. He helped me develop topics, write a speech and practice, practice, practice. It was hard, stressful, frustrating…yes, at one point there was a meltdown over how I was going to deliver the opening line.

But I’d do it all over again. By pushing myself to do something I was absolutely not comfortable with, I learned a lot about the process and myself. Now I’m much more confident anytime someone asks me to speak. I know how to organize a topic, structure a speech and work on the delivery. More than anything, I know I can do it. And confidence is the biggest hurdle to overcome. Believing that you can do something is half the battle.

I seem to do something about once a year that I feel absolutely afraid of, overwhelmed by, or unqualified for. And it always turns out to be an amazing experience! I encourage you to try something completely outside of your comfort zone. The reward and thrill of accomplishing your goal is absolutely worth it.

Because I’m a book nerd, I get a daily “book club” email through the library. It’s pretty cool, they start a book on Monday and run a few pages each day that week. You get through about the first chapter, if you like the book you can check it out or purchase it.

A recent book was Rebound, by Martha I. Finney. I only read the first few excerpts, but it’s very timely so I’m sharing it with our readers. If you read it and like it (or don’t) please let us know!

FROM THE BOOK JACKET:

Been laid off? Fired? Pushed out? See it coming? This book will help you get back on your feet, develop a plan of action, and find your next great job!
Real Answers From Real Experts:
* What to do first…and what never to do
* How to cope with the havoc, trauma, and anger
* How to protect your professional reputation
* How to keep your options open
* Know your rights
* What to do while you’re out of work
* How to safeguard your finances
* What to tell your family
* How to keep it from happening again

How to come back stronger and better than ever!

Portfolio has a new printer. Okay, actually last December we got a new printer, a color laser, sweet! Then it broke. But we’d only had it a couple of months, so Xerox sent us a new one. In one day! And apparently the new models are much more environmentally friendly.

According to their paperwork the Xerox Phaser 6128MFP “Generates up to 90 percent less waste than comparable color laser printers under normal operating conditions” and has “Smaller toner cartridges with minimal packaging…” You know those nasty waste toner cartridges all the laser printers have? This one doesn’t. And it goes to sleep when it’s not in use, conserving power.

So we got to be even greener than we thought, all thanks to Xerox innovation. Thanks Xerox!

It seems to me that a lot of job seekers’ frustrations come from not knowing how the game is played. This article/Q&A is a good example. Unfortunately this job seeker has expectations that are not in-line with the way most companies and recruiting processes work, and is getting extremely frustrated when their expectations are not met.

It’s important to know what a company’s procedure is, as much as you can tell or find out, and to understand generally how the process works today perhaps as compared the last time you looked for a job. It is more automated, more technology driven, more key word intensive and, right or wrong, less personal. At least until you make it into the smaller group that is selected for interviews or phone screens.

Employers determine the process they will use to fill their positions. The more you can find out about their rules, the more successfully you can play their game.

Portfolio and sparkspace announce a duo of workshops that will renew your hope in the future and supercharge your service at work. Both sessions are fantastic (we’ve personally attended them!). Combined, they become more powerful. The sessions are specially priced at $25 each or $40 for both. Register now through May 28th.

Sparkspace workshops are designed to spark ideas, insight and inspiration. Join Chief Imagination Officer, Mark Henson, in making the world a more creative place to live, work and do business

CREATING A POSITIVE CHARGE

Saturday, May 30th

Time: 10 am-Noon

Location: sparkspace in the Arena District

Cost $25 pp

Register Online

Spend two hours with us and gain a fresh perspective by shedding the fear, pride and preconceptions that are holding you back from the future you really want. You’ll learn just how powerful you can be and exactly what you will gain by discharging the negative mojo and creating a positive charge in your life.

THE FIVE SPARKS OF SUPER SERVICE

Saturday, June 27th

Time: 10 am-Noon

Location: sparkspace in the Arena District

Cost: $25 pp

Register Online

Learn the five ‘sparks’ that will help you S-E-R-V-E your co-workers, customers, and clients in a truly world class fashion (the acronym holds the secrets: 5 letters, 5 sparks). Everyone is in a customer service role to some extent, whether they are working with clients or other team members. Applying the five ‘sparks’ will improve and energize those relationshiops daily!

Columbus is absolutely a hot-bed of of coworking activity, as evidenced by this new article in Columbus Alive. We already visited Qwirk, are talking about collaboration with Indie House, and look forward to the opportunity to check out Sandbox and Corkboard sometime in the future. Fantastic approach for independent workers of any type, creative or otherwise. We certainly would have be interested when we first started our business!

Portfolio is excited to once again help sponsor Agora! Organized by the Couchfire Collective, Agora is one rockin’ festival that brings together artists, musicians, performers, vendors, and art patrons for a celebration of the arts. Agora is designed to be enjoyed by people of all ages, with a wide range of activities planned from the early afternoon into the late hours of the night.

Agora will be held Saturday, May 16th at Junctionview Studios, 889 Williams Ave. in Grandview Heights.

**Preview Show -Friday, May 15th

Skip the crowds and get the first look at visiting artists and open studios! Admission includes drinks and food. $10 online, $15 at the door. 6-10pm

Fuse Factory has three upcoming workshops that people interested in building web design skills may want to check out:

• 5/14  Intro to Wordpress with Dawn Friedman
• 5/23  Intro to CSS with Katawi Cato
• 5/30  Getting started with Flash animation with Alison Colman

$15 per workshop; events held at Wild Goose Creative and Corkboard Columbus, check registration page for details.