The biggest Portfolio Night yet, May 20

Young, aspiring agency creatives get a golden opportunity to show their stuff to a Who’s Who of Chicago advertising creative executives and recruiters at Portfolio Night 8 (PN8) May 8, at the Cobra Lounge.

Fittingly, the search for the new kids is again hosted by GERTRUDE, an agency specializing in marketing to 18 and 34-year olds, founded by Otis D. Gibson, its chief creative officer.

Gibson calls PN8 “the mother of all portfolio nights,” thanks to the 46 A-list agency CDs and creative managers expected to look and possibly hire the next generation of creative talent.

They will review and critique the copy and art portfolios of some 100 students from Northwestern, the Art Institute, the Portfolio School.

During “the speed dating of advertising,” each student will spend 15-minutes with four different creative directors during the course of the evening.

Participating Portfolio reviewers include Ogilvy partner/CD Purvin Darbary and CCO Joe Sciarrota; Euro RSCG CCOs Steffan Postaer and Blake Ebel; DDB’s Diane Jackson, SVP/ED Integrated Production, David Hernandez, managing director/ECD, Jim Marcus, GCD; Proximity BBDO SVP Kevin Lynch; Mr. Moqo CD Robert Von Bjal; Tom, Dick & Harry CDs Amy Markley and Tom Ritchie;

Also Ann Brown Company owner Ann Brown; Energy BBDO CD Tim Mattimore and ACDs Pam Fraser and Isabella Ferreira; Two by Four CD Ryan Bloecker; Leo Burnett SVP/CDs Avery Gross, Jon Wyville, Dave Loew and Derek Sherman; Cramer Krasselt’s VP/creative manager Craig Likhite, ECD Chris Jacobs and GCD Andrew Meyer; Zig’s ECD Stephen Leps and many others.