INVITING MAYOR RAHM EMANUEL to speak at a Chicago Ad Federation luncheon incubated last January, when the CAF’s Speakers Series committee convened to discuss potential speakers for its upcoming quarterly luncheons.
CAF board and Speakers Series’ committee member Nina Abnee proposed then-mayoral candidate Emanuel as speaker. She declared she was a big supporter and expected Emanuel to be elected mayor, “so why don’t we invite him to speak at our May Speakers Series luncheon?”
If the CAF got lucky, Emanuel would mark the first time in its history that a Chicago mayor ever spoke to the advertising industry. And lucky they got.
Abnee, Leo Burnett’s EVP/director account management, used a chain of contacts to have the written invitation delivered to the right people in the mayor’s office after the election.
The committee was justifiably elated when they heard back that Emanuel would work the luncheon into his schedule,” relates Abnee. “The May date we wanted wasn’t feasible, but they set July 20 as the date, and then it was, ‘how about July 26.’”
The Speakers Series is important to the CAF, which, with its origins as the Chicago Advertising Club, is considered to be the ad industry’s oldest, continuing organization.
“The Advertising Federation wants to keep the momentum going and give something back to its members,” Abnee says. “While other advertising markets have regular programs, we came up with four areas of interest to our members with our Speakers Series.
“We seek speakers about city leadership, which includes politics and government, the marketing of Chicago, sports, creativity, including entertainment and the arts and sports.”
As of July 19, 250 members and guests have reserved seats to hear the mayor talk about business growth and it’s impacting the advertising community. CAF membership currently is 60 corporate members.
Tickets are $95 for CAF members, $125 for non-members and may be purchased online here.
MORE MOVIE ACTION. In addition to the abundance of film action from four TV shows and a blockbuster movie shooting at locations around Chicago, at sets in Cinespace and Chicago Studio City and Downstate in DeKalb, there’s more on the docket.
Local 476’s Mark Hogan reports still another Chicago crew on Aug. 8 will head for Milwaukee for six weeks of action on Skinny Dip, an indie action/drama feature.
FILMWORKERS’ BROOUGHT ABOARD Matthew Egan to head its new Filmworkers Media Content division. A branded entertainment and new media content specialist, Egan joined from Foundation Content. Earlier he was with Digital Kitchen and started his career as an editor at Cutters.
The new division, Egan says, produces broadcast and branded media, from concept to finish. Media Content producer is Lisa Long and Egan’s assistant is Paul Caddick. They will also team with Filmworkers and affiliates Vitamin and Giannini Creative on projects.
LIVE ACTION Mirror Films of Hollywood signed with Hilary Herbst and Laurel Debose of Hilly Reps for Midwest representation of its directors. Anheuser Busch, Toyota, Nike and Target are among their clients.
CREATEASPHERE’S DIGITAL ASSET Management Conference July 20 at the Embassy Suites O’Hare has an impressive lineup of knowledgeable speakers to inform digital asset managers and content creators how to resolve workflow, metadata, digital preservations and digital age issues. Dan McGraw, head of Seven Dials Media is the keynoter, followed by seven noted leaders in their area of expertise.
NEW AT DAILY PLANET PRODUCTIONS are veteran senior producer/director Teresa Wysoglad and motion artist Jason Rohler from Detroit’s Ringside, the post house recently acquired by Cutters and Steve Wild, a former partner in Grace & Wild.
Wysoglad is well known through her 18 years in the business, 12 of which were spent with now-defunct Post Effects and successor company Answers Media, working largely on corporate projects. She recently created and produced animated videos for The Joint Commission, an overseer of hospitals, that are a big hit on YouTube.
Rohler says he’d decided last October to move to Chicago, after spending seven years with the original GTM post house before it segued into Ringside. His work there “was a vast array of automotive work over the years,” he says. Now he’s branched into TV show opens and web-based videos. “All fun stuff.”
WHAT’S WRONG WITH THESE PICTURES? Steven Spielberg’s long- awaited Lincoln film, based on Doris Kearns Goodwin’s best selling Team of Rivals bio of the president from Illinois, will start filming this fall in … Richmond and Petersburg, Va.
The Lifetime network TV movie, Untouchable, starring Rob Lowe as accused wife killer Drew Peterson of Bolingbrook is currently shooting in … Rossmoor, Orange County, where an elementary school is substituting for the Bolingbrook police department.
AdMan, a feature about an ad agency set in the world class city of Chicago, population 3 million, is being filmed in … the town of Parry Sound, Ontario, Canada, near Toronto. Located on one of the 30,000 islands of Georgian Bay, it boasts 60,000 people during the season. Which is around the population of my Near North neighborhood. Writer/producer is Michael Wright of L.A. based Spud Media.
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