MEDIA

FUTURES
2019
23 Jan –
8 Feb

careers / f reelancing / net work ing

 MEDIA FUTURES 2019
About
M EDIA Futures has come about after
listening to your feedback about the
Professional Media Practice module. We have
taken yours and previous students’ feedback
on board and acted on this accordingly.
We have kept all the essential elements you
need and packed it full with people you can
network with and build contacts with. We have
workshops, guests, alumni, industry experts
and more. You will work on your portfolio that
will be your showcase for employers.
It is great that we have Game of Thrones
actress Maisie Williams kicking off Media
Futures. Her app, Daisie, is built just for you.
It connects creatives, like you, to collaborate
and share projects and will be really
interesting for you to play around on.
We also have the legend that is Huw
Edwards coming on the 30th January. Huw
is the BBC’s main news anchor. He was also
the external on my postgraduate course so
when I told him I was at BCU Media with an
incredible bunch of students, he was more
#DoMediaDifferently
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than happy to come and spend some time
with you all.
The second week of Media Futures includes
the Magical Mystery Tour on Wednesday 6th
February. The Magical Mystery Tour is a day
to recharge, reflect and regroup for the final
stretch. You will get the chance to navigate
the media landscape in another location and
make some content. All you have to do at this
stage is collect your coloured wristband from
Course Central and this will determine what
coach you are on. Then show up at 8am and
be raring to go.
We are with you every step of the way in
your last few months. We have weekly Shut
Up and Write sessions, we have a dissertation
writing retreat scheduled for March 4th and
lots of CV clinics and mock interviews to get
you ready to secure employment.
You are an incredible bunch of students and
as we start the final countdown, I can’t wait to
work with you all and see the work that you
do as you continue to #DoMediaDifferently.
Sarah Jones
Head of School
Birmingham School of Media
 MEDIA FUTURES 2019

Wednesday 23rd January

TIME ROOM SESSION

2:30pm – 3:30pm P350 Maisie Williams

Lecture Join Maisie Williams for an
You must register for Theatre inspirational afternoon of
this talk at: chat and innovation. Maisie is
bit.ly/bcumaisiewilliams known for playing Arya Stark
in Game of Thrones and has
also appeared in Doctor Who.
She will be seen in upcoming
horror film, The New Mutants
(based on the Marvel comics
team). Maisie Williams has
helped launch the long-awaited
app, Daisie. It’s a creative
platform championing makers
and creators that aims to
revolutionise the way young
people use social media by
providing a platform that not
only focuses on their growth
as individuals but gives users
a safe space to pursue their
desired careers.

Thursday and Friday 24th and 25th January

Project and dissertation tutorials

As you head into the final semester
it’s time to get ready for the final
push towards completion. Your tutor
will give you the advice and support
you need to ensure your project
and dissertation has every chance
of being a success. We will offer
drop-in advice sessions on these
two days. Check the MED6104 and
MED6015 Moodle pages for details.

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 MEDIA FUTURES 2019

Monday 28th January

TIME ROOM SESSION

11:00am – 12:00pm C087 Media Futures

Curzon In the opening session of Media Futures 2019 we will guide
Lecture you through the full programme and hear from former student
Theatre Erin Smith, a graduate from last summer who is now a full-time
Account Executive in Public Relations and Social Media. She will
tell us about how she made a success of her final year and se-
cured a job upon graduation. We will outline our plans to support
you through the final semester on your degree programme.

12:00pm – 12:30pm C087 National Student Survey

Curzon The National Student Survey
Lecture (NSS) gathers opinions from
Theatre students about their time in
higher education. We’ll be
asking you to complete the
survey which gives you a
powerful voice in shaping the
future of your course.

12:30pm – 2:00pm Lunch break

Coffee, cakes and virtuality – Head of School Sarah Jones will
be available to demonstrate virtual reality and 360° video technol-
ogies. Meet in her office MP340.

2:00pm – 3:00pm C087 Industry Panel Discussion

Curzon Our industry guests will give you the inside track on what you
Lecture need to do to prepare yourself for a career in the media.
Theatre • How to get into their business.
• What they look for in graduates.
• Top tips to get first job.
• Q&A.
Read more about our industry experts on the next two pages.

3:00pm – 4:00pm Various Industry group discussions

rooms This session gives you the chance to have smaller group discus-
(see next sions with our industry guests. Choose the discussion that best
pages) suits the area you see yourself working in. All of our experts will
be ready to answer your questions. Please go promptly to the
rooms listed on the next two pages.

5:00pm – 8:00pm Parkside #BCUMEDIA Industry and Alumni night

Join us for an evening of networking with industry and alumni
(see back cover for details). RSVP: media@bcu.ac.uk

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 MEDIA FUTURES 2019

Industry group discussions 3:00-4:00pm

ONLINE AND DIGITAL – Room MP363
Varsha Chauhan, Production Manager, BBC Three
Varsha taught video production at Birmingham’s Second Sight
media training company before embarking on a career in pro-
duction management, a role that has seen her work at most of
the region’s TV indies, as well as on Midlands-based produc-
tions including Benefits Street for Channel 4. She has worked
across the UK and internationally and has now returned to
Birmingham on a permanent basis for BBC Three.

JOURNALISM AND RADIO – Room C283

JP Devlin, Producer, BBC Radio 4
Dr JP Devlin is a producer and reporter at BBC Radio 4. He
began his BBC career in the radio archive before moving
into content production. He helped launch the Saturday Live
programme on Radio 4 and has been an integral part of the
programme since it began. He holds a PhD from Bournemouth
University and his book, ‘From Analogue to Digital Radio:
Competition and Cooperation in the UK Radio Industry’ was
published by Palgrave Macmillan in 2018.

PHOTOGRAPHY – Room C289

Richard Battye, Professional Photographer
Richard set up River Studio in 1990 having worked in
professional photography since graduating in 1986. He has
a wealth of experience from shooting vehicles in the desert
in the Middle East to photographing royalty and pop stars,
designer dresses, food, interiors, exteriors and a whole host
of products, in the studio or on location. He has worked
as a commercial and advertising photographer and also in
photography for musicians, dancers, theatres and performers.

PUBLIC RELATIONS – Room C221

Tony Cosgrove, Director, Masgroves
As a communications specialist, Tony has worked in India,
the US and across the UK for clients ranging from inter-
continental giants to national charities. Previously Head
of Internal Communications, he led a team responsible for
communicating with 2,500 scientists and staff working across
30 offices. A geologist by training, Tony’s leap from science to
communications was a huge career change: “I realised one
day that very few people understood what we were talking
about – and that was our fault. We needed to communicate
better, not shout louder!” Since 2014, Tony has been a
Director of communications consultancy Masgroves.

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 MEDIA FUTURES 2019

Industry group discussions 3:00-4:00pm

TELEVISION – Room C087
Catherine Welton, Creative Director at Full Fat Television
Catherine studied Journalism at University. Work experience
on BBC series The Clothes Show led to researcher, assistant
producer and producer roles on a wide variety of programmes.
Catherine worked her way up to become an Executive Pro-
ducer working primarily in features and factual entertainment,
from SuperScrimpers on Channel 4 to Ashley Banjo’s Secret
Street Crew on Sky 1. She has a reputation for creating new
series, such as Britain’s Best Bakery for ITV and reformatting
existing brands, such as Snog Marry Avoid for BBC3.

Toby Nutter, Freelance Editor

Toby is a documentary editor most recently cutting 24 Hours
in A&E. Since graduating from the Media and Communication
course in June 2011 he has worked as a technical assistant
for Maverick TV in Birmingham on Embarrassing Bodies
before moving to London to be an edit assistant, working
on shows such as Top Gear, Britain’s Got Talent, and The X
Factor. After going freelance in 2015 he has been an assistant
editor on some of the most popular prime time observational
documentary series, including The Supervet and 999: What’s
Your Emergency? He joined a training scheme run by The
Garden Productions on their flagship A&E show where he
gained his first editor credit in 2017.

MUSIC INDUSTRIES – Media Tutorial Rooms 1 and 2

James Hayward and Mike Darling
From Nantwich in Cheshire, James has worked as a stage
manager at various festivals and events including No.6,
Snowbombing, Kendall Calling and the BBC 6 Music Festival
amongst others. He has also toured worldwide as a technician
and stage manager with The Specials, Paul Weller and Ocean
Colour Scene. He has recently become Assistant Tour Manag-
er for The Specials ahead of their worldwide touring in 2019.

Mike began his career in live music in the early 1990s as a

musician. He then worked worldwide as a technician with
various artists and became a tour manager by default during
an early tour of North America. He has continued to tour and
production manage since, working at all levels with artists
including Kaiser Chiefs and The Specials, and has production
managed large scale BBC events. Mike helped to establish
and build the Ibiza Rocks business.

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 MEDIA FUTURES 2019

Tuesday 29th January

TIME ROOM SESSION

11:00am – 12:30pm C087 Developing your online portfolio

Curzon Iain Taylor and Robin Kay will be introdcuing you to a new online
Lecture platform that you will use to showcase your creative work as part
Theatre of your submission for MED6106 Professional Media Practice
assessment and at the University’s Inspired Festival in June.

12:30pm – 1:30pm Lunch

1:30pm – 3:00pm C087 How to be a freelancer

Curzon Marverine Cole and Hilary Weston-Jones will tell you all you need
Lecture to know about setting yourself up as a freelancer. From making
Theatre sure you build the right industry contacts to how to manage
your tax. You will learn how to have the right mental attitude and
flexibility to succeed in a freelance career.

3:00pm – 5:00pm C087 Hear it from the experts

Curzon We’ve brought together experienced freelancers (below) who will
Lecture give you insight into their stories of setting up, starting out and
Theatre surviving. They will pass on their top tips and are ready to take
your questions.

Leanne Tattum, Managing Director at HTF Media

Leanne’s background is in both television – having worked at the BBC
for over ten years – and accountancy. She qualified as an accountant
prior to starting a career at the BBC which has helped greatly with
managing her business. HTF Media started trading five years ago as
a Birmingham based video communications company, working with
brands, companies and agencies to bring to life stories, ideas, web-
sites, products and events through our exceptional video productions.

Liz Goddard – Director, CoComms

Liz is a Director of CoComms and a highly effective personal
performance coach. She delivers training to a wide range of public &
private sector organisations both in the UK and abroad. Liz has more
than 20 years’ experience as a journalist and people manager at the
BBC in national news and political programming – having started
her career as a print journalist. She has worked for the main news
on BBC One, the BBC News channel and for regional TV and local
radio. Liz specialises in improving individuals’ performance and use
of language. She is qualified with a coaching specialism from the
University of Warwick along with the Chartered Institute of Marketing.

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 MEDIA FUTURES 2019

Wednesday 30th January

P350 Lecture Theatre

2:00pm – 3:00pm Huw Edwards

Register for this talk at: Join BBC News presenter, Huw Edwards, as he talks about his career as a
bit.ly/bcuhuwedwards journalist, TV and radio presenter. As the BBC News lead presenter for ma-
jor breaking news in the United Kingdom, Edwards presents Britain’s most
watched news programme, BBC News at Ten, the corporation’s flagship
news broadcast. He also presents BBC coverage of state events, inter-
national events and the hour-long BBC news at Five on the BBC’s rolling
news channel. Huw presents the BBC’s coverage of major national events,
including the weddings of Prince William and Kate Middleton as well as
more recently Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. Over Christmas, he was
a guest on Mary Berry’s Christmas Party! Huw spent a short time on work
experience at the commercial radio station, Swansea Sound, before joining
the BBC as a news trainee in 1984. So with 35 years of experience under
his belt, he’ll have lots of stories and tips to share.

Wednesday 6th February

You are Invited to... THE MAGICAL
MYSTERY TOUR
After two-and-a-half years of
structured learning, timetabled
classes, and tutors driving the
conversations, this final semester is
very much about you. Perhaps for the
first time, the emphasis falls solely
upon your ideas, your projects, and
your aspirations.

While this should be quite a liberating experience, it can sometimes be quite an isolating and introspective
period for some students. The focus upon your individual endeavours, both practical and intellectual,
means spending a lot of time alone with your thoughts. This trip provides an opportunity to remind
yourself of why you are here, and to offer some perspective through which to understand the tasks which
lie ahead of you. Each of you is laying the foundations of knowledge, skills, and experiences which you
will carry with you into the industries that you aspire to work in.

On Wednesday 6th February, we are going to spend the day refocusing on those industries, and your
place within them. This is a chance to visit some mystery media cities – to start considering how you fit
into the wider media landscape, where your skills and ideas will find a home. All essential skills to help
you in interviews for future employment.

On the day, you will receive a golden ticket and all will be revealed. What you need to know now is to
turn up at 8am to Parkside with a fully charged phone and be raring to go. We will return around 6.00pm.

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 MEDIA FUTURES 2019

Thursday 7th February

TIME ROOM SESSION

10:00am – 12:15pm Media Advice sessions

tutorial A series of parallel sessions on:
rooms 1, • Job-hunting
2 and 3 • Interview skills
• Branding skills
Each session lasts 45 mins and runs three times (10:00am,
10:45am, 11:30am) so you can attend all of them.

2:00pm – 3:00pm C087 Introduction to ADM Careers+ team

Lecture Your faculty has a dedicated Careers+ team available to
Theatre support you to develop their careers. They have information
on placements and employability related activities. They
offer appointments with qualified and experienced careers,
employment and placement specialists.

3:00pm – 4:00pm P350 Professional Media Practice

Lecture You will need to come to this session to learn all about your
Theatre assessment for the MED6106 module and how you can achieve a
high mark. We will discuss the new online portfolio platform.

Friday 8th February
11:30am – 12:30pm Media Assignment drop-in advice
tutorial
rooms

12:30pm – 1:30pm C485 Student and alumni lunch

Come and join us for free pizza and meet some of the course
alumni.

1:30pm – 3:00pm C481 How they did it!

A panel discussion with Q&A where our alumni tell us all the
details of how they got their career break. See the next page for
our line-up of amazing graduates.

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 MEDIA FUTURES 2019

Alumni panel
Milly Ashmead – Social Media Consultant
After graduation I had the scary realisation that so many of
my friends seemed to know exactly where they wanted to go,
whereas my answer had always been vague... “a media job.”
Long story short, I am now a Social Media Consultant! I’m now
paid to live and breathe social media and to travel around to
help schools across the world with their branding and online
presence. I was incredibly lucky to stumble across this role
and am now always surrounded by co-workers who have
become brilliant friends. I’ve only been in my role for 5 months
but I love my job.

Maddy McCrann-Smith – PR, Communications and Social

Media Executive
I graduated last summer with a 2:1 in Media and Commu-
nications (PR). While at university I completed a number of
placements after winning the PR category for BHive Creative
2017. One of these agencies was Spottydog Communications
where I now work as a PR Executive. I worked closely with
the Spottydog team during my third year at university which
helped me have a strong understanding of clients as well as
being familiar with the team and how they work together to
deliver the best results for their clients.

Tom Hall – Imaging Producer

I currently work for Bauer Media as an Imaging Producer
across both national and local brands including Hits Radio,
Greatest Hits Radio, Free Radio and Gem, to name a few. As
a student I conducted a week’s work placement with Global
Radio News Team as a broadcast journalist, undertaking
jobs such as social media management, interview editing
and news bulletin recording. I also shadowed a reporter on a
Royal visit.

Georgia Hope – Casting Researcher

I was a student on the course between 2014 and 2017. I
chose to specialise in television and graduated with a first in
2017. I was lucky enough to go straight into employment in
the industry, working as a runner on Big Brother. Since then
I have worked on a lot of different reality and entertainment
programmes, and also a few documentaries. Some of the
shows I have worked on include Take Me Out, Inside the
Operating Theatre, The Circle, Made in Chelsea and Love
Island. I am now back at ITV working as a Casting Researcher
on this summer’s series of Love Island.

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 MEDIA FUTURES 2019

Alumni panel
Leonie Buck – Production Manager
Whilst at university, I completed work experience across
different forms of media such as a photography assistant,
radio assistant producer and station controller for Scratch
Radio. I also completed two weeks at The Voice UK and just
before my final deadlines I landed myself a job at Channel 5
as Production Management Intern with a one-year contract. I
have been learning key skills that will help in my career. I have
been working on BAFTA award winning series, Cruising with
Jane McDonald and am now working on a documentary about
a high profile police case from the early 2000s.

Beatrice Edwards – Public Relations

During my three years at university I specialised in music
industries and created a PR campaign for my third-year final
project that received national media attention. Three months
after graduation, I gained a four-month internship at Riot
Communications based in London. Getting this provided
me with the necessary skills to gain my job in a PR agency
specialising in arts and culture.

Jaisha Thomas – Publicity Intern

I graduated in July 2018 with a 2:1 in Media and
Communications at Birmingham City University. I am now
currently working as a Publicity Intern at Caroline International,
a label and artist services arm owned by Universal Music
Group UK. As a publicist my responsibilities involve publicising
an artist via online and print media landscapes. This includes
national newspapers, print and online magazines.

Coming soon....

4th March – Dissertation support day

10th - 16th June – Inspired Festival

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#DoMediaDifferently