Career Speed Dating

I've been to a number of Society of Young Publishers (SYP) events over the course of this year, but their career speed dating event was definitely one of the best in terms of really highlighting what I needed to do to get into the area of publishing that I am most interested in, namely production. 

Laura, Lindsey, and I went to Lovecrumbs before the event for a cup of tea and a slice of cake (I can't quite remember why, but I think we had had a rough week... at any rate, we felt we deserved some cake :P). Lovecrumbs is this really adorable cafe on West Port that is usually packed, but luckily it wasn't too crowded, so we got to enjoy a relaxed cuppa before heading off to the SYP.

The event was held in the upstairs area of this really posh little bar I'd never been to before. We were randomly divided into groups based on the colour of our name tags, and then in those groups we rotated around the room. Similar to actual speed dating, we only had a limited time at each table, but unlike traditional speed dating, we went around in groups, meeting with groups of professionals. There were tables of production people, editorial people, sales people, agents, etc. So in our groups, we got to ask them whatever questions we had. I was with two incredibly quiet girls (it took until the fourth table before I was able to make out what the girl sitting next to me was saying when she introduced herself) and a woman who was far more concerned with the book she wanted to write than being a part of the publishing process (I didn't mind so much at the sales etc. tables but when we got to the production table and she immediately asked them a question about getting her book published, I was really annoyed – that was my table goddammit). But afterwards we were able to mingle, so I went back to the production table to ask some more questions. Most significantly, I learned that I 100% absolutely needed to learn Photoshop, so it was after this event that I started teaching it to myself. 

It was quite funny – both Alix and I separately brought up Hashtag to the people at the production table, so that was proactive of us. One of the woman at the table also went and had a look at it, and said it looked good, so that was nice as well.

A very good evening, both fun and full of professional advice.