a competition and conference combined, promax is the annual event for those of us in this rarely understood, oft-ignored, completely accidental (as in, you only get into it by accident, not aspire to be part of it) and surprisingly big but surprisingly small (as in, i never knew there were so many career options in this line, at the same time everyone seems to know each other) industry of on-air promotions.
promax was one of those mythical events i only used to hear about, because only the bosses got to go. back in gma, we would religiously scan winners' reels from promaxes past for inspiration -- in fact, george made me watch a promax reel when i showed up on my first day at work and nobody quite knew what to do with me yet. every year, creative services would embark on this mad rush for spots to enter into the competition, a process that always ignited this tiny flicker of mad hope in me that we -- and maybe even i -- would win something. (of course we never did. hahaha.)
so this year, in my nerdy wide-eyed way, i was thrilled to finally be attending promax. headcount at the office was so low this year that even if we were just sharing passes, everyone got to go to at least one full day of the two-day conference (even our admin, terry!). it was a combination of anticipation and stupidity that made me turn up at the arts house at 8:30 a.m. on the dot monday morning -- whereupon i discovered that the sessions were going to start at 9:45 a.m. i should have known that no event geared for creative types will ever start before 9:30 a.m.
the arts house is a former court and parliament house converted into an arts venue, which made the whole thing look very cool. as usual, i was the only eager beaver on my team who wanted to sit up front and risk a stiff neck.
the rest of the boys wanted to stay in the back, where the seats at least faced front and there was less chance of being spotted in case they fell asleep.
nerdy confession: i secretly expected promax to do for me professionally what marktoberdorf did for me as a chorister. competing in marktoberdorf was totally fun and inspirational. i was relatively new to the world of choral music, and discovering this huge gathering of people who were so passionate about, and in many cases, so good at, this odd thing that i liked to do was nothing short of amazing for me, and completely solidified my love of choral singing. (of course, winning that year didn't hurt my love of choral singing either!)
and in some ways, i was right. in marktoberdorf, you had your spectacular, amazing performances (like, ahem, the ateneo college glee club c. 2001) and then you had your duds (russian male choirs, or lachrymose italian female librarian choirs). i guess i was expecting all the speakers to be glee club caliber.
the first session featuring mike reiss, a writer from the simpsons, was totally glee club. he was every bit as hilarious as you'd expect a simpsons writer to be. however the awesome start he provided went over to russian male choir territory way too fast, and i found myself wondering how logo designs from the early eighties were supposed to help me produce winning promos, and how exactly 243 clips of a storm trooper wiggling his hips in the middle of shibuya was supposed to be relevant to my job.
the venue for the smaller afternoon sessions. very game k n b?
one of the writing sessions was great, but it was more like nordic chamber choir than ateneo glee club. still, it was good enough for me to take notes the lazy way -- by snapping pictures of the slides with my camera. by this time i had identified the suite de lorca of on-air promotions -- you know, the piece that everyone seems to have included in their repertoire: discovery's "the world is just awesome" spot. and while it was really just awesome, i couldn't have helped wishing i could see something else.
finally, i felt a swell of pride to belong to bda when jens, the creative director of the sydney office came up to give his session. he was, for me, the portland state university chamber choir of promax. impressive pero hindi yung pinakamagaling, may halong kayabangan, pero tumatak. (seven years after the competition, listening to portland's ave maria by biebl still gives me goosebumps.)
especially the way he ended his session on how to work better: stay calm and smile. (and here i paraphrase him.) because really, we work in an industry with some of the most creative, fun and passionate people in the world. we do work that barely feels like work. and there is no shortage of great colleagues and great work to inspire us. what's there not to smile about?
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