Creative Industry professionals and graduates from the Media Design School (MDS) mingled and networked at the recent Screen It Industry Show.  Graduates had the opportunity to showcase their portfolio and reels to keen potential employers and colleagues from the web, design, advertising, 3D and games industries.

Cameron Smith, recent graduate from the Graduate Diploma of Advanced 3D Productions said the show gave him a great opportunity to talk one on one to some of the main people in the local 3D industry.

“I got to talk about the main aspects that I excel in to people like Damon Duncan from Oktobor (Head of 3D).  I enjoyed getting positive feedback on the projects that we worked very hard on by people who I plan to be working alongside in the near future."

The Industry Show at the Hopetoun Alpha in Auckland was held on March 5 2009. To facilitate the start of conversation, each creative area was colour?coded which helped both the Industry and the graduates to find their way to like?minded people interested in talking 3D Modeling, or Web Development, or C++ Programming and the likes.

Matt Kemp, Senior Developer at Auckland's web development company beweb1 says the students they spoke to were all very passionate about the work they'd done, and it was good to talk to them about their practical achievements.

“Their experiences meant they were perfectly capable of holding intelligent conversations on aspects of web development normally reserved for seasoned professionals.”

He said the system of wrist bands for targeting students and professionals was very successful and made it simple to approach (and be approached by) people to start conversations.

The Industry Night occurs twice a year at MDS and is an important event for the school and its graduates , as jobs can often result from the networking.  Students get to hear feedback on their work and have the chance to make a move forward with their career.