Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1591
January 2009 45 Knowledge & Career n n n n Jon Lewis Co-founder ICA Creative and WhosCreative Fairfield, CT www.icacreative.net, www.whoscreative.com ICA Creative specializes in locating, evaluating, and placing creative talent in the post and broadcast industries. The Web site WhosCreative provides job seekers with online tools for marketing their talent on the Internet. Strengths: "Studios should use several methods to find talent. These days, everyone has a Web site. However, finding an individual site can be nearly impossible. Companies like Whos Creative.com showcase VFX artists' work. Using these sites, you can pinpoint exactly the type of artist you're looking for and then quickly view their demo reel or storyboards. However, the most effective method for finding good artists is building relationships with talent you already have. They can refer likeminded, talented artists you desperately need. Weaknesses: "I see a weakness in attracting new talent using free jobs boards. Let's say you are in need of a 3D Maya generalist for a freelance inhouse job starting next week. By placing an ad on line, you are subject to hundreds of responses, all with varying levels of skill. Your work is disrupted because you have to wade through the hundreds of responses to find the right person, confirm they are local to your area and have the right skills, check their reel (make sure the work on their reel is actually theirs), and then match per sonality. Working with a recruiter, such as ICA Creative, is more cost and timeeffective—it's their job to qualify, evaluate, manage, and place excellent artists." Opportunities: "When you're searching for new talent, you cre ate a wide web of opportunity. While constantly opening doors, you may run across someone who isn't right for the project today, but has potential for other jobs tomorrow. By ignoring that person, you will lose out on an upandcomer who could be perfect a year down the road. Managing green talent is just as important as find ing new talent." Threats: "Sometimes during a down economy like this, a studio will have to let someone go. Or perhaps an internal conflict results in a valuable artist leaving the company. What a studio needs to keep in mind is that during that artist's tenure, he or she built rela tionships with clients. Those relationships have an immediate im pact on the company's current and future business. It is important to nurture existing talent and to build a loyal relationship so that work doesn't go elsewhere." Outlook for 2009: "Opportunity will always exist in a down market, and this will be proven true in 2009. Budgets will con CGW_Half_HOR:CGW_Half_HOR 9/15/08 10:17 AM Page 1