"This business area in east London is so smart and clean, it makes the other parts look like hippie villages."
Sitting down in the air conditioned room of Level 39, awaiting the presence of the editor-at-large of 'Spiked'Mick Hume and impatiently waiting for his talk about how to write good quality content.
Captivating, confident and clear, Mick Hume started off my YJA experience with a bang by introducing me to the three main letters of the alphabet that I should abide by to make sure that my work will become unstoppable, ABC. The British Journalist and Author took me by surprise by heading straight into the session and gave us a honest talk about how the media industry actually is. One of the things I loved about Mick's session was how clear he was, especially about his own experiences in the Journalist world and how he found himself in one million pounds in debt and found the strength to push on, clear his debt and create the UK's first web-only comment and current affairs publication. Now that is inspiring.
Accuracy brevity and clarity were the key words that I noted down instantly and made sure that each point was followed by a detailed follow up to ensure I soaked up all of his knowledge! I actually laughed while writing down his notes as he was speaking so quickly, I couldn't keep up, and so my page turned into a tornado full of ink.
The sun was shining bright and it was such a glorious day and after Mick Hume's intense, clear and inspiring session the next speaker was due and set, TV Critic Ally Ross.
What I loved about Ally's session was that he was very humble and seemed quite nervous speaking in front of a group of hungry aspiring journalist waiting to devour every sentence he finished. I was stunned about how hard it was to write a review! I'm not going to lie, I thought I would of breezed straight through that task, but you need to think about what you're going to write very carefully and as we didn't watch the show beforehand, it was a lot more difficult. Recently, I have been thinking to myself that I need to stop sitting on the fence and get out there and that's exactly what Ally said, and I am glad he did as it has made me realize I have a short time on this earth and I need to be a lot more honest in my articles.
After another intense hour, lunch was finally served and the group received a five pound canary wharf voucher to spend to our hearts content (obviously on food as that's all we could afford but, if we had more, I'd spend it on Emma Watsons British Vogue Cover haha). As I was stepping down the stairs from the building it hit me that this is the life. Working in the city, meeting new influential people, discovering different places to have lunch and just enjoying the trendy London scene. Jeez, how could I complain?
As I arrived in Costa, the distinct smell of fresh healthy food which was accompanied by the distasteful smell of fish welcomed me into their home and in moments I quickly grabbed something to eat as I was starving and ran out before I was late to the next session (and of course scared of Viv letting me have a taste of her angry side).
The last session was with Brandon O'Neil a versatile journalist who captured my attention by not bullshitting about the world of Journalism and letting us know that the Opinion Writing section is already filled up, and if we chose that specific category, we basically need to work our asses off and make sure our content is quality and different to become the top dog in the industry. Well spoken and perfectly dressed for the weather, Brandon spoke to us about how to make a great opinion piece and gave us vital notes to jot down on how to 'break' the industry. What I grasped from Brandon was that we needed to be brave and not be taken back when being knocked but to push forward and be better, write better and grow thicker skin as you will be presenting your opinion on matters to people who may totally disagree with what you have to say.
When I presented my piece in front of Brandon, I was actually quite nervous however, I am glad that I did it because even though I enjoyed his compliment (flicks hair) I really loved his critic about my short opinion piece and the way he pointed out my faults.
As the day came a to close, I told myself I will have to keep in touch with today's speakers as I know I have so much more to learn from them.
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