INCITE, a new global professional development platform for the creative industries has been unveiled today, backed by international brand communications agency, Manifest. The new venture officially launches on 1 August, offering a comprehensive programme of digital and live events designed to drive professional development across the creative sector and inspire new and improved ways of working. The curriculum will be split into three key pillars; imagination, implementation and insight, with subjects ranging from behavioural economics to anti-racist leadership.
Throwing out the rule book
INCITE will be run by former head of publishing operations for Shortlist Media, Jamie Klingler who has been appointed to lead the new business as Managing Director. Jamie commented:
“INCITE is an opportunity for all communications professionals to not only invest in their development, but in the development of a more progressive, inspired and innovative industry. We can’t stand and wait for a better industry to form under our feet, we have to incite it. We need to write a new script.”
“Our range of contributors will surprise and maybe even shock some people, with entrepreneurs, activists, artists and data scientists as well as prominent communicators from around the world getting involved,” She added. “Our subject matter will be equally diverse, with sessions on behavioural economics, artificial intelligence, design thinking, brand activism, accessibility and forging an anti-racist working culture already filling the schedule. Basically, take whatever you expect from a standard professional development scheme and throw it out of the window. We’re starting from scratch here and building a new format from the ground up.”
Supporting Grassroots Diversity & Inclusion
A central tenet of the INCITE proposition is to promote diversity and inclusion across the creative industries, presenting a ‘representative and incendiary’ speaker list drawn from all corners of culture and commerce. Its content and events will be free to all under-23s looking to break into the creative industries through its INCITE Includes initiative, which will forge partnerships with a variety of non-profit platforms and organisations to better connect the industry with minority communities currently under-represented in the sector.
Alex Myers, founder of Manifest and chairman of INCITE commented:
“INCITE started life as an agency zine that gathered its own momentum, and soon became the banner under which we delivered internal training and inspiration sessions at Manifest. During the COVID-19 lockdown, we opened up these sessions as webinars and the response was astonishing. From unpicking brand strategy to forging an anti-racist industry, our ‘active knowledge’ topics clearly struck a chord and we had CMOs, agency owners and entrepreneurs alike all asking if we were planning on doing something with it.”
“But it’s not just a webinar programme. We have free-for-all content through the INCITE Inbox monthly mailer, INCITE Mag digital publication and our popular Fresh Meet podcast, then we’ll offer tickets for our online In Session webinars and In Person live events. Our Insights Manager, Aaron Maughan and his team will produce quarterly In Depth global trend reports analysing the emerging trends affecting the communications world. Subscribed members will have access to all of this and more, as well as a searchable archive of all past events and reports, exclusive interview content with our keynote speakers and member-discounts on data tools and software. It’s a whole ecosystem of inspiration and development for communications professionals at every level and from every background.”
