CreateAthon Waterloo-Wellington, an annual graphic-design blitz benefitting local social-profit agencies, is shifting focus this year.
To Alberta.
The event has rebranded itself as “CreateAthon Waterloo-Wellington for Fort McMurray 2016” to assist groups affected by the Fort McMurray wildfire in May.
“We’re going to help these agencies recover by providing them with fresh marketing concepts at no charge,’’ said Matt Miller, an executive-in-residence with Capacity Canada. “This is back-of-shop support that we can give so these groups can concentrate on providing frontline services as the community gets back on its feet.”
Capacity Canada organizes Waterloo-Wellington CreateAthons with Alchemy Systems (a communications consultancy in Guelph), and the three-year graphic design course at Conestoga College in Kitchener, Ont. Capacity Canada is based in Waterloo, Ont.
CreateAthons started in South Carolina in 1997. Today they occur around the world, providing non-profits with a variety of marketing tools, from logos and posters to new ideas for revitalizing tired websites. Capacity Canada, Alchemy and Conestoga College organize one of the largest CreateAthons in North America.
These events tend to follow the same format: a design blitz over a 24-hour period in October. CreateAthon Waterloo-Wellington’s Fort McMurray version will be held Oct. 20-21 at Alchemy’s design studios, with an Oct. 21 reveal event video-streamed to agencies in Fort McMurray.
Applications for organizations in Fort McMurray opened Aug. 1 and close Sept. 9. The program has room for 10-12 agencies, chosen by mid September.
Seven teams made up of graphic-design students at Conestoga College and led by Alchemy’s professionals will tackle the assignments following interviews to set the scope of work for each agency.
“The students collaborate with pros, brainstorming ideas and working on concepts through the night,’’ Miller said. “They get some real-life teamwork experience under pressure in a design environment. The social-profit agencies, meanwhile, receive first-class proposals that could save them tens of thousands of dollars in marketing costs.”
Capacity Canada works with FuseSocial, its long-time partner in Fort McMurray, to strengthen governance and collaboration in the community’s charitable not-for-profit sector. FuseSocial was considering starting a CreateAthon of its own.
When the wildfire struck and priorities shifted, Capacity Canada offered to make Fort McMurray the focus of CreateAthon Waterloo-Wellington.
“We couldn’t do this without the support of our partners — Terry McGuire at Alchemy and John Baljkas at Conestoga College,” Miller said. “We’re all on board.”
