Fredrikson & Byron P.A. attorneys John Pickerill and Courtney Thompson covered a lot of ground in their Advertising Law Trends presentation on April 1, 2021. If you missed the program, here are a few of the highlights!

For 95 years running, The Show has been the best party in Minneapolis. It has everything: Egos. Awards. Booze. High fives. Hugs. Tears of joy. Tears of vodka. Coat checks. Everything.

Needless to say, this year was a little…different.

Brought to you by Ad 2’s D + I Committee. The Twin Cities are home to organizations that support the Ad, PR, and Marketing community and help young professionals advance their careers. Highlighting these hidden gems and their incredible resources: Soona, The Minneapolis Egotist, Extra Grind, Boundaryless, and The BrandLab. This is the first event of its kind for Ad 2!

A new virtual spin on the classic event mixes virtual and physical elements for an event like never before. AdFed’s The Show is back for 2021 in a whole new format – an immersive virtual experience. It’s THE SHOW 2021: because nothing on earth can quench the creative need for praise. This award ceremony has celebrated Minnesota’s advertising community’s achievements in creativity for almost a century. The Show 2021 will be the event’s 95th year.

On January 27, AdFed went where all winners go – Behind the Pin! AdFed sat down with some of the “Best Of” winners of The Show 2020 as well as the judges who deemed them worthy to discuss what makes work #winning.

As the unprecedented 2020 has brought us many challenges, it was time to dive deep at this year’s Ad 2 Women’s Leadership Panel. With the new virtual format, leaders in the advertising industry got together to talk about Difficult Conversations. 

In a time when diversity and inclusion are becoming common buzzwords in the corporate world, we knew we needed to do our part to create actual change within our industry. That is why we kicked off our Representation Roundtable Series this past month. These sessions serve to give people access to raw conversations about the biases and prejudices that minority professionals face in this industry – and more specifically, within our Twin Cities ad community. 

AdFed sat down to have a candid conversation about mental health in the advertising world because let’s face it, it is a crazy world out there and it takes a toll. While living through a global pandemic and civil unrest, many of us may be feeling bouts of despair, anxiety or profound sadness. These are emotions that people who struggle with their mental health feel every day of their lives (with or without a pandemic).

The past week has been deeply painful for Minneapolis and America alike, as we were once again witness to the death of a Black man at the hands of the police. This is not the first time this has happened in America, much less Minneapolis.

Let’s take this time to focus on the task at hand: justice for George Floyd, the rebuilding of our great city and protection and celebration of our Black community and their allies.

We know it’s crazy out there right now. Some of us are old enough to have lived and worked through the 2008 recession and know this feeling all too well. The good news is that, even if it doesn’t feel like it right now, there’s always light at the end of the tunnel. And sometimes it’s even brighter than the light behind you.

If you’re finding yourself in this situation, here are a few steps you can take right now.