Graphic Communications Management students selected for Future Digital Leaders Program
Three Graphic Communications Management (GCM) students, Afrah Usman, Areej Syeda and Winnie Zhan, were selected to participate in the Future Digital Leaders Program, an initiative by Henry Stewart Events that takes place at the Digital Asset Management (DAM) conference in New York. The program accepts a total of 20 individuals in the industry and provides students and young DAM professionals the opportunity to engage and network with the DAM community by attending the conference. The topics discussed during the conference were vast, ranging from creative operations to generative AI to the interconnection of DEI and Metadata.
The students, along with GCM Professor Reem El Asaleh, attended the conference in New York alongside industry professionals from across the world. Participating in the conference is an extension of the curricula taught by El Asaleh in the GCM 460 Asset Management Course, where students work in groups to build a DAM from scratch for an imaginary company of their choice. In the second part of the project, students switch groups in order to evaluate their peer’s DAM solutions and use them to create a marketing strategy. At the conference, the students were able to take their knowledge from the classroom and apply it to a real-world scenario.
GCM students were selected to participate in the Future Digital Leaders Program in New York City. Image courtesy of Areej Syeda
GCM students Afrah Usman, Areej Syeda and Winnie Zhan with Professor Reem El Asaleh. Image courtesy of Areej Syeda
“This is very exciting news for us since this will be the first time we have participated in this event that is considered one of the biggest events in Digital Asset management technology with more than 700 professional attendees from around the world,” El Asaleh said. “The students had to compete against young DAM professionals for a spot in this program.”
Expanding on global perspectives
Afrah Usman, a fourth-year GCM student, expressed her excitement about attending DAM New York and learning from experts about the future of the industry.
“The most memorable part of the Henry Stewart DAM 2022 New York conference was having people introduce themselves to us, and express their excitement over Professor Reem's undergraduate DAM course and our career journeys,” she said. “The DAM community was so welcoming and open to helping me learn. In fact, we had DAM professionals pull us aside to ask for our thoughts and feedback since we are the future of the DAM industry.”
The students started their DAM projects in Professor Reem El Asaleh's GCM 460 course and built them to be industry ready for the DAM conference in New York
Fourth-year GCM student Areej Syeda shares the same perspective, noting that the sessions allowed various perspectives and experiences to be shared by leaders with a diverse range of professional backgrounds.
“Attending the DAM Conference in NYC was truly a once-in-a-lifetime experience. It's so easy to feel intimidated as students walking in a room full of industry experts, but everyone was extremely welcoming and supportive throughout all of our curious questions,” she said.
Transferable skills from the classroom to the industry
Usman, Syeda and Zhan all credit the GCM program and El Asaleh for preparing them for the event by tying in DAM principles as part of the program curricula.
“Although GCM students do not formally learn about DAM and DAM terminology until the fourth year of the program, we unknowingly apply DAM principles in our projects,” said Usman. “Professor Reem El Asaleh does a great job in GCM 460 by helping us connect our previous technological and management knowledge with DAM terminology and principles.”
The DAM conference is considered one of the biggest events in Digital Asset Management with more than 1000 professional attendees from around the world
The GCM 460 course in particular, Syeda said, equipped her to understand DAM from educational and industry perspectives.
“Recognizing that Dr. Reem El Asaleh teaches a one-of-a-kind DAM course that allows undergraduate students the opportunity to learn both the back-end and front-end abilities of a DAM solution equipped us with the unique ability to have understood DAM in an educational lens before experiencing all the different DAM solutions proposed by multiple vendors,” Syeda said. “Leaders within the industry helped us bridge the gap from theory to practice by showing us the variety of DAM solutions implemented within their respective businesses, as we continued to network and grow our professional circles.”
The Creative School at Toronto Metropolitan University
The Creative School is a dynamic faculty that is making a difference in new, unexplored ways. Made up of Canada’s top professional schools and transdisciplinary hubs in media, communication, design and cultural industries, The Creative School offers students an unparalleled global experience in the heart of downtown Toronto.