A more diverse workplace isn’t going to come from a network or agency’s human resources department, but from mentorship and education programs that help young talent navigate the industry, an expert panel told the 2013 AdColor Conference in Beverly Hills Friday.

In advertising and marketing industries that are often dominated by people with deep personal relationships, it’s important to help young people who are frequently shut out of the club to develop their own networks, while polishing their skills sets.

“From the day I designed this organization, I always had the idea that the talent is there,” said Joe Hall, president and founder of Ghetto Film School, which also is working with PromaxBDA to create collaborative cross-industry partnerships. On Saturday, Sept. 21, the two organizations held a three-hour workshop in New York to inform students how they could leverage their film-making skills into a creative career in entertainment marketing.

“My elevator pitch is that if you’re not born in the Coppola family, we’re the Coppola family. We all know that you need a hookup: a hookup to get the best internship, a hookup to get the best job. That’s probably the biggest thing that we bring to the mix,” said Hall.

Among the initiatives run by Ghetto Film School is the Digital Bodega production company, where graduates in their early 20s produce work for outside clients. When that work makes money, it goes back into the organization, helping to keep the training and mentorship program alive.

“You’re creating something for a 15-year old kid you don’t even know yet,” Hall said he told the twenty-year olds. “Now that’s real power if you’re building that kind of thing for someone else.”

Katerina Zacharia, PromaxBDA’s vice president of industry development and diversity, agreed that it’s important to “take the word diversity out of the function of HR,” and pointed to pipeline programs like PromaxBDA’s Promo Pathway as an important tool for strengthening the industry by training young talent to build both the skills and professional relationships to develop careers in entertainment marketing.

Promo Pathway is a workforce preparation program that provides 25 students with training, paid internships, industry mentorships and career coaching.

“As an association we’re able to know, based on the students’ talents and natural tendencies, where they’re going to fit,” said Zacharia. “Is it going to be in the large corporate entity like NBC, or is it going to be a small creative agency?”

But while networking and mentorship programs should form the backbone of any effort to encourage more diversity in the industry, no one on the panel denied the importance of companies creating good old-fashioned jobs.

When moderator Sallie Mars, senior VP and chief diversity officer at McCann Worldgroup, asked Khary Lazarre-White, executive and co-founder at The Brotherhood/Sister Sol, how people in the room could help, his reply was simple: “The most critical way is creating entry and mid-level positions.”

Photo: Still from alt-J’s (∆) debut album An Awesome Wave directed by Ghetto Film School alumna Melissa Murray and produced for Digital Bodega by Iasmel Vasquez.

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