Students May Attend Careers in the Arts and Entertainment Industries Panel Discussion

University of Arkansas

The panel will be held in the Donald W. Reynold's Center for Enterprise Development (RCED) Auditorium.

On Tuesday, April 9, students may attend a special industry panel that focuses on business, tech and creative careers from 3:30-4:45 p.m. and reception at 4:45 p.m. in the Reynolds Center for Enterprise Development on campus. Careers in the Arts & Entertainment Industries panel discussion is hosted by the Alumni Association, College of Engineering, Sam M. Walton College of Business and the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences and its Tesseract Center for Immersive Environments and Game Design.

This panel was designed to explore the intersection of business, creativity and technology. The audience will hear the stories of both creatives and business people: artists, musicians, programmers, producers, entrepreneurs and business managers.

Dave Fredrick, associate professor in classical studies and director of the Tesseract Center for Immersive Environments and Game Design, will serve as moderator. Panelists include:

• Mike Utley, 2019 Johnson Fellow, American musician, composer and record producer for Jimmy Buffett's Coral Reefer Band, B.A. 1969
• Kjartan Kennedy, UX designer at Unity Technologies, B.S. 2014
• Erin Rosa, key account manager at Warner Bros. Entertainment, current MBA student
• Mauriahh Esquivel, vice president, group creative director at Saatchi & Saatchi X
• Shane Richey, creative director at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, M.F.A. 2007

The panelists have learned to take their creative skills and apply them to big business or their business acumen to advance creative endeavors. They will encourage students to pursue their passions and their inner creativity in this space through tangible advice. This quote captures the event:

"Ideas, whether artistic or entrepreneurial, are by nature, locked away in the human mind. It's only through experimentation, creativity, and collaboration that they are able to be made manifest, and to address some aspect of human need. Not surprisingly, these are the very ingredients necessary in all of business and art. You wouldn't be far off if you were to describe both the businessperson and the artist, as idea-revealers." – (Peter Himmelman, Forbes 2017)

After the panel, there will be a reception for community creatives, students and faculty. The reception will feature a range of invited guests from the business, community arts and entertainment space, such as Modthink, Metova, Inc., Walton Arts Center, Theatre Squared, PIXEL A School for Media Arts and more.

Students should RSVP on Handshake. Community members, faculty and staff should RSVP though the Formstack link.