Level Up! 2025 MACS Career Conference Recap

FIMS alumni attending the 2025 Career Conference

January 2025

On Friday, January 24, the Media and Communication Studies (MACS) program in the Faculty of Information and Media Studies (FIMS) held its 8th annual career conference for undergraduate students. Fourteen fantastic FIMS alumni joined us on Western’s campus to give a confidence boost to over 100 upper year MACS students who will be soon entering the job market.

The conference was funded through the generous financial support of the Undergraduate Student Fund, without which this event wouldn’t be possible. This year’s theme was Level Up, with a nod to retro video games as our inspiration. Our alumni did a fantastic job tying their sessions to the theme and describing to attendees what leveling up professionally looks like for them.

Associate Dean Susan Knabe provided some thoughts on the theme:

In gaming, the promise of levelling up is that not only will you progress in the story and gain new opportunities through completing tasks, acquiring items and building experience points, it is also that players who reach this new level are themselves enhanced by the transition. While the precision of ‘levelling up,’ in gaming at least, is that there are concrete elements that contribute to this journey, it encourages us to be instrumental about all aspects of our life (everything we do becomes ‘experience points’).

We’re still FIMS though, and we don’t take things at face value. For a slightly more critical take on the theme of leveling up, read Associate Dean Knabe’s full career conference message.

You can check out this year’s edition of the Career Conference website at: https://careerconference.fims.uwo.ca.

Career Conference Gallery

Photo credits: Suzanne Elshorafa (1, 3, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19) and Sam Simner (2, 8, 12, 13, 20)

Keynote presenter:

  • Alessia Grosso (BA'14) - Senior Vice-President, Communications Strategy, Havas Media Network

Speakers:

  • Brent Barron (BA’09) – Director, Strategy & Transformation, CIFAR
  • Natalie Diezyn (BA’21, HBA'21) – Publicity and Partnerships Specialist (The TARO Group), The Walt Disney Company
  • Shaun Ferguson (BA’18) – Account Executive, Brand Partnerships, EssenceMediacom Canada
  • Skylar Gomes (BA’21) – Senior Account Executive, MacIntyre Communications
  • Meghan Houlihan (BA’03) – Manager, Marketing Intelligence and Strategy, Nestle
  • Samir Kashyap (BA’16) – Associate Producer, Cineflix Media Inc.
  • Varsha Kumar (BA’12) – Director of Digital Marketing Partnership, Live Nation Entertainment
  • Mark Ollivierre (BA’10) – Senior Game Producer, Blizzard Entertainment
  • Chris Pandza (BA’17, HBA'17) – Design, Incite at Columbia University
  • Cindy Pham (BA’07) – Project Lead, AI Ethics Office, Sony
  • Sarranya Surendran (BA’19) – Account Manager, Snapchat
  • Henry Standage (BA’21) – Creative Manager, Bonus Track
  • Kate Wallace (BA’20) – Marketing professional formerly with Apple Music and Apple News

After the keynote address and the breakout sessions, everyone gathered in the Wave for a great sit-down dinner and the chance to chat with each other more informally.

Program CoverWe also had a great team of MACS student volunteers and FIMS staff and faculty on-hand to make sure the event ran smoothly. Fourth year students Sophia Ratanshi and Leo Benoliel stepped up as event co-hosts. A ton of work goes into the planning and running of this event, so thank you to everyone who played a role. For a full list of thank yous, visit the About Us page on the Career Conference website.

If you’re a FIMS alum wondering if there’s a way you can get involved in MACS career-oriented events, the answer is yes! Our students love hearing from alumni and MACS Career Services is now hosting a number of different events throughout the year to benefit students in all four years. Drop us a line at macs@uwo.ca to let us know you’re interested in participating in an event and sharing your wisdom or advice.

Until next year,

MACS Career Conference Committee