October Members’ Meeting: Recap


The Members’ Meeting has just recently been held in Dublin! After years of online meetings, it was wonderful to finally get to discuss face to face and re-connect with our amazing members! Hosted by one of our member Universities, TU Dublin, the meeting took place on the 20 & 21 of October.

We had not had the pleasure of seeing each other since 2019, so there was a lot to catch up on. The first day of meeting was dedicated to news from our members about their courses, as well as some very interesting presentations:
-The TU Dublin, Rosie Hand: University introduction and programmes with IAPI.
-The University of Greenwich, Hyunsun Yoon: Transitions, changes and new beginnings: Marketing and Advertising curriculum in Greenwich Business School.
-De Haagse Hogeschool, Inge Barkmeijer & Tim Hoppen: Social learning spaces during thesis project.
-The University of Applied Sciences Utrecht, Luc van Dijk: Developing E-marketing Skills for the Business Market.
-FHWien der WKW University of Applied Sciences for Management & Communication, David Dobrowsky’s: Erasmus Mundus Joint Master.
-Hochschule Mannheim, Jean-Claude Hamilius: The Best-of-Covid-19-related-Communication
You can find all the presentations from the meeting here!

On the first day, we also held the elections for edcom President, Board and the Research Committee!


First of all, we sincerely thank our previous President Paul Springer for holding his position for longer than anticipated because of the difficulties created by the Covid pandemic. We now are glad to welcome our new edcom President, Gilles Nakhle! Gilles is the Referent Professor and Manager of International Academic Projects at our member university Sup de Pub in Paris, as well as a Brand Consultant. He has also been a part of the edcom Board since 2019. 


Up next were the elections for the edcom Board and the Research Committee! We thank all the candidates and are very happy to welcome all the elected members. 

The second day saw a very interesting presentation on the edcom x EACA talent survey “Will they stay, or will they go?”, held by Paul Springer, followed by a panel discussion and Q&A with guest industry professionals: Charley Stoney, CEO, IAPI and Geraldine Jones, Managing Director, Publicis Dublin, moderated by Jan Binar, CEO, McCann Prague. Here you can check the full agenda.

The next members meeting will take place in May 2023 around the Ad Venture Student Competition finals.
Lego logo with lego brics in the background

Ad Venture Student Competition 2022-2023 Launch

The European Association of Communications Agencies (EACA) and its European Institute for Commercial Communications Education (edcom) have launched a call for entries for its 15th annual advertising student competition, Ad Venture, in collaboration with LEGO.

Founded in 1932 by Ole Kirk Kristiansen, LEGO has been a staple for many generations of children growing up and are one of the world’s leading manufacturers of play materials. They have twice before been named the “toy of the century”. Renowned for their simple but fun approach to playing, the name of the company originates from the Danish words leg godt meaning “play well” , this has been and still remains the central idea in Lego’s operations.

This year, students will get the chance to get in touch with their inner child and embark on a journey to reinvent LEGO’s brand catalogue, which reaches millions of shoppers and kids every year. It helps them discover more products beyond current favourites, increasing their love for LEGO play. The challenge at the heart of this brief is to unleash the creative power of LEGO’s most unsuspecting media – the catalogue.

The submitted entries will be assessed by a broad base of judges, comprised of academics, advertising professionals and client representatives from across Europe. The winning team will be rewarded with travel, accommodation and tickets to the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity in June 2023. The deadline for registering the teams is 12th December 2022, and the deadline for submitting the campaigns is 13th March 2022.

For more information, please contact Kasia Gluszak, Project Manager at kasia.gluszak@eaca.eu.

Notes to Editors

About Ad Venture Student Competition

Organised by European Institute for Commercial Communications Education (edcom) and The European Association of Communications Agencies (EACA), Ad Venture is the first Pan-European competition which gives students the opportunity to experience what it is like to work in advertising by creating their own campaign in response to a brief from a real client.

About edcom

edcom is the European Institute for Commercial Communications Education. It strives to promote excellence in commercial communications education and research and to further exchanges between the European commercial communications sector and academic partners. Edcom was founded by EACA together with the founding academic partners in 2007. Find us on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.

About EACA

The European Association of Communications Agencies (EACA) represents more than 2 500 communications agencies and agency associations from nearly 30 European countries that directly employ more than 120 000 people. EACA members include advertising, media, digital, branding and PR agencies. EACA works closely with EU institutions to ensure freedom to advertise responsibly and creatively. For more information, visit www.eaca.eu. Connect with us on Twitter, Facebook & LinkedIn.

University of Greenwich & The University of Georgia Join the edcom Network

The European Institute for Commercial Communications Education (edcom) is pleased to announce their new members, the University of Greenwich and the University of Georgia.

University of Greenwich was established in 1890 over the years becoming one of the leading innovative universities both in the United Kingdom and the world. Not only has it been ranked amongst the best institutions worldwide, but it has also received prestigious accreditations from a range of organisations like CIPD, APS and AMBA. The university has three campuses in London and Kent, with the main one being on a UNESCO World Heritage site in the centre of Greenwich, London. The university is currently the home to 38,000 international students from more than 160 countries, ambitiously looking to continue the 130 years of excellence that the university is renowned for.

Dr. Hyunsun Yoon is University of Greenwich’s representative to edcom. She obtained her PhD in Advertising and MA in Journalism from Cardiff University. She is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (SFHEA), Programme Leader for BA Advertising and Digital Marketing Communications, Deputy Director of the Marketing Research Group, and the Department Lead for Scholarship Excellence in Business Education. Hyunsun has over the span of her career been looking to create a bridge between the academic field and the industry and has along the way completed several successful research and consultancy projects with the History of Advertising Trust (HAT) and the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP). She specialises in the areas of advertising and marketing communication, particularly the areas surrounding representation, relationship between older consumers and digital communications, and pioneering forms of commercial communications. She is also passionate about enhancing student engagement and employability, with current interests centring around the challenges and innovations of advertising education.

University of Georgia is one of the largest and the highest-ranking private universities in Georgia. It is distinguished by the high-quality educational processes, modern infrastructure, and a diverse community with cross-cultural awareness.  Its multicultural environment shapes intelligent, educated individuals with human values capable of meeting modern challenges. The university cultivates liberal-human values and achieves its mission by developing centres of excellence and platforms that allow for the implementation of academic programs tailored to the student and market needs. The University of Georgia is also developing its international cooperation in research, science, students’ and faculty mobility, technology transfer and others.

Leli Bibilashvili holds a PhD in Mass Communications and is the University of Georgia’s representative to edcom. She’s been working at the university since 2014 as an Associate Professor and the Head of Journalism and Mass Communications Department. Leli is a member of the International Public Relations Association (IPRA) and has multiple years of experience both in academic and practical work. Adding to that, she has published a number of publications in communications and has successfully participated in various international and local conferences and workshops such as, 21st EUPRERA Annual Congress, 10th International History of Public Relations Conference, Teachers’ Conference of the European Journalism Training Association (EJTA), 5th World Journalism Education Congress, EJTA Teachers’ Conference on Crisis Reporting and EJTA Annual Conference. Leli has also worked as an IMC Consultant for several years in the ACT Global (Research and IMC Consulting Company), banking sector and in non-governmental structural units.

We are once more, elated to welcome the University of Greenwich and the University of Georgia into the edcom family and look forward to fruitful cooperation in many spheres from here on.

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For more information, please contact Kasia Gluszak, Project Manager at kasia.gluszak@eaca.eu.

Notes to Editors

About edcom

edcom is the European Institute for Commercial Communications Education. It strives to promote excellence in commercial communications education and research and to further exchanges between the European commercial communications sector and academic partners. Edcom was founded by EACA together with the founding academic partners in 2007. Find us on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.

About EACA

The European Association of Communications Agencies (EACA) represents more than 2 500 communications agencies and agency associations from nearly 30 European countries that directly employ more than 120 000 people. EACA members include advertising, media, digital, branding and PR agencies. EACA works closely with EU institutions to ensure freedom to advertise responsibly and creatively. For more information, visit www.eaca.eu. Connect with us on Twitter, Facebook & LinkedIn.