Talent Made Here Video Wins Telly Award

(Fort Wayne, Ind.) The Talent Initiative’s “Curtis Visits IPFW” video, a part of the Talent Made Here Campaign, directed by One Lucky Guitar (OLG) and produced by Explore Media, wins a 2012 Bronze Telly Award in the education category for internet and online video. Demonstrating creativity and excellence in film and video production, the winning entry was among nearly 11,000 entries from all over the world.

Filmed at the Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne (IPFW) campus, the winning video features Talent Made Here’s energetic spokesperson—Curtis—visiting with current students and successful graduates in the Engineering and Computer Science departments at IPFW. An extension of local 30-second TV spots, the video was created to build awareness of the newly expanded engineering programs at IPFW that the Talent Initiative helped to fund through the Lilly Endowment grant.

“The videos we created were truly unique and distinctive as a result of their high-quality editing, fast cuts that kept your attention, and of course, our truly memorable spokesperson, Curtis,” says Courtney Tritch, the director of marketing for the Northeast Indiana Regional Partnership. “I think the way we delivered our message showed just how engaging and challenging the engineering programs are at IPFW, and we are very proud of the collective efforts of One Lucky Guitar and Explore Media in helping it all come together.”

The Telly Awards are the premier awards honoring outstanding local, regional, and cable TV commercials and programs, the finest video and film productions, and online commercials, video and films. The Telly Awards joins forces with YouTube to give the public the power to view and rate videos submitted. Along with the judging panel that selects the Telly Award winners, the internet community helps decide the People’s Telly Award winners.


About Talent Made Here

The Talent Initiative, established by a $20 million grant from Lilly Endowment Inc., is a 10-county regional program in Northeast Indiana focused on accelerating education and training initiatives in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). The primary goals of the Talent Initiative are to increase the base of highly skilled workers to meet the needs of the defense/aerospace and advanced manufacturing industries, while increasing job quality and reversing the current decline in regional per capita income. The program receives financial oversight from Community Partnerships, Inc., a supporting organization of the Community Foundation of Greater Fort Wayne and operational oversight from the Northeast Indiana Fund, a supporting organization of the Northeast Indiana Regional Partnership