Last night was my baptism of fire to IAPI’s Rant Night held in the Sugar Club on Leeson Street and what a night it was, this was IAPI’s third Rant night but also the goodbye party for Aisling Conlon who has been with IAPI for nine years.

First to the stage was Leo Moore of Irish International on ‘Why Advertising is trying to make us cry’ encouraging Pathos in Advertising, then returning at a later point for his second rant to discuss divorcing planning from agencies and the importance of working hand in glove with creatives.

Funeral director Fintan Cooney, previously of Chemistry, ranted about the issues with pitching, blended rates and the joys of not having to use PowerPoint in his new role.

I was touched by Rachel Ray’s very brave rant on her own OCD and how to manage stress in the workplace and the importance of bringing mindfulness into our lives, giving us all food for thought.

Max Brady of Pull the Trigger gave an hilarious rant about client’s demands and explaining to them how we actually need honeywagons when shooting in the Wicklow hills, Procurement officers and having to justify why we need to actually feed our crews, I can completely relate to this!

Michael Clancy of MediaVest gave a fantastic and certainly eye opening rant for me titled ‘The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament’ on how we in Ireland give out way too many awards in fact we give out 10,000 more awards than Hollywood! Followed by hilarious slides on how much we spend on makeup, tuxes and taxis for these events.

Adrian Fitzsimons of Chemistry gave a very clever rant on soliciting your own review and how he went about creating his own reviews, now that’s creativity!

Ger Roe of Publicis Dublin ranted on how we need to all ‘Go green’, making bread, the importance of valuing ourselves and how accounts need to stay in Ireland and the importance of using an Irish agency.

Jess Majekodunmi of DDFH&B represented! In true style she came in on a rant and is now going out on a rant, heading to Ethiopia with the Nike Foundation in May. Jess ranted on how women are been portrayed in Irish advertisements and delivered a fabulous one liner “Meercats and green M&Ms have more visibility than black and gay people”.

Sinead Cosgrove of Chemistry gave a rant entitled ‘The power of negative thinking’. She ranted about how the perception is that ‘everything needed to be awesome within the advertising industry’ and that conflict isn’t a bad thing and not to be afraid to disagree.

Last but not least it was IAPI’s very own Aisling Conlon delivering her swan song after nine years working in IAPI. This was her opportunity to take the stage and share her years of frustrations. Aisling took us on a journey titled ‘Ground Hog Day’ from pitching problems that have been on-going for 47 years, requesting extensions, treating interns with respect and how Digital is NOT new within the business and it is not a phase we are all going through! Her rant was an eye opener to the industry in what they need to change in order to survive.

Over all I was so impressed and encouraged by the support and turnout of rant night and equally by the level of the standard of passionate work delivered.

All ranters turned up early to rehearse, followed by Leo Moore’s request for two rants! For me the rant of the night goes to joint winners Michael Clancy of Mediavest for not only delivering a brilliant rant about the excessive award ceremonies in Ireland but also in a valiant gesture by coming to Sinead Cosgrove’s rescue over a PowerPoint emergency and also to Rachel Ray of Simply Zesty who I admired greatly for getting up and speaking so candidly about OCD and how it has affected her life.

I can honestly say that I am really excited about next year’s rant and being a part of all the future ranters to come!