Building Through Uncertainty: Reflections on the Media Industry & Creative Careers with Blackweek’s Co-Founder

In a year marked by profound instability across media and advertising - including mass layoffs, shrinking newsrooms, and disproportionate job losses among Black professionals - this episode offers a grounding, timely conversation for Black mediamakers and creatives seeking insights, affirmation, and real tools for what comes next. Producer CAROLYN ADAMS sits down with WALTER T. GEER III, Chief Creative Officer of Innovation at VML and co-founder of Blackweek, to talk about the fast-growing economic forum and festival bringing together leading voices from media, tech, marketing, entertainment, finance, art, and beyond to explore all things culture, creativity, and the future of work. He shares how he and his fellow co-founders managed to press forward and host the event for a successful second year in the current climate, the partnerships that helped make it possible, and their vision for the future. They also talk about strategies for navigating layoffs and searching for that next opportunity, the A.I. learning curve, the risk associated with advocacy work, and the importance of trust-building and authenticity in creative spaces. Learn more about Blackweek at www.blackweek.co --------- The opinions heard in this episode belong to the individuals who made them and not to NYABJ. Music by HoliznaRAPS. For more information on the New York Association of Black Journalists, please visit our website at www.nyabj.org.