Bristol Media South by Southwest (SXSW) apprentice Jasmine Thompson has returned from the world’s largest tech and digital conference and music festival “boosted and inspired” and with two new contracts.
The Bristol-based illustrator and designer said attending the event in Austin, Texas, had been an inspirational and educational experience. It also proved rewarding for her – she secured a contract to provide illustration work for an advertising campaign and live sketch work for an event. 
Jasmine was named Bristol Media’s SXSW Apprentice at the close of Social Media Week last year. That gave her five months of mentoring sessions culminating in her visit to SXSW with the 22-strong Bristol and Bath delegation.
The 23-year-old UWE graduate said: “The main benefit was reaching out and meeting people on a global scale as opposed to a Bristol scale. You don’t expect to get opportunities like this early in your career, but more likely 10 years down the line when you’re already established.
“The appeal of SXSW was also the opportunity for collaboration, networking and working together. There is a whole world of creative minds collected in one place and people successfully working in the industry that I want to get into so it’s really inspiring.
“It was a chance to show them some of my work and what I do and allow me to prove myself as a creative, illustrator and designer. I really wanted to show people what I can do and put my work out there.”
Freelance Jasmine praised the mentoring sessions with digital pioneer and creative business consultant Chris Thurling and Ed Thomas, founder and creative director at Doubleshot TV.
“It was great to have access to experienced people who have set up their own businesses and understand networking and pricing and have been through it themselves so can pass on that insight,” she said.
“The whole thing has really reminded me and shown me why I work in the creative industry.
“A lot of the time I am in front of a computer or sketch board just getting through my work and SXSW demonstrated to me just where that could take me and how big it can get.”
Chris, who is also chair of Bristol Media, helped interview and select Jasmine for the apprenticeship and led the delegation to Texas.
He said: “Jasmine stood out because she showed real initiative. She was articulate and made it clear how much she would do with the opportunities this apprenticeship offered.
“During the mentoring sessions, we helped her establish her goals and strategies for achieving them which is something a lot of young people don’t have much help with.
“They have the talent and the skills but don’t know how to translate that into commercial success and make a living out of it. Many of them give up and end up doing other jobs to supplement their income which is a shame as it means we lose loads of really talented people.”
Bristol Media ran the campaign on Bristol’s innovative crowdfunding platform Fundsurfer, raising £3,000 towards the costs of Jasmine’s trip to SXSW.
“A lot of initiatives for young people simply offer a couple of hours’ mentoring but don’t really transform lives,” Chris added.
“We wanted to do something that would be genuinely life changing for someone, even if it was just for one person, something that would really make a difference.”
The SXSW apprenticeship scheme was run in partnership with youth empowerment group Babbasa, which used its network to find talented candidates and supported Jasmine throughout the process.
