Nick Corbin knows the value of connections.
“It almost doesn’t even matter if you’re talented, if you know the right people,” said Mr. Corbin, a filmmaker and participant in the Owens Community College Spark Summit. “Every single job I’ve ever gotten, and I literally do mean this, every single job that has been of any note, in any way, has been because I showed my stuff to the right people.”
Student, alumni, or industry professional, Owens Community College welcomes everyone to the free Spark Summit on Thursday, which will act as a networking fair through which those connections can be provided.
With more than 20 sessions covering careers in the visual and performing arts, the biennial Spark Summit is an opportunity for Toledo-area creatives to get a leg up in a region not known for creative career opportunities.
From resume and portfolio feedback to internship prep, these forums cover everything from the culinary arts with Cedar Point chefs to overcoming imposter syndrome.
“In between these sessions, the participants get to walk through the rotunda, meet regional professionals, and have informal conversations,” said Jeremy Meier, chairman of Owens’ fine and performing arts. “The arts are all very interconnected with each other, and so the opportunity to have this day to celebrate collaboration is a great one to have.”
Mr. Corbin will be sharing his tips about filmmaking and editing for Hollywood productions in his 2:15 p.m. session.
Mr. Corbin’s film credits include co-editing the Netflix documentary special The Light We Carry: Michelle Obama and Oprah Winfrey and the Amazon Prime original reality TV show Influenced.
Novice filmmakers searching for their own style would do well to attend Mr. Corbin’s panel, where he’ll draw special attention to the rookie mistakes he sees from the legion of would-be social media influencers.
An Owens alumnus himself, Mr. Corbin values giving the community college’s nontraditional students a chance to build the kinds of networking connections that kickstarted his career.
Not only do networking fairs introduce students to new people, but they allow them to get a sense of the personalities drawn to their chosen field while they practice their public persona, Mr. Corbin said.
“The idea of someone just having a personality, I think might be a little silly. We have five or six” depending on the context, he said. “If people want to be around you, they’re more than likely to recommend you to other people.”
Sometimes, the most important tool is a computer with a webcam.
Remote work has leveled the playing field for high-end entertainment employment, which often appreciates the strong work ethic Midwesterners have, Mr. Corbin said.
“Someone like me can bring that Toledo work ethic, that — What do they call it? — a Protestant work ethic. I’m not religious at all, but I believe that’s what they call it, where we just never stop,” Mr. Corbin said.
“You know, we just keep going. Maybe it’s a weird fear, I don’t know. It’s a fear that maybe opportunities won’t exist for very long over here. So we work as hard as we can to earn as much as we can while it’s available.”
The Owens Center for the Fine and Performing Arts rotunda will be bursting with regional representatives from arts groups and businesses like Engage Studio Architects, Olivia Mario Photography, and Film Toledo.
Owens is partnering with the American Advertising Federation of Toledo to connect with a wider range of speakers than ever before.
AAF Toledo is how University of Toledo disability studies professor Becca Monteleone was brought into the fold.
Ms. Monteleone is the co-founder of the Plain Truth Project, a collaboration between scholars, journalists, and self-advocates with intellectual disabilities aimed at making news media more accessible.
Whether you’re an artist, journalist, or graphic designer, “you’re always going to be trying to do your best to connect and communicate with an audience,” Ms. Monteleone said. “These are exactly the people that we want to have to have this message.”
Her session, Writing Accessibility and Inclusiveness for Diverse Audiences, aims to give attendees the tools they need to communicate with the most people possible, whether that be people with disabilities or those who process information below an eighth-grade reading level.
“Thinking about who it is that we’re trying to reach, we can really expand that by just thinking about the way that we're presenting information. So I hope that’s what people really leave with,” Ms. Monteleone said.
Another Spark Summit session is a screening of the 2024 documentary The Trail Fire of 1961, followed by a panel discussion with the documentary’s creators, which will include the documentary’s writer and director, Blade photojournalist Phil Kaplan.
Founded in 2011 as the brainchild of Owens commercial art professor Carey Martin, the then-Owens Networking Fair and Symposium has been a way for students to break out of their bubble and “give students the opportunity to meet some new people and practice an elevator speech,” Mr. Meier said.
In 2023, the Networking Fair and Symposium saw about 120 attendees; the help from AAF Toledo will likely launch this year’s summit to high numbers.
One revelation students take from the Spark Summit is how much farther they’ll go if they’re open to learning new skill sets, whether that’s acting or artificial intelligence.
But for the most part, it all comes back to who you know.
“The other big thing for participants is they have a reinforced understanding of the importance of networking, being able to have conversations, understanding that the contacts they have in the classroom now will potentially be a network of opportunity down the road,” Mr. Meier said.
Details and registration for Owens Community College’s Spark Summit can be found at owens.edu/cam/sparksummit.
First Published March 4, 2025, 2:51 p.m.
