Reprint: A Digital Boot Camp to Groom Talent for Agencies

By STEPHANIE CLIFFORD, Published: May 12, 2010

WHEN she founded the digital ad agency Exopolis nine years ago, Kat Egan wasn’t worried about finding good talent. Although the Internet was young, she figured trained technologists would soon be pelting her with résumés.

Ira Liss/University of Colorado

Students in the Boulder Digital Works program at the University of Colorado have the use of a two-story studio space for multimedia presentations and performances.

Nearly a decade later, she’s still waiting.

“It’s shocking: even now, in 2010, it’s very challenging to find great talent,” Ms. Egan said. You can find people, she said, but “you know that they’re going to need a lot of mentoring and a lot of hand-holding, and it’s an enormous investment.”

“Digital has been growing exponentially for 15 years now,” Ms. Egan said. “Where’s the education that supports that?”