By Kimberly Mass

Image by Julianne Medenblik

This is a story about cupcakes. Not just any cupcakes—the kind covered with frosting, crowned with sprinkles, and filled to bursting with even more frosting. In this case, the frosting is comedy, the filling is a deep sense of community, and the sprinkles are the spark Alyson Stoner-Rhoades brings to her role as 2A’s operations manager.

Like the first bite of a cupcake—from the side? from the top?—this story could start just about anywhere and still end up somewhere delicious. Let’s eat!

Goodness baked right in

While Alyson grew up cooking for her family, she learned to bake from scratch (croissants and cookies and yes, cupcakes) at her first job at Specialty’s Café and Bakery. She also learned about the food supply chain, sustainable farming, and the joy that comes from sharing quality food carefully made with the wider community.

Alyson’s experience at Specialty’s prepared her for her next position: store manager at Cupcake Royale. There she learned to do, as she put it, “just about everything,” including baking the store’s signature cupcakes. With its focus on sourcing sustainable ingredients, giving back through donation matching, and serving as a community gathering place, Cupcake Royale was a perfect match for Alyson’s growing skills in operations management and community building.

The perfect mix

Following a brief stint with the Seattle Storm where she further flexed her community building muscles (a job she got in part due to her work with the Storm while at Cupcake Royale), Alyson landed at 2A as operations manager. While she makes sure the computers work and the bills get paid, where she really shines is in our company’s Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging (DEIB) efforts. “I never want people to feel that they’re not supported,” she shared. “Whatever I can do to help people who need a boost is something I’m going to do.”

In the kitsch-en

Baked into everything Alyson does is her wicked sense of humor and love of comedy. From intellectual humor to observational humor to potty humor, she loves it all. In fact, her husband proposed to her right before going to see John Mulaney at the Paramount here in Seattle and a couple of years later surprised her with a signed copy of an album from that tour. “I know it’s cliché, but laughter really is the best medicine,” Alyson said. “There’s magic in humor, and just being silly is beautiful.”

She makes it look like a cakewalk

While there’s also magic and beauty in a perfectly crafted cupcake, it’s the kind of beauty that lasts only for a moment. For Alyson, the operations management work she does at 2A has a much greater and more meaningful impact on her and the team: “Operations just kind of fell into my lap, but it comes naturally to me. I really like helping people and leaving situations better than I found them. People are what make a business, and it gives me real joy to take care of the things they need.”

By Nora Bright

Image by Emily Zheng

Tech workers have a lot of options to choose from when it comes to their next gig—and for experienced contractors considering their next position, they’re discerning not just about the role, but about the consulting agency they’ll be employed by. Agencies can be a lot more than just a way for contractors to get paid—they can also provide benefits like health insurance and 401k plans, and crucial support like professional development opportunities and coaching.

If you’re looking for great talent to join your team on a contract basis, make sure you’re working with an agency that has what it takes to attract an experienced and diverse talent pool. Ask these four questions to determine if an agency can deliver the best talent out there.

1. What benefits and PTO do you offer your employees?

In our recent survey of Microsoft contractors, 94% of respondents said an agency’s PTO policy is important in deciding whether to accept a position, and 80% said the same about medical, dental, and vision insurance. Other benefits to ask about include 401k plans and whether the firm provides the software needed for their engagements (or if contractors are expected to buy it themselves).

2. How do you support your employees during an engagement?

Does the agency meet with employees regularly, or “set it and forget it”? Agencies can offer crucial support to their employees—coaching them on navigating their roles and hitting the ground running in a new position.

3. What professional development opportunities do you offer?

According to our survey, contractors feel their biggest challenge at work is a lack of career growth. Some firms offer a professional development budget or internal workshops and events that can keep talent engaged and retained on your team.

4. What is your DEIB (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging) strategy?

Agencies with an effective diversity recruiting strategy have a more extensive and diverse talent pool to choose from when sourcing candidates for your role. Working with an agency that takes diversity recruiting seriously will up the likelihood that your contractor will make an impact and provide a fresh perspective on your team. An agency’s DEIB strategy could include inclusive language in job descriptions, posting on job boards with diverse talent, and culture initiatives.

Ready to bring on your next great hire? Learn more about our Embedded Consultants.

By Erin McCaul

Image by Thad Allen

Once upon a Tuesday, my husband and I found ourselves with a wi-fi outage, an unexpected daycare closure, and calendars full of Teams calls. Wanting to maintain the façade of professionalism, we fired up our hotspots and dug my old VCR / VHS collection out of the basement for our kids.

As I explained the concept of rewinding to my wee Netflix horde, I thought about how the 80s are still hot. Top Gun: Maverick was a box office hit. Willow is getting sequel series. And thanks to Stranger Things, Kate Bush was back on the Billboard charts.

Here at 2A we love a good 80s throwback. For many of our clients, this theme hits home for their target audience and sometimes a DeLorean or a mohawk are just what it takes to break through the marketing clutter.

Here are four times we’ve reached back to the 80s to help our clients’ messages land:

• May the force be with you(r keynote): For a multi-day developer event, we tapped into a galaxy far, far away. Our team crafted a highly nuanced storyline comparing the benefits of databases with the capabilities of Jedi knights. Did the Millennium Falcon make the Kessel Run in less than twelve parsecs? Skip Mos Eisely and head here to see how our creative approach brought balance to the Force and a keynote.  
• Slay the (interoperability) dragon: In 1989 I saw Bilbo Baggins cleverly save Lake-town from the evil dragon Smaug in an animated version of The Hobbit. In 2020, our team helped Lyniate show the world how the company’s suite of tools slay the dragon that is healthcare interoperability. Ready to go on an adventure? Find out how our mighty team slayed this ebook.
• A little Dartmouth ditty: Love Schoolhouse Rock!? Us too! See how we used the power of rhyme and song to tell viewers the importance of giving to the Dartmouth College Fund. Confession: We’re itching to explain something technical to the tune of Conjunction Junction.   
• Wait a minute, Doc. Are you telling me that you built a keynote, out of a DeLorean?: For the Professional Association of SQL Server, our team of storytellers and designers got this deck up to 1.21 gigawatts by visualizing the power of Azure SQL with Back to the Future graphics.

So if you’re looking for a team that can spice up your datasheet with the brilliant purple from The Crystal of Truth in The Dark Crystal, or subtly reference Ludo from The Labyrinth in your next animation, drop us a line. We’re happy to let you borrow something from our VHS collection!

By Jane Dornemann

Image by Evan Aeschlimann

As a marketing agency focused on cloud technology, 2A stays on top of industry developments.

Every few weeks we scour the internet for the latest on AWS and Microsoft—and now we’re bringing that news to you. But in typical 2A style, we’re we’ve made it an entertaining read.

AWS

• Maybe flying Delta won’t feel like the eighth circle of hell now that the carrier has chosen AWS as its cloud provider. Yes—believe it—a company that spends most of its time in the clouds has not yet moved to the cloud.
• AWS Cloud WAN is now generally available. It’s a managed service that simplifies global network operations by unifying environments and connecting on-premises data centers, colocation facilities, branch offices, and AWS cloud regions. Finally! The only reason I’m still on this spinning rock is because I refused to die until this happened.
• As Uber Eats knows, it’s not modern if it requires effort, which is why AWS unveiled three new analytics offerings for serverless that removes a lot of configuration and management work. AWS took a note from Delta’s playbook with the “without worrying about capacity planning” part.
  • About that lack of effort: 68% of organizations plan to rely more on AWS managed services in the next year. Skills shortage is one reason. Or maybe Kim Kardashian is right, maybe “nobody wants to work these days” was the wisest thing ever to leave her chemically enhanced lips as she cattle prodded the children making SKIMS in a Bangladeshi sweatshop. But it’s unlikely.
• In a revamp of its Security Competency program, AWS worked with security experts to create 8 categories that correspond with customers’ most in-need security capabilities.
• Procore, which sounds more like an ab workout machine than a construction software company, is using AWS IoT TwinMaker to help customers create digital twins for buildings, factories, industrial equipment, and production lines. Waiting on my digital twin of Miles Teller from Top Gun.
• Siemens has joined the AWS Partner Network with its MDR industrial cybersecurity solution now on Marketplace. 2A saw this one coming from miles away when we did a case study on Siemens’ role in propelling (get it?) Amazon Prime Air’s drone design.
• Microsoft isn’t the only cloud provider moving into the world of video games—Riot Games has chosen AWS AI, ML, and deep learning to power its esports content delivery for games like League of Legends, which is played exclusively by people with severe rage management issues (source: gamer husband).
  • Perhaps taking another cue from Microsoft, a TechRepublic writer thinks AWS is shifting some weight to open-source projects. And wouldntchaknowit, they just released Cloudscape Design System as open source on GitHub.
• Want more drama than my 9-year-old’s Pokemon card trading exploits at summer camp? Look no further than this Linkedin post, where an AWS SVP calls out Microsoft’s alleged superficial licensing practice changes to appease the European Commission. TechRadar even reported on it.
• You know when you intro one of your besties to your other bestie and they become…besties? We feel that now that Fortinet has launched its cloud-native protection service on AWS. Fortinet will also be the launch partner for Amazon Guard Duty Malware Protection. Just don’t have a sleepover without us, OK?
• After sending its Snowcone into space last month, AWS just can’t get enough of that star stuff—it will help Japanese space tech developer Warpspace to develop a satellite communication relay network service. (Memories of Rick Moranis ordering Ludicrous speed, for those of us over 40.)
• President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenksyy says Slava AWS and Microsoft, handing over a peace prize to the cloud providers for their efforts in remaining on “the light side of digital.” Find out what they did here. Google got the prize in May.
• Once again, 2A is the sole reason why Amazon’s earnings call was so hot for cloud—AWS revenue rose 33%, beyond analyst expectations.
• Cybersecurity firm Trend Micro wants you to know that it achieved AWS Healthcare Competency status. Sorry, I left my thanks for participating prize for you at home, Trend Micro.
• AWS continues to set its sights on startups and is investing in programs to help them scale—like SaaS Central, an “intensive five-week program.” First stop: India.
• Boring hyper-technical stuff you may not care about unless you dream in Ruby on Rails:
  • The people want more serverless, and we shall give it to them! AWS has enhanced its Step Function with Function Workflow Collections, which allows users to create easier workflows.
  • I SAID MORE SERVERLESS: AWS has made Lambda Powertools TypeScript generally available. It helps developers follow best practices because nobody wants to work these days.
    
  • AWS has fixed Amazon Redshift classic resize so that clusters stay online. So, if you ever want to resize your clusters when restoring from a snapshot, well, now you can.

Microsoft

• Canada welcomes its first cloud-only bank, Equitable Bank, thanks to a “strategic acceleration” using Microsoft Azure. Sounds like something I’d say to get out of a speeding ticket.
• Microsoft will expand its relationship with space companies via its Azure Space Partner Community. There’s also this puff piece on Azure Space. How many martinis did Microsoft PR buy this reporter over lunch? Probably several. And that’s OK because martinis make us more pleasant people sometimes.
• Keeping its eyes on the skies, Microsoft has launched Project AirSim, a new platform running on Azure that builds, trains, and tests autonomous aircraft using simulation.
• “BUT WAIT!” someone at Microsoft said—we can’t conquer sky and space until we conquer the Earth, and we can do that with a Cloud for Sovereignty because governance is all the rage these days.
• Less dazzling news from Inspire 2022: the preview of the upcoming update to Azure Stack HCI 22H2I as well as Azure Remote Support and Marketplace.
• While the Microsoft/Activision deal is likely to go through in the U.S. (and Microsoft’s lawyers try and fail to wash those sweat stains out of their clothes), it still has to fight the final boss: The United Kingdom.
• If AWS can’t give me a digital twin of Miles Teller, I bet Microsoft can—but only after it joins its digital twin platform with Cosmo Tech’s to help cloud customers monitor their emissions in real time, which is the plan.
• For a few precious hours, Teams users around the world didn’t have to worry about that green dot turning to yellow just because they looked away for two whole seconds. It was because of a software update. Someone buy that developer some martinis!
• Microsoft reported double-digit quarterly revenue growth, and Azure revenues are up 40% from last year. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that we’ve been doing more work for them and then its stock goes up. I know this because I had to take macroeconomics twice in high school—once during junior year, and again in summer school after I failed the final. So, trust me, I KNOW.
• Network infrastructure provider Commscope has deployed a solution with Azure to help factories adopt agile practices. Pretty sure Kim Kardashian knows a factory that might want it.
• Microsoft Azure has joined Intel’s Foundry Services Cloud Alliance as an inaugural member. Good timing with the House having recently passed a billed to rev up U.S. semiconductor manufacturing.
• AWS went heavy on the gas with contact center tools, and Microsoft got on that like white on rice with its new Digital Contact Center Platform.
• Anyone who has binge-watched a show on Netflix will understand that sometimes we need somebody to save us from ourselves—and that somebody is Microsoft. The cloud provider will power Netflix’s first ad-supported subscription offering. I am not going to begin my fifth consecutive hour of Ozarks if I have to watch another Tide commercial, so this is a good thing.
• But not everybody agrees. This dude says Microsoft isn’t saving me from insufficient sleep but rather saving Netflix from certain doom—and that Microsoft may have plans for an eventual buyout.
• Microsoft is joining the Zero Trust love pile, with Windows 11 forcing its trust issues on user hardware.
• Oracle and Microsoft announced the general availability of Oracle Database Service for Microsoft Azure.
• The public preview of the updated Management Center is out.
• What do SMBs really want? Microsoft will tell you. It’s also expanded its partnership with Sage, which sells operational software to SMBs, and will integrate products.
• Microsoft fixed 32 vulnerabilities in the Azure Site Recovery Suite, 30 of which allowed privilege escalation.
• Telstra, one of Australia’s leading telecom and tech companies, has entered a five-year deal with Microsoft, one of the largest telecom partnerships to date for the cloud provider. This is great for anyone who had plans to ring a Kangaroo in the outback.
  • Microsoft must love it down unda’ following another Aussie deal. Leading Australian agribusiness Elders has selected Microsoft Dynamics 365 to…grow corn…and stuff. I dunno, TLDR.

By Mike Lahoda

Image by Thad Allen

Summer has finally arrived here in the Pacific Northwest. We’re swapping raincoats for sunscreen, marveling at the bright skies, and for some, diving into the dating pool. That’s right—time to refresh the Hinge profile pics, add a quirky blurb to the Bumble bio, and find that summer love.

Here are 5 tips for online dating success. Kidding! This is not that kind of marketing blog.

But there are parallels between dating and working with an agency. We find that the most successful marketing assets are the result of a great client-and-agency partnership. So how can you build a lasting, healthy relationship with an agency?

1. Be upfront about what you’re looking for. Just looking for a casual infographic? Or are you seeking a committed partner to help strategize the best lead-gen methods? We appreciate and respect your preferences, just let us know so we’re on the same page.
2. Introduce us to the family. No need to wait until things get serious to meet the parents and siblings. There are often numerous stakeholders involved in any asset development, and we’re happy to coordinate with the whole team. Let us know who’s involved at the start, so we can account for feedback and reviews to deliver on time.
3. Communicate your feelings. We have many talents at 2A, but we’re still working on mind-reading. Share how things are going early and often. Straightforward feedback cultivates collaboration, builds trust, and leads to a fulfilling partnership.
4. Don’t ghost. No one enjoys getting stood up, canceled on at the last minute, or a lack of responsiveness. We understand that schedules are packed and conflicts arise. That’s ok, we just appreciate some advance notice.
5. Express gratitude and love. Did that eBook make your prospects swoon? We’d love to hear about it! And if you have friends in the market for marketing assets, we hope you’ll recommend 2A. There’s a whole team of consultants, program managers, designers, and storytellers ready to get to know you.

Think we’re a match? Reach out and let’s set a date to connect.

By Forsyth Alexander

Image by Thad Allen

While other children in her Brooklyn neighborhood were on the playground or hanging with friends, Jane Dornemann was busy publishing a newspaper full of stories about what was happening around her. How this journalist grew in Brooklyn and then branched out until she joined the storytelling team at 2A is a fascinating tale of determination, family ties, world travel, climate change, content marketing, and death doulas.

Dogged by climate change

After graduating from Fordham University with a journalism and communications degree, Jane spent a year as a print media buyer in New York before traveling to Florence, Bangkok, and Honolulu to teach English. Her family has strong roots in Hawaii—can you say “kama’aina?”*—and she found a home there for a couple of years. She earned a master’s degree in creative writing at the University of Hawaii while writing and editing for newspapers and other publications.

*Child of the land

Once she earned her master’s, she returned to New York, where she turned her thoughts to meshing her skills with the needs of her family, particularly her son’s health. This entailed working in PR and communications. Eventually, it also meant leaving New York for cities chosen for their weather. But then, as she puts it, they were “chased out by climate change” as smoky conditions became less favorable for her son.

Her adventures in climate change are how she ended up in her current home in Durham, NC, where she works surrounded by posters picked up on the streets during her travels. In Durham, she began applying her writing skills to content marketing and freelancing, which also included ghostwriting.

“I’ve worked in three different areas I see as kind of a triangle”

Jane sees journalism, PR, and content marketing as a triangle, because the three connect. “Look at content marketing. A big part of it is the audience. It’s like pitching a story in PR or creating a messaging framework in communications.” She says they all require asking yourself who the reader will be and what is needed in terms of voice.

She finds a lot of satisfaction in content marketing, which is what 2A clients are looking for when they engage with us. From blogs to eBooks to animations and more—she is adept at using content for awareness and education.

A nugget of goodness in every content bite

Even though she rarely writes investigative exposés anymore and she’s no longer responsible for launching major press campaigns, Jane still uses those skills. Often clients come to us with a need to extoll the benefits of their products and services, and they are looking for a fresh new way to talk about them. If Jane is their storyteller, they will get the freshest of the fresh with added sparkle because nobody knows how to get to the golden nugget of a story and then write great headlines better than a journalist with PR experience.

For example, while writing a blog about the benefits of AI, Jane dug through the client’s interview and found out that the client had developed a first-of-its-kind AI platform. And for a recent case study, she did the math to home in on key numbers that would impress readers and then wrote unforgettable headlines to move the story.

Also, while working on a talk track for a Microsoft conference, she discovered some nuggets about the process itself that she shared in a recent 2A spotlight blog. “Building a talk track isn’t as simple as churning out a few bullet points—it’s more like constructing a house. The presenter and the writer begin with a few ideas, and through an iterative and highly collaborative process, those ideas become a final presentation,” she wrote.

Going for the gusto

Jane’s ability to pull out new and different perspectives from life’s experiences is not confined to delighting 2A clients. Since 2018, she has been a death doula, someone who helps people at the end of their lives—and their families—with the transition. She says that she has learned a lot from her patients. “You should go for the gusto,” she says, “If you are thinking about doing something out of your comfort zone, do it, so you don’t have regrets later.”

By Jane Dornemann

Image by Rachel Adams

Talk track
/tôk trak/
noun: A script that accompanies a presentation deck or video.

Why create a talk track if you really know your stuff? In the case of this year’s big Microsoft Build event, you create a talk track because presenters have a lot of information to cover and they’re on the clock. When they’re on stage presenting to hundreds of thousands of people, having a track talk helps them focus on their presence instead of trying to recall a list of details in a limited amount of time.

Building a talk track isn’t as simple as churning out a few bullet points—it’s more like constructing a house. The presenter and the writer begin with a few ideas, and through an iterative and highly collaborative process, those ideas become a final presentation.

2A has written executive talk tracks over the last few years, which means we know a thing or two about going from the blueprint to the front door. There are four main parts of the Building process (get it 😉).

#1 Lay the foundation. First, you’ll need to determine which comes first: the talk track or the visual presentation. Either you’re building a talk track to align with a finished presentation, or you’re designing the presentation around a talk track. This is a personal preference and one that may be influenced by available resources. And because the talk track and presentation must be timed to match each other, it’s important they aren’t built independently.

#2 Put in windows so the audience can really see the person. When presenters read a talk track that doesn’t sound like them, that disconnect is going to come across to the audience. Writers should have several calls with speakers to get a strong sense of their voice and personality. What tones do they naturally use? Are they fast talkers (this will affect timing, too!)? The more a writer can adopt the speaker’s style, the more naturally the presenter will deliver the track. You’ll also want to consider the subject knowledge of the presenter versus the knowledge of the audience—sometimes you’ll need to help the speaker translate what they know to a more general audience.

#3 Make renovations. A first draft will never be the end, so be flexible. Expect revisions depending on content—you may need to re-order information, add details, or cut down on certain sections. Through iterations, you need to ensure you’re staying within the time limit, that the track still aligns with the presentation, and that there’s room for introductions and conclusions.

#4 Decorate. Add small details for big effects. Don’t underestimate transitions—not just openings, closings, and moving the audience into the next part of the presentation, but also little transitions between ideas within the same subject. Additions like “well,” “so,” and “now let’s talk about” make for a much more natural delivery.

Do you need an expertly written talk track? Whether it’s for a sales pitch or a big company event, 2A can help!

By Alyson Stoner-Rhoades

Image by Suzanne Calkins

An article came out in the Seattle Times last year stating that Seattle is fifth in the running for fastest diversifying big city in the United States. That same article proceeded to remind us that we are also the sixth whitest city in the country. While many of us may lose sight of our self-work and reeducation in the progressive bubbles we occupy, data points like this show that it’s still imperative to keep pushing and growing.

With that in mind, 2A’s two working groups—the Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging (DEIB) group and the 2A Giving group—decided to join forces and focus our energy on organizations that elevate Seattle’s Black communities. We wanted to support organizations with a financial contribution and also get the team together for an event. We found the perfect fit at Langston Seattle.

We invited all our employees to the live-streamed and in-person performance of “Winter in America: An Homage to Gil Scott-Heron.” Artists did fantastic renditions of Gil Scott-Heron’s work along with a few original pieces that had people dancing in their seats. The show was powerful and heavy with Black excellence. The in-person energy was palpable on the live stream. In addition to Langston Seattle, we also donated to two other incredible organizations: Creative Justice and Black & Tan Hall.

Our night at Langston was a lovely evening and the perfect way to wrap up a successful collaboration between our working groups. Back in the beginning of the pandemic, we were eager to find ways to grow personally and professionally, work on inclusivity, and give back to the community during such a trying time. That’s when we formed our two working groups to support this vision—each with their own budgets, goals, and regular monthly meetings. After some time settling into a cadence and knocking out some initial projects the working groups had the genius idea to combine resources and embark on a collaboration journey.

We are proud of our working groups and grateful for consistent reminders to keep educating ourselves, keep supporting our coworkers and communities, and keep working toward creating a more equitable and inclusive workplace.

If you don’t know who Gil Scott-Heron is, no judgment. May we suggest you start your education journey by listening to “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised,” one of Scott-Heron’s most famous works, here. Then—taking a cue from our working groups—head over to Google and keep learning.

By Katy Nally

Lately I’ve been reading If You Give a Mouse a Cookie on a nightly basis. Each time I open the book and tell my almost-3 year old about the critter’s shenanigans, I’m transported to the library of my elementary school. I can remember so clearly sitting cross-legged looking up at the librarian as she read the same words aloud. The fact that our public library still has plenty of copies of this 1985 book is a testament to the power of nostalgia. Parents who grew up reading about the mouse and his cookie have a little flashback when reading the same stories to their kids.

Nostalgia is a powerful force, especially when woven into marketing. In the world of higher education, nostalgia works wonders for alumni fundraising. Take our Funding with Rhyme and Reason animation we created for the Dartmouth College Fund (DCF). Not only does it elicit memories of being a carefree 20-something on campus, but the rhyming whimsy takes it a step further—injecting a Saturday-morning-cartoon vibe.

In this case, the ask of 2A was to reinvent DCF’s Wacky Business Model animation, which made unfortunate parallels between Dartmouth and begging for money. The animation also didn’t quite land why tuition funding is so complex.

Our first instinct was to write a song and perform it like a Schoolhouse Rock! episode. Then we realized we’re not folk singers. Instead, using singalongs as a springboard, we walked viewers through a complicated funding equation with a little water theme to tie it all together. A reservoir, pipes, and barrels played a serious role in explaining why giving is still important for a school with a large endowment. Meanwhile, the animation’s rhyming roots keep it light and upbeat.

So the next time you want to tap into your audience’s nostalgia—we’re here for you, to create something new, and we’ll work hard, too, this much is true.

By Kimberly Mass

Image by Brandon Conboy

What do you get when you combine a passion for opera, an affinity for processes and patterns, and a love for solving complex problems? In 2A’s case, the answer is Madeline Sy, opera aficionado and marketing consultant extraordinaire.

“I’ve loved opera for as long as I can remember,” said Madeline. “While it has a reputation for being inaccessible, it’s actually the opposite—it taps into our instinct to tell stories through music, stories that explore these big emotions that reflect the universal experience of being human.” A case in point: Madeline’s favorite opera, Bluebeard’s Castle by Hungarian composer Béla Bartók, is based on a French fairy tale and follows Judith, Bluebeard’s latest wife, as she defies her husband’s request and opens one door after another in a misguided—and ultimately tragic—quest to uncover the castle’s secrets. “At its heart, it’s a story most of us can relate to, about the desire for knowledge even when it isn’t in our best interests. Like any great story, it invites imagination—every time I see it, I connect to something different, and there’s space for everyone who sees the opera to do that.”

Driven by a desire to share their passion with a broader audience, Madeline began volunteering with the Los Angeles Opera’s community engagement programs. There they saw firsthand how the dedication of a small group of people and the power of a solid marketing message could be used in outreach efforts to bring the arts to underserved communities. From there, it was natural step to apply for the Watson Fellowship, a one-year grant that funds independent research and exploration outside the United States, which Madeline used to travel to South Africa, Australia, and Canada. “I wanted to explore how opera—and other artforms in general—can be accessible to people who experience and navigate through the world differently. I started with opera but by the end of the year had expanded to other art forms including a fully accessible music festival and a new opera produced entirely in ASL about deaf culture.”

As they worked to understand these challenges and find workable solutions, Madeline was drawn to HR and the ability of HR professionals to discover patterns, solve complex problems, and improve people’s daily work life. After completing their Master of Human Resource degree at the University of Illinois, Urbana Champaign, Madeline joined bp as a People Advisor, where, in addition to day-to-day HR responsibilities, they worked on special projects that involved building relationships with internal clients and telling stories with data to develop, lead, and launch employee-based initiatives. “While I loved the combination of people and processes that HR involved, I realized I craved collaborating on projects and missed the camaraderie of working with a core team in a creative environment,” Madeline said. “I wanted to find a way to bring everything together.”

Enter 2A stage right: with its focus on building strong relationships and helping clients solve complex marketing challenges—and love of all things creative—2A struck just the right chord with Madeline. And while we don’t always know our aria from our overture, we feel exactly the same!