Meet Sara Bianchi, Communications Manager at Real Games
What is your name, age, location?
My name is Sara Bianchi, I'm 25 years old and I live in Oporto, Portugal.
What's your background?
I started "working" with computers when I was four and programming HTML and PHP when I was eight. I did a lot of programming for around 10 years as a hobby. When I fell in love with interactive advertising I went onto study Technology of Multimedia Communication. While I was studying, I started working as a freelancer doing digital marketing. I continue to work as freelancer but now I’m also the Communications Manager at Real Games, a software company in Porto. This summer I will finally begin designing and managing interactive advertising projects and augmented reality apps!
What inspired you to become a Communications Manager?
Being the typical cliché geekette (always connected, anime addicted, gamer and geeky jokes), most of the people I know thought that I would program my whole life. I soon began to understand that programming wasn't enough for me and that I needed to also use my communication skills while being surrounded by technology. That's when interactive advertising started booming and big brands began to do amazing campaigns when I realized this was the job that I wanted.
Please walk me through your day, what do you do at your company?
I'll walk you through my day in general, considering I work with multiple companies!
I started working at Real Games one year ago and I’m responsible for the communication projects. I work with Digital Marketing and Website Management; I’m responsible for marketing material such as promotional videos, catalogs, etc. and I do a lot of copywriting as well. I also help prepare and attend international exhibitions. It was Real Games that introduced me to Home Automation so now I’m a bit of on enthusiast and even got to talk about it at a Portugal Girl Geek Dinner event. After Real Games, I go to work on some projects in tourism and technology areas, helping clients with their websites, apps, social media, etc. I normally have to go out for dinner or to a specific night event and do live tracking of what's happening for my clients. Between all of that, I’m now helping organize an awesome Geeky party that's going to happen pretty soon in Porto!
Can you see yourself in ten years doing the same thing you do now?
I'm pretty sure that what i'll be doing in 10 years will be very different. Amazing things are being done everywhere around the world and I think Portuguese brands are finally ready to start embracing interactive campaigns as a way of communication. Real interaction is the future and at the rate technology is evolving, I know that in 10 years I'll probably be working with concepts for brand communications that are completely social and even personal.
What is the best advice you ever received?
I was once told to enjoy the small victories. The little moments. And every day if I have even the smallest victory in my life, I celebrate. A dinner with friends, a cup of coffee on a terrace or even a simple Crash Bandicoot victory dance.
What is the most important thing you’ve learned in the last year?
Things change. All the time. The past year I embraced my biggest challenge: the need to constantly adapt. That's when i started to use Pascal as my avatar everywhere. It’s my representation of adaptability.
And what are your plans for the future?
If everything goes well this summer I’ll be splitting my time between Real Games, my clients and awesome interactive campaigns around Portugal. Sometimes people tend to try to lecture me about the amount of hours I put in but somedays, it just doesn't feel like work at all. When you're passionate about what you do it's more like playing around than anything else. And I’ll keep doing that!
If you could do one thing differently, what would it be?
If there's anything I could have improved on, it's time management. And that's something i think i'll always have to keep learning as projects are always different from each other, so it requires careful planning.
Any advice for your local/global Geekettes?
It really saddens me to see so many amazing and intelligent women not being able to work in the field they chose. My advice to our gifted geekettes is not be afraid of taking risks. Nothing is given anymore, it has to be fought for. So get your own personal projects, invest time in yourself, keep learning, and don’t stop working in your field. When you're losing hope do a sprint project on your own. Nothing is more motivating than our own passion.
