Emily Sylvester has joined Wichita-based marketing agency Greteman Group as a brand manager. She will serve B2B and B2C clients in industries representing aviation, government, education and tourism. She brings a strong background in both new and traditional media.

“We welcome Emily’s industry savvy and proven skills,” says Sonia Greteman, agency president and creative director. “Her dedication to excellence makes her a perfect fit for Greteman Group. This industry’s always been about finding the best, smartest solutions – but never more so than today.”

One of Sylvester’s clients is her previous employer. She most recently served as marketing and campus activities coordinator for Wichita Area Technical College (WATC), a leading source for cutting-edge aviation and manufacturing training. She was an integral part of the WATC marketing team; responsible for the development and execution of the college’s advertising, online marketing, web presence and social media. She also facilitated all internal and external campus use, primarily in the state-of-the-art venue spaces at WATC’s National Center for Aviation Training (NCAT). This preferred event location serves a variety of businesses and organizations, such as Airbus, Bombardier, Cessna, City of Wichita, Kansas Chamber of Commerce and Spirit AeroSystems. Previously, she worked in Boston for Fragomen, Del Rey, Bernsen & Loewy as an assistant paralegal.

Sylvester’s last day at WATC included a launch meeting of the National Aviation Consortium, funded by a $15 million U.S. Department of Labor grant that’s part of a nationwide job-training initiative. WATC was appointed NAC lead. Representatives from the consortium’s four other community colleges also attended: Ivy Tech Community College (Ft. Wayne, Ind.), Guilford Technical Community College (Jamestown, N.C.), Tulsa Community College (Tulsa, Okla.) and Edmonds Community College (Lynnwood, Wash.). Each will work with employers and partners in their respective states. In Wichita, those include Bombardier Learjet, Cessna, Hawker Beechcraft, Spirit AeroSystems, Kansas Board of Regents, Workforce Alliance of South Central Kansas, and the Kansas Department of Commerce’s KANSAS WORKS. The day following the kick off, Sylvester was at Greteman Group, stepping into a new role, but retaining ties to her past one.

“The NAC’s efforts to standardize aviation credentials will make such a difference to students, employers and our community,” says Sylvester. “I’m glad to still be part of the initiative, now supporting NAC through Greteman Group’s education and outreach efforts.”

Sylvester earned a bachelor’s degree in fine arts from Gordon College, in Wenham, Mass. She has guest lectured for the Wichita Independent Business Association (WIBA) Educational Seminar Series on social media marketing, Facebook Pages and Groups, branding and image. She also participates in the annual Quivira Council Boy Scout Merit Badge College and has volunteered her artistic talent by painting live at a number of local faith-based events.

February 20, 2013

Wichita Business Journal

Emily Behlmann

Walk into the Greteman Group offices and it’s obvious creative people are at work. The walls are brightly colored in deep reds and golds, the layout is open, and there is artwork everywhere — much of it local, some from around the world.

It feels global. And Zen.

President Sonia Greteman designed the space with her artist husband, Chris Brunner, whose sculptures are all over the office.

Too often, Greteman says, offices are spartan. She wanted the office for her branding agency to reflect her company’s creativity and the creativity of the community.

Greteman Group is on the second floor of the former Domestic Laundry Building in the Douglas Design District, at 1425 E. Douglas. Greteman says the 1915 space, all steel and glass, was modern for its time. For Greteman, which has been there 12 years, the space offers high ceilings and plenty of natural light.

“Natural light streaming thorough our glorious big windows brings in the big blue sky,” she says. Most of Greteman’s staffers work in an open environment, which she says encourages brainstorming, interaction and fun. The agency’s work hangs everywhere — particularly projects that are in the works. Greteman says her firm tries to avoid shipping work off to clients before it’s been allowed to breathe for a couple days. Staff hang it up or, more often lately, display it on digital screens, and “live with it” to make sure they still like it. Greteman says every time she walks by a new logo or advertisement, she’s likely to notice something new.

Cue the sketchpad.

In Greteman’s own personal office, on the other side of impressive wood-and-steel doors created by Brunner, she says she tries to never be without a black Uniball pen and something to draw on. She says it’s sometimes easier for her to sketch out an idea than to describe it.

“I draw when I think, draw to express myself, draw to get a point across, and steal everybody’s pen in sight, so watch out,” she says. Greteman works for most of the day from her standing desk. She’s health-conscious — the office also has jasmine tea, a fitness area and twice-weekly yoga sessions — and she says standing encourages her to go talk to colleagues instead of just emailing them. Ultimately, the in-person collaboration can help with idea development, she says.

What else helps get ideas flowing? Sometimes the creativity of others can help inspire.

One of the most prominent works of art in the Greteman Group office is Brunner’s “Moon Gate,” an Asian-inspired gateway that divides Greteman’s public lobby from its staff workspace (the “inner sanctum,” as Greteman says). There’s a photo of it on his website.

Then there are artifacts from Greteman’s many travels abroad. She went to Egypt last year and is taking a rail trip through India this year. A previous project Greteman Group did for Bombardier took her around the world for interviews and photos with jet users. African masks and Day of the Dead Mexican motifs adorn the walls.

Also decorating the office is work by Greteman’s local artist friends.

“I feel their presence when I look at the work,” she says.

© Wichita Business Journal, 2013

February 20, 2013

Wichita Eagle
Joe Stumpe

Emily Sylvester Brand manager, Greteman Group

Sylvester brings a variety of experience to her new job at the Greteman Group branding agency – artist, assistant paralegal, marketer and grain elevator employee.

“I was kind of a returning fixture at the grain elevator in Clearwater,” said Sylvester, who worked there in high school and college and whose father is a farmer. “I would keep all the clients straight. They would bring in their grain and I would make sure it went to the right account, and was being tested properly.”

Sylvester, 29, studied at Wichita State for two years before earning a fine arts degree from Gordon College in Wenham, Mass. She then worked for a law firm in Boston for three years.

“It was mostly just wanting to get different experiences – explore outside Kansas,” she said.

Homesickness and a desire to spend time with her four siblings brought her back to Kansas.

She started as an intern at Wichita Area Technical College in 2010 and was eventually named marketing and campus activities coordinator. In that role she worked with the Greteman Group on its rebranding of WATC to highlight the then-new National Center for Aviation Training. WATC is one of her clients at Greteman, along with the National Aviation Consortium, a job-training initiative.

Sylvester’s husband, Barclay, is a research engineer for the National Institute for Aviation Research at WSU.

Sylvester enjoys painting and has demonstrated her talent live at several local faith-based events. She says marketing “is a way for me to streamline the creativity I already had.”

© Wichita Eagle, 2013

February 14, 2013

Wichita Eagle

Kaye Updegrove has joined the Greteman Group as an office assistant, and Jordan Bradbury has joined the agency as an integrated marketing intern.

 

February 1, 2013

Wichita Business Journal
Daniel McCoy

Wichita Aero Club pulls out all the stops at 2013 annual gala

I get to do some pretty fun stuff in this job. I’ve flown along on a KC-135 refueling training mission; I’ve ridden around the airport on one of the fire trucks and seen the water cannon in action; I stood only a matter of yards from the runway by Boeing Wichita (in the freezing cold) and took photos of the 787 Dreamliner as it landed here last January.

But the best part of the job, without a doubt, is the people I get to meet.  got to see a lot of those folks this past Saturday evening as a crowd of Air Capital VIPs gathered for the Wichita Aero Club’s 2013 gala event and honored this year’s recipients of the Wichita Aero Club Trophy, John O’Leary and Airbus.

I even got to meet some new folks, two of whom came a very long way just for the event. Charles Champion, executive vice president of engineering at Airbus, came all the way from France, while Matthew Orchard, vice president and head of wing design for Airbus, came in from the U.K.

It was a fantastic evening. Aero Club President Dave Franson tells me the credit goes to the gala committee of Ashley Bowen Cook of Greteman Group; Becky Tuttle, wife of club Chairman Patrick Tuttle; and Tessa Brungardt and Pat Ritchey, both of the Aero Club.

“They did just an extraordinary job of putting on the event,” Franson says.

I can attest to that. Any event that includes a string quartet, a photo booth, a candy bar and ice sculptures is going to get high marks from me.

It’s one of the club’s biggest events of the year, but Franson doesn’t get to take much of a break afterwards. He’s already preparing for next month’s luncheon, which will feature Cessna Aircraft CEO Scott Ernest, one of the Wichita Business Journal’s Newsmakers for 2012.

Franson’s also already putting together the club’s golf tournament in June.

It will be another big year for the Aero Club, one that will include the first awarding of the Edward W. Stimpson Scholarship to help advance the education of a student interested in aviation.

There could be more events in the works for 2013, Franson says, ones that could have members meeting outside of the normal luncheon setting.

Those aren’t finalized yet, but Franson says to “stay tuned.”

Wichita-based marketing communications agency Greteman Group welcomes Kaye Updegrove as office assistant and Jordan Bradbury as integrated marketing intern.

Updegrove earned a bachelor of music from Friends University in May 2010. Before joining Greteman Group, Updegrove worked as a tutor at the on-campus Writing/Academic Resource Center and taught piano and voice lessons. Updegrove’s interests include games (video and board), sewing and fabric design, movies and theatre.

Bradbury, a sophomore at Wichita State University, is working toward a double major in marketing and human resource management with an anticipated graduation date of May 2015. Prior to joining Greteman Group, Bradbury worked as a student assistant in WSU’s financial operations office on campus. She is actively involved in the sorority Delta Gamma, Student Ambassador Society and volunteering for the Wichita State baseball program. Bradbury was named a 2011 Distinguished Scholarship Invitational semi-finalist.