The third annual Creative Week launches Monday, May 9^th, with a blizzard of events celebrating creativity in design, advertising, new media, and the arts in general. Every day until Sunday, May 15^th, there will be numerous events to choose from.

What makes Creative Week such a feast is that it includes programs of all kinds, from lectures, presentations, job fairs, and demonstrations to networking meet-ups, drinks and meals. On Monday alone, design hunters can chose from a number of museum exhibitions, including Maira Kalman at the Jewish Museum to advertising and design agency tours to a workshop on The Art of Salary Negotiation. The crowning event for the organizers is the One Show  Awards Ceremony, which is where the idea for Creative Week germinated.

Just a few of the week’s events: The 6^th Annual Art Licensing Panel Discussion at Partt Manhattan, on Thursday; The One Show Awards Ceremony at Alice Tully Hall, also on Thursday; The Young Ones Portfolio Reviews on Tuesday.

Creative Week began when The One Club, a non-profit in the advertising industry, saw that the creative professionals it drew to New York each year for The One Show Festival presented an excellent opportunity to help New York’s varied creative organizations find an appreciative and influential audience.

Since it's inception in 2009, Creative Week has grown to embrace a wide range of partners such as Google, The Paley Center, SHOOT Magazine, NYC & Co, the NY Photo Festival and others. Creative Week invites all organizations involved in advertising and the arts to participate. Participating organizations plan and stage their events, which are promoted on the Creative Week website and released to the media by The One Club and other participating partners, including DART, which is a media sponsor.

So fasten your seat belts and start signing up for the Creative Week events that will inspire – no, rock – your creativity. As Mayor Michael Bloomberg proclaimed (and this is an official mayoral proclamation), “No matter your artistic tastes, this week’s events include something for everyone – photography exhibits film screenings, and walking tours highlighting our city’s majestic architecture, just to name a few.” Many of the events are free and all information is immediately visible on the well-designed Creative Week calendar/website.