A black and white portrait of Frances Miller is positioned in the foreground against a split orange and black background featuring text for "Late Creates" and "Bmore Design Week 2026."

AIGA Baltimore

General Admission

The job board is a ghost town. So where is everyone actually making connections that lead to paychecks and work we love? If you&rsquo;ve been applying for jobs, you&rsquo;ve probably felt that the application process is broken. In a 2026 survey, the United Way found that D.C. has the second-longest average unemployment duration in the country at 6.6 months, while Maryland has the fifth-longest at 5.9 months. And in tech, it&rsquo;s 9+ months. Meanwhile, the time to fill vacancies is increasing. Product, marketing, and creative teams are tasked with increasing output like never before. Employers are spending months interviewing the same 3 candidates. The work is there. But if you didn&rsquo;t apply in the first 24 hours, your resume might never make it to the hiring manager&rsquo;s desk. So what are we doing? Pulling from my time in B2B SaaS social media, in this talk I&rsquo;ll share how your LinkedIn network can turn into career opportunities when the job board does not. This isn&rsquo;t just a lecture. It&rsquo;s an actionable session. Whether you don&rsquo;t know how to use LinkedIn, you&rsquo;re afraid to say the wrong thing, think it&rsquo;s full of lunatics, or you don&rsquo;t have time for it, I believe silently hitting apply isn&rsquo;t the best use of our time. Bring your notes app and your LinkedIn profile. Monday, October 19, 2026 | 7 - 8 p.m. | Virtual About Frances MillerFrances Miller is the owner of Alta Zera Design, a Baltimore-based studio that gives marketing and creative leaders a dependable design partner with senior judgment, fast collaboration, and none of the slop that slows work down.&nbsp;Before launching her own business, Frances spent a decade building brands from the inside. As the Senior Creative Producer at the SaaS company CTM, she spearheaded several brand initiatives including their recent rebrand. Prior to CTM, she was a graphic designer and social media manager at HEX Performance, a consumer packaged goods product. There, she worked closely with the Chief Creative Officer and executive team on designing and maintaining all elements of the brand: website, email, social, print, and advertising.&nbsp;She&rsquo;s also deeply invested in her local creative community, where she spent 6 years serving on the Baltimore board of AIGA, the professional association for design. She recently talked with students at UMBC, sharing raw insights from a decade of in-house design work. In her downtime, she&rsquo;s crafting, making, learning, and occasionally posting videos of it at @frances.miller.designInstagram: @frances.miller.designLinkedIn: <a fr-original-style="" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/francesgmiller/" style="text-decoration-color: currentcolor; user-select: auto; box-sizing: inherit;" target="_blank">https://www.linkedin.com/in/francesgmiller/</a>&nbsp;Website: <a fr-original-style="" href="http://altazera.com" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-color: currentcolor; user-select: auto; box-sizing: inherit;" target="_blank">altazera.com</a>

The job board is a ghost town. So where is everyone actually making connections that lead to paychecks and work we love? If you’ve been applying for jobs, you’ve probably felt that the application process is broken. In a 2026 survey, the United Way found that D.C. has the second-longest average unemployment duration in the country at 6.6 months, while Maryland has the fifth-longest at 5.9 months. And in tech, it’s 9+ months. Meanwhile, the time to fill vacancies is increasing. Product, marketing, and creative teams are tasked with increasing output like never before. Employers are spending months interviewing the same 3 candidates. The work is there. But if you didn’t apply in the first 24 hours, your resume might never make it to the hiring manager’s desk. So what are we doing? Pulling from my time in B2B SaaS social media, in this talk I’ll share how your LinkedIn network can turn into career opportunities when the job board does not. This isn’t just a lecture. It’s an actionable session. Whether you don’t know how to use LinkedIn, you’re afraid to say the wrong thing, think it’s full of lunatics, or you don’t have time for it, I believe silently hitting apply isn’t the best use of our time. Bring your notes app and your LinkedIn profile. Monday, October 19, 2026 | 7 - 8 p.m. | Virtual About Frances MillerFrances Miller is the owner of Alta Zera Design, a Baltimore-based studio that gives marketing and creative leaders a dependable design partner with senior judgment, fast collaboration, and none of the slop that slows work down. Before launching her own business, Frances spent a decade building brands from the inside. As the Senior Creative Producer at the SaaS company CTM, she spearheaded several brand initiatives including their recent rebrand. Prior to CTM, she was a graphic designer and social media manager at HEX Performance, a consumer packaged goods product. There, she worked closely with the Chief Creative Officer and executive team on designing and maintaining all elements of the brand: website, email, social, print, and advertising. She’s also deeply invested in her local creative community, where she spent 6 years serving on the Baltimore board of AIGA, the professional association for design. She recently talked with students at UMBC, sharing raw insights from a decade of in-house design work. In her downtime, she’s crafting, making, learning, and occasionally posting videos of it at @frances.miller.designInstagram: @frances.miller.designLinkedIn: <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/francesgmiller/" target="_blank">https://www.linkedin.com/in/francesgmiller/</a> Website: <a href="http://altazera.com" target="_blank">altazera.com</a>

AIGA Baltimore

Late Creates: LinkedIn Beyond the Job Board: Embrace the Cringe to Find Hidden Work

General Admission

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