The Ad Club or AAF-KC is Kansas City’s chapter of the national American Advertising Federation. Not only is it one of the strongest Marketing & Advertising communities in Kansas City, our chapter is one of the top 3 in the country. Its focus is more on creative than results, and so attracts many of the big Advertising Agencies in Kansas City to its membership. They have killer networking and a huge (paid) membership base and break their members into interest groups: AAF-KC proper, plus the ad2 group for under 32 and the art+copy crew specifically for creatives. Their awards show in first quarter is always the place to see and be seen for ad folk.

Membership: $105 for an individual ad2 membership and varying levels of corporate membership (see website for details)
Activities: this group always has tons going on, in part because they house 3 sub-groups and each has their own programming, networking and Club Board. Their networking events are always creative and a blast and usually a great place for networking since they’re very well attended. There are professional development events like the Wednesday Acceleration series over breakfast, playtime with things like Pecha Kucha and plain ole drinkin’ and socializin’ at happy hours. They have a great calendar of events on their site.
Awards: the largest (highest attendance) ADDY Awards in the country. Known for killer creative work and a swank event that’s a great place to run into most of the Ad world in KC.
Who’s involved: they boast over 1,000 members across the 3 groups and draw a huge Ad Agency membership base, with a very healthy showing of Freelance creatives and copywriters. A Marketing and Advertising people’s haven.

Look to get involved in the AAF-KC if you’re:

• in Advertising or work at an agency
• looking for unique happy hour and networking opportunities to meet marketing and ad people
• looking for a professional committee to get involved in: they have tons to try out
• looking for a job in copywriting, art direction or at one of the big agencies in Kansas City (they  have a killer job board on their site)

Read up on AAF-KC at http://www.aafkc.com and sign up to get their weekly Wednesday emails. They also share great stuff on Facebook and Twitter.