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Entrepreneur’s Workshop With LOCA

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Creative Connections

Date:          Wednesday 21 July

Time:          6.30 – 8.30 pm

Venue: 51b Holme Bank Mills, Station Road, Mirfield, WF14 8NA

(From Mirfield go under the bridge for Mirfield railway station and turn left following the road with the large sign for James Walker Properties.

From Hopton turn right just before the Mirfield railway station bridge and following the road with the large sign for James Walker Properties).

Creative Connections are quarterly events for artists and creative businesses in and around North Kirklees, run by Loca as part of its Creative Business Support Programme.

As well as encouraging the development of a supportive and well connected community of creative people within North Kirklees we are also encouraging people to look at their businesses more professionally and with more of a critical eye. With this in mind we have a very motivational and thought provoking presentation to offer to you.

Mike Chitty is a writer, trainer, coach and adviser on enterprise and entrepreneurship.  Despite having a background in physics his work strikes a chord with creative people and artists of all kinds.  In this 30 minute session Mike will provide a fast paced, honest and highly practical introduction to The Entrepreneur’s Workshop and introduce us to 10 powerful tools that can help us make sure that our creative enterprises serve us rather than the other way round.

Twitter: @mikechitty
Facebook: mikechitty

As an extra bonus, we are holding the evening’s event at the new studio of Andrew Warburton, Area Rugs and Carpets where you be able to view inspirational work by Andrew, Dylan Edwards and Amazed Rugs.  Andrew will once again demonstrate the production methods he uses to create his bespoke, high quality rugs and there will be the opportunity to have a go for the more adventurous among you.

Creative Connections is a chance to meet informally with other creative people to pick up ideas, information and contacts which may be useful in your work.  It’s also a great opportunity to promote your own work and what’s going on creatively in the local area, so please do use it as a platform to let people know about events or projects that you are involved in, or to sound out interest in an idea you’re developing, or to request information.  Why not bring along your portfolio, brochures or other visual material to show your work to others and help develop your contacts?

The Loca team looks forward to seeing you at Creative Connections.  Please contact us if you have any particular access needs.

Please park in the free car park. Andrews studio is under the barriers to the right. There are three small steps up to the workshop with handrails.

The evening is free and light refreshments will be provided.

RSVP to Loca on 01924 488844 or email: loca.admin@loca.co.uk

Arts Funding in a Web 2.0 World

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I tend to agree with JG Ballard when he said:

The funds disbursed by the Arts Council over the decades have created a dependent client class of poets, novelists and weekend publishers whose chief mission in life is to get their grants renewed….

The trouble is the alternatives to pursuing public funding are so damned hard.  They traditionally rely on someone liking your art enough (or believing it to be a decent investment proposition), to want to actually buy it at a price that does not lose the artist money and that values their time and skill reasonably.

But what if we set up a site where artists could pitch their projects at the ‘drawing board’ stage, including the budget necessary to create the work, and then donations were crowd sourced from the web?

It could look a bit like this from the US.

  • Does such a platform exist here in the UK?
  • Could it?
  • Should it?

Making Social Marketing Work – 29th July Leeds

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This practical workshop will introduce you to the theory and practice of social marketing – how to use marketing techniques to achieve specific behavioural goals designed to lead to social good.

Whether you are trying to promote healthy lifestyles, encourage people back into work or to start a business, get back into education, or engage in a campaign, an understanding of social marketing can help you to:

  • find new people who want to work on your agenda
  • support them on their journey to make real change happen
  • get the right people at the right events at the right time

What Will You Learn?

You will learn how to:

  • Develop marketing collateral (leaflets, posters and websites) that might just work
  • Use the media effectively – PR and role models that work
  • Build ‘Word of Mouth’ strategies and referral networks
  • Work with ‘gatekeepers’ to ‘gain entry‘
  • Manage introductions in the community

The day will involve some theory and explore a number of examples of good and not so good social marketing campaigns.  Participants will have the opportunity to apply what they learn to a real campaign of their own.

Agenda

What is social marketing and how can I use it?

What behaviours are we trying to promote?

Using Segmentation to Increase Impact

Eating an Elephant – bite sized chunks….

Social Marketing Tools – with a focus on emerging social media (twitter, facebook, wikis etc)

The Role of Traditional Marketing and PR

Developing a Social Marketing Campaign (making a start)

Marketing through Relationships and Networks

Find out more and book your space – http://socialmarketingworks.eventbrite.com

Dad, I Want to be an Entrepreneur! Will You Help?

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These are not words I am expecting to hear anytime soon – but who knows?

If David Cameron gets his way and he finds an army of entrepreneurs to go into local schools to promote the ‘joy’ of entrepreneurship and the job market continues to go west – it could well happen.

How would I respond?

Well, if they say they want to be an entrepreneur and ask for my help, then I will refuse it, and do all I can to persuade them away from the idea.

If they say they have to be an entrepreneur – because it is the only way they can do the work that they feel they have to do then I will roll up my sleeves and help with enthusiasm.

Why the distinction?

Because however you wrap it up, in spite of what people like Cameron say, entrepreneurship is hard.  Especially if you do not have a large bank account to bale you out when things go wrong.  I don’t think I have met a single entrepreneur in my work who would describe the experience as joyful.  Dramatic, yes.  Full of highs and lows, yes.  Scary, yes.  But joyful…not so much.

So why promote the lie?  Why continue the enterprise fairytale?

It doesn’t even help to build an enterprise culture as with increased start-ups come increased failures and more bad experiences of entrepreneurship.

It couldn’t be to do with an obsession with outputs over social impact could it?

I will leave the last word to Noel Coward:

Some years ago when I was returning from the Far East on a very large ship, I was pursued around the decks every day by a very large lady. She showed me some photographs of her daughter – a repellant-looking girl and seemed convinced that she was destined for a great stage career. Finally, in sheer self-preservation, I locked myself in my cabin and wrote this song – “Don’t Put Your Daughter On The Stage, Mrs. Worthington”.)

Don’t put your daughter on the stage, Mrs. Worthington

Don’t put your daughter on the stage

The profession is overcrowded

The struggle’s pretty tough

And admitting the fact she’s burning to act

That isn’t quite enough

She’s a nice girl and though her teeth are fairly good

She’s not the type I ever would be eager to engage

I repeat, Mrs. Worthington, sweet Mrs. Worthington

Don’t put your daughter on the stage

So Em amd Meg – unless it is something that you have to do, ignore Messrs Cameron, Brown (remember him – architect of much enterprise policy) and their army of enterprise evangelists and give entrepreneurship a miss – at least until you have some real knowhow under your belt.

On the other hand if this is the only way that yo can do good work, and you are prepared for the journey that lies ahead, then, and only then, let’s go for it…

Big Society Business Support in Leeds

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On Friday afternoon @culturevultures convened one of the best business support/development sessions I have witnessed in the last 30 years.

Some 30 creatives came together in a room donated by a local managed workspace to provide peer to peer support on a range of topics related to marketing, branding, writing and social media.  Lots of expertise in the room, lots of desire to explore and learn.  No-one labelled as an adviser – no-one labelled as a client.  Just lots of people willing to share what they knew and ask for help with what they didn’t.

No public funding at all.  Just people donating whatever they thought it was worth.  Donations were used to help pay for cupcakes and cocktails and an afternoon of fun.

Business development as it should be.

This is what the public sector could be paying for.