The Ball is rolling…

Saturday 2nd August was the Stoke Sounds launch event @ Burslem Park, and my first official outing as Creative Republic.

Ruth picked up a folding table from her mum’s – thanks Pauline! Then Ruth, Shakira and I headed to the shop to pick up clipboards and pens.

We arrived at around 11.30 to set up our stall, I called Melodie and she came over to me and we just needed to wait for our stall to be put up…this was more complicated than you might think! The tent was laid out on the grass and they were short of parts, I asked at 12.15 when did they go to get the other pieces? ‘The response was, they haven’t…I need to go and get them.’

People were beginning to arrive and when the guy came back it was all hands on deck to put up the tent. I was sharing with Sarah or Gig Junkie and once the tent was up we moved our table and pop-up in. Well…the pop-up wouldn’t fit under so we positioned it just outside and attached it to the tent.

Once we were set up I seized the chance to sign up all the stall holders, musicians, organisers and any others working in some sort of capacity. It was a really great day and a lot of acts played both the main and acoustic and the park was buzzing with people of all ages, and apart from a stray gazebo it all went without any glitches.

You can find some reviews and press at Stoke Sounds, Radical Press, The Sentinel, and Upstart.

Anyway…scores on the doors – I managed to collect 38 signatories, 35 of which had all the email addresses on them! Personally, I am very pleased and hopefully we raised the profile of Creative Republic within the city. My initial target was set at 50 for the duration of my placement…put that champagne on ice!

Now all that is left is to build momentum, send out emails, continue to meet with people and build on the network and contacts we have already collected.

On Wednesday 30th July I attended a North Staffs Chamber network lunch at Chatterley Whitfield so managed to talk to a number of creative businesses there.

I’ll keep you updated…

Creative Republic: Another Stoke Update

On Thursday before we got started with the Metapod site Helga and I had a catch up on where I am so far. I had a couple of things to update her on in regards to Creative Republic, what I have found so far and the stall at the Stoke Sounds launch event on the 2nd August.

We made some plans towards the stall and provision for the day whether we had power or not. I have managed to round up a couple of troops to help namely Ruth and Shakira Rosenau and I will attempt to talk my sister into it too…

Stoke Sounds will be an opportunity for us to raise awareness of Creative Republic, the brand and the Charter, gather data and actual sign ups…so fingers crossed it goes well.

We also discussed the possibility of putting together a small budget for my activities but also with the view to plan our own launch event coinciding with the end of my placement and once we have a 75-100 strong sign-ups from the area, with RSVP’s. This would follow the set up of the Birmingham launch, an introduction of Creative Republic, Q&A’s, Drinks and Networking.

Since then I met with Claire Garner a solicitor with KJD and founding member of Futures Finest, the professional services membership body for the likes of accountants, solicitors, etc all of which could provide great synergies with Creative Republic for networking and business development opportunities for both sectors. Claire was extremely positive and already has an interest in the creative industries as she has been volunteer co-ordinator for Axis Festival for all years so far.

She took away some of my leaflets and will talk to her colleagues and steering group. She will also signpost it to the Head of IP at KJD as he used to find the disbanded Creative Network-Staffs very useful.

Other news is that, Karl has now very kindly changed the website copy to be a regionally focused rather than Birmingham, uploaded the video from the Cultural Olympiad event and the report I helped to compose following the networking meeting on the 26th June.

Stoke Sounds Launch Event – Sat 2nd August

Although I wasn’t at the Fierce office on Friday I had arranged a meeting with Soul Monkey’s Melodie to discuss the Stoke Sounds Launch Event taking place at Burslem Park on the 2nd August.

Helga and Jemima thought that this event would be an opportunity to promote Creative Republic, so that was my agenda. I know Melodie from Stokes Metapod course that we were both participants on earlier this year.

She gave me a brief description of the event and gave me some flyers to put out and about.
There will be two stages: Main Stage and Acoustic Stage and performances from the Street Dreams Crew (Free- Runners), Unity, DJ Fresh and Planet Sound. Plus stalls, arts and craft and much more…

So I arranged to take up a stall and advertising space on the site and in return whilst promoting Creative Republic attempt to gather feedback for the organisers of the event – two birds with one stone!

Now I just need to rally some troops to help me out and decide with Helga and Jemima what they would like me to do…just email capture, or sign ups to the Charter?

Already they have sold over 400 tickets and it has promise of being a really great day!

Let me know if you are going along to the Stoke Sounds launch…
Your thoughts on the creative scene in Stoke-on-Trent…
I also would like your thoughts on Creative Republic…