Creative Collaboration
Date: Fri 9 Sept 2011
Time: 10am-1pm
Location: Craft Central, 33-35 St John’s Square, London EC1M 4DS

Collaborating with others can be a rewarding experience, enabling you to generate new and exciting ideas, and develop new opportunities for your creative practice. By sharing skills and resources you can access larger and interesting projects and more funding opportunities. This could be for anything from a group exhibition to a client project, or even a new venture.

You may already be working with others, about to embark on a new collaboration or looking for ways to develop new partnerships. This interactive workshop will take you through the essentials, top tips and tools for making sure your creative ideas are pushed forward effectively, and avoiding difficulties to deliver a successful project.

The session will cover:

• How to use social media to develop your networks and find collaborators
• Kick-starting projects when working with new partners, to minimise potential difficulties
• Tips for turning creative ideas into action, to make sure things get done
• Using online tools to manage collaborations flexibly and productively, so that you can focus on the creative output

Cost: £16 members/£26 for non-members.

Book here

Date: 11 May 2011

Time: 18:00 - 20:30

Venue: THECUBE, Studio 5, 155 Commercial Street, London E1 6BJ

We’re working together with THECUBE and PCG to run this event on collaboration for freelancers “Making the Collaborative Venture a Reality”

Why: The collaborative venture is a practical reality, but the potential of this working model has not been fulfilled.  Surely this is the future of work?   On National Freelancers Day 2010, futurologist James Bellini heralded that the world of work is on the verge of the biggest change since the Industrial Revolution and that the small corporate core will be surrounded by swarms of solutions providers, but is this really and more fundamentally how is this becoming a reality?  Is there a convention for collaborating? is there a right way and a wrong way? How do you develop the dream team? How do you sell it? Can you manage it? How can you access this new way of working?

Who:

• Alison Coward (Founder of Bracket Projects)
• Araceli Carmargo-Kilpatrick (Founder of THECUBE London)
• Iain McIlwee (Head of Commercial Development, PCG, the voice of freelancing)

How can we help?: By turning our collective intelligence on the problem in a focussed way, looking at some successful models and challenging ourselves.

In this interactive session, we’ll be asking key questions and working together to develop solutions.

Reserve your free place and look forward to seeing you there.

Time: 2-4pm

Place: Craft Central, 33-35 St John’s Square, London. EC1M 4DS

Many creative businesses say that the majority of their new customers and clients come from word-of-mouth and referrals, so how can you use social media to maximise this? Having a presence in the online world is now a key part of being ‘found’, by those that might want to buy your work, commission you or collaborate with you on interesting projects. Being engaged in social media can also help you to stay abreast of what’s happening in your sector as well as opening up exciting opportunities to work with those outside of the usual boundaries.

This session will take you through the steps of establishing a successful online profile, how to develop your creative business networks and effectively take your collaborations forward using online tools.

Book here (£16 for Craft Central members, £26 for non-members)

Future-proofing your organisation: an action planning and networking event

Date: 2 Feb 2011

Time: 10-5pm

Place: Free Word Centre, 60 Farringdon Road, London EC1R 3GA

This jam-packed event from Creating Capacity is for organsations in the museums, libraries and archives sector to think creatively and effectively about scenarios for the future. There will be a range of speakers, facilitators and practitioners from within and outside the sector demonstrating how attendees can make the best use of opportunities to ensure their sustainability.

Bracket be running some taster sessions on Creative Collaboration, providing useful tips and tools, and leading a discussion on effective methods.

For more information and a full programme, visit the Creating Capacity website.  Tickets cost £175, with some funded places available.

Firstly, blog apologies, in that our subscription service seems to have sent out a couple of old and random posts to you over the last couple of days. It seems to be a bug with the system and we hope to sort it out as soon as possible.

Secondly, we’re pleased to be part of an event on 23 February 2011 at the British Library The Tab Centre, Shoreditch (venue changed due to high demand for the event) arranged by Co-operatives UK and Co-operatives London, providing advice to those in the creative industries that are interesting in collaborating and starting a co-operative with others.

The afternoon is full of workshops, talks, and networking to help you get the advice and contacts to get something started.  You’ll:

• Hear from Harry Pearce of Pentagram and Ed Mayo of Co-operatives UK
• Meet inspirational co-operatives in the creative sectors – New Internationalist, Art Zone, Cave Co-operative and Calverts
• Leave armed with cracking ideas, inspiring contacts and a copy of Creative Co-operatives
• Get more information about co-operatives for the creative industries at www.uk.coop/creative

We’ll be there to provide advice on effective collaboration, along with other business specialists (see our guest blog post for Creative Co-operatives on Kick-Starting your Collaboration).

The event is booking quickly, so reserve your free place at http://creativecooperativeslondon.eventbrite.com

Creative Co-operatives London: starting a co-operative in the creative industries

Date: 23 February 2011

Time: 12.30-5pm

Place: The Tab Centre, Shoreditch, E2 7NB

Bracket is running workshop as part of the Cockpit Arts Making It training programme.  This is a focussed and practical workshop aimed at creative businesses:

Creative Collaboration
Collaborating with others can be a rewarding experience, enabling you to generate new and exciting ideas, and develop new opportunities for your creative practice.

You may already be working with others, about to embark on a new collaboration or looking for ways to develop new partnerships.

This interactive workshop will take you through the essentials, top tips and tools for making sure your creative ideas are pushed forward effectively, and avoiding difficulties to deliver a successful project.

WHAT YOU’LL GAIN:

• How to use social media to develop your networks and find collaborators
• Kick-starting projects when working with new partners and minimising potential difficulties
• Tips for turning creative ideas into action, to make sure things get done
• Using online tools to manage collaborations flexibly and productively, so that you can focus on the creative output

WHO IS IT FOR?

Designer-makers and creative businesses at all stages.

BOOKING DETAILS:
Date: 6 October 2010
Time: 6.30pm-8.30pm
Place: Cockpit Arts Holborn, Cockpit Yard, Northington Street, London WC1N 2NP
Cost: £20 (free for Cockpit Arts studio holders)

Book your place

We’ve picked out a couple of events you might find of interest, looking at both the processes and outcomes of creative collaborations and partnerships:

OK Talk: design dialogues between Helsinki and London, 23 and 25 September
Where: 1-3 Wenlock Road, London N1 7SL
Entry: RSVP to hello@ok-do.eu before Tuesday 21 September

OK Talk brings together over 20 designers, artists and theorists from Finland and Britain to talk about emerging questions in design philosophy and strategic design:

• Strategies of Participation, Thursday 23 September, 8.30am-10.30am

Five individuals from research, design, art and architecture specialising in events, online platforms or exhibitions, will discuss how they create constructive collaborations.

• Borderlands, Saturday 25 September, 11.30am-1.30pm

This talk explores the crossing of boundaries between design, art and other fields with an emphasis on collaborative practices. What can working in between disciplines offer for creative professionals and the world at large?

More info

Friday Late at the V&A: Two’s a Pair, Friday 24 September, 18.30-22.00
Where: V&A, Cromwell Road, SW7 2RL
Entry: free

A night that celebrates famous design-duos and collaborative working in Contemporary design.  The programme for the evening, curated by Designersblock, includes Couples Design Counselling – a series of films on how collaborators balance their professional and personal lives; Joined At The Hip – costumes designed by Puff and Flock which will only function if worn by two people; plus many other installations, talks, workshops and performances.

More info

Please check the event websites for the latest updates.  To see other events happening during the London Design Festival, visit www.londondesignfestival.com.

Join Bracket’s seminar at the Centre on Facilitating Creative Collaboration. We’ll be looking at some practical techniques we use to ensure that creative ideas are turned into action, as well as discussing ways to overcome some of the common issues – looking at effective project management, communication and how online tools can be used to support the process.

Date: Thursday 28 September

Time: 6:00pm – 7:30pm

Venue: City University London, Northampton Square, London EC1V 0HB. Google map

Book your free place

Date: Monday 26th July

Time: 10.00am-12.00pm

Location: City Business Library, Aldermanbury, London EC2V 7HH

Booking ESSENTIAL. e: cbl@cityoflondon.gov.uk, t: 020 7332 1812

W: www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/cbl

This month, Bracket will join them to talk about collaboration:

How can you join forces to win new business? This interactive and practical session will give you tips to help you find creative ways to network and collaborate to further your business.

Date: Wednesday 28 July

Time: 12:00pm – 2:00pm (with networking until 3pm)

Venue: The Fashion and Textile Museum, 83 Bermondsey Street, London, SE1 3XF

To register for this event call 020 8522 5700 quoting Fit for Business or email fitforbusiness@newham.ac.uk