Craftaganza Live!: June’s Speaker, Wendy Ward from MIY Workshop

 

Hope to see you there!!!

Craftaganza Live!: April’s Speaker, Mike Levy from Castor & Pollux

Oh my goodness, we’ve surpassed ourselves this month!!! We have the owner of fabulous Brighton based art gallery and shop Castor & Pollux live and direct and available to answer all your questions about approaching galleries and shops!!! If that’s not useful for aspiring designer-makers and artists, then I really don’t know what is!

Craftaganza Live!: March’s Speaker, Zoe Edwards

Our next FREE crafty meet up is nearly upon us! This month the speaker will be a local creative-type who is pretty close to home! Brighton Craftaganza’s very own co-creator and organiser Zoe Edwards. She will be talking about the process of setting up a craft market, its evolution and its future, as well as expanding upon the motivations behind the whole thing and how it relates to the local craft scene.

Come down to The Old Market on Weds 27th March. The doors open at 7pm and the speaker will start at 7.45pm. Grab a drink and have a natter. Hope to see you there!

Craftaganza Live: February with Eleanor from Dig for Victory

 

I’m so excited that Eleanor Callaghan, Dig for Victory clothing designer and boutique owner has agreed to be our speaker at the next Craftaganza Live! What a way to start the new year’s free crafty meet-ups/talks.

Miniclick-aganza!!! Free Xmas shindig tomorrow night!!!!

Craftaganza Live are co-hosting a free Christmas party along with the Miniclick Photography talks crew! It’s taking place at the Old Market, doors open at 7pm, and we have a whole host of awesome funny things up our sleeves including live music, charity raffle and funny festive talks!

Come down and join the festive fun!

November’s Craftaganza Live: In Pictures

Last Wednesday saw our second Craftaganza Live free creative meet-up and talk at The Old Market. We were very lucky to have a duo of creative talent care of TheBigForest to come and address the attendees. Makers of delightful, characterful and collectable bears with an inimitable style, they are also well versed in social media and traditional press. With lots of experience of running a creative business , they were very open and happy to share with us their triumphs and pitfalls as they proceed towards making TheBigForest a sustainable business.

Sarah (pictured above with Michael from TheBigForest) is the a main organiser of these monthly events. She did another wonderful job co-ordinating the speakers, the venue and all the technical aspects (microphones, slide show, lighting, music…).

It’s a bit scary when the room is ready and waiting. When 7pm rolls round, will anyone arrive?! (They did!)

We had two of major players in Brighton’s vibrant photographic scene in attendance: Mini-click Jim and Lomokev!

Sarah and me (pictured above) were determined not to be so nervous speaking in public this time! I found a couple of glasses of wine helped me feel more confident before my time to speak came round!

Show time! TheBigForest had carefully prepared an excellent slide show of images to illustrate the talk Michael gave. The images reflected the complete journey the brand has been on as well as their visual and business-based inspiration points.

They brought with them some examples of their products and explained the different ranges they create.

When the Q & A section came, I had a lot to ask Michael!

And after the talk, TheBigForest (Benjamin pictured above on the left) stuck around to chat with the attendees so they could find out more!

The speakers from our first Craftaganza Live, Amy and Claire from Super+Super HQ (pictured above) were in attendance. I think they found listening much less stressful than speaking!

Thanks to absolutely everyone who came along last Wednesday. Sarah and I really hope you enjoyed the evening. And of course an ENORMOUS thank you to TheBigForest for their inspirational and thought-provoking talk. We really couldn’t have hoped for a more entertaining and enlightening presentation. Those guys have really set the bar high for future speakers!

 

Don’t Forget! Craftaganza Live with TheBigForest this Weds!!!!!

November’s Craftaganza Live!: With TheBigForest

Hot on the heels of the first Craftaganza Live free creative meet-up which featured a talk by Amy and Claire from Super+Super HQ, it’s time to announce the next event. Craftaganza Live is a monthly affair, and the next will take place on Weds 14th November, at the same time (7pm-11pm with speakers starting at 7.30pm) and same place (The Old Market,Hove). These events will continue to be free and provide an opportunity for creative-minded people to get together, chat, have a drink, network and hang out.

November’s event will start with a talk by the creative minds behind TheBigForest. Makers of an array of stunning products, including amazing limited edition character bears like the Mod bear pictured above, these gentlemen are also experts at blogging and using social media as a promotional tool, so their talk is likely to be fascinating on many levels.

Those details again:

Craftaganza Live
Weds 14th November
Doors open 7pm, Speakers from 7.30pm
@ TOM (The Old Market)
11a Upper Market Street, Hove, BN3 1AS
FREE ENTRY!!!!

Find the facebook event here: http://www.facebook.com/events/484680578229133/

See you there!

The First Craftaganza Live!!!

If you follow this blog regular or you follow us on Facebook, it’s unlikely  that announcements for  last night’s  Craftaganza Live event held at The Old Market, Hove, would have passed you by. It was the first of our new monthly free social meet-up events conceived and organised by Sarah Meredith (AKA Rock Cakes). In my role as co-organiser, I was so proud to see what Sarah had created and of how many friendly faces were in attendance.

With approximately 70 creatively-minded people baring the chilly Autumn evening to come and play, our hopes and expectations for this first event were blown clean out of the water. To start of the event, Amy Phipps and Claire Culley from Super+Super HQ (pictured below) gave a fascinating, inspiring and information packed talk for the first 45 mins, which followed with a Q&A session. These women have their fingers in so many creative pies, and with this month marking the first year anniversary of their business idea, it was a great opportunity for them to reflect on all they have learnt, achieved and gone through in this year.

It was a testament to how inspiring and engaging their talk was that they were pretty swamped by further questions and people wishing to congratulate and chat with them after the speaking part of the evening had come to an end. It was also lovely to see how many of the attendees ignored hunger pangs or desires to go to sleep and stayed to drink, network and socialise until the bar shut down at 11pm!

If you came to last night’s event, thanks sooooo much for your support. If you weren’t able to, fear not! These free events will take place monthly, the next one will be Weds 14th November for which Sarah has managed to score more inspirational speakers in the form of the creators of TheBigForest! Keep an eye out on this blog, our Facebook page or on twitter (@craftaganza) for further info closer to the time.