Creative Conference Friday 30th March

The University of Creative Arts in association with The Work Foundation created a conference on Friday which was awe inspiring. (Note to other conference organizers, let the creatives organize it! They know what their doing!)

It was encouraging to be in a room with high end creatives who are trading commerce on a grand scale and to be soaking up the atmosphere. Admittedly I went along just to observe and to see what they were all going to be discussing, I didn't think for one minitue the day would prove so engaging, interesting and inspiring.

As soon as I arrived I was met by the beaming smile of Will Wong: Social Entrepenur of 3become1 and straight away the day was looking fantastic. I sat down at my table next to a lovely man named Chris Ragg who has a wealth of experience in creative business and has offered us some mentoring which I gladly accepted! We were led through a series of talks by various creatives all focusing on how to inspire commerce and leadership in the creative industries. Speakers included Dianne Taylor of UCA, Ben Reid of The Work Foundation, Dr Martin Bouette, Florence Harmlin (an amazing woman whose I really hope to work with soon) and Mandy Hare from The Hazlitt in Maidstone, (also making exciting new plans for the Hazlitt Centre!)We were also treated to a great talk by Nathan Shedroff from California who mentioned that Californian views about creative business were not all together friendly but it sounds like they are pioneering great change on that topic with their Masters in Design Strategy Program. (In another life i'd love to partake!) After a delicious lunch we listened to a talk by Martin Smith who is a special adviser for Ingenious Media (the people who invested in X-men, Avatar and many more) His talk was focused on Finance, Investment and the Creative Industries and I've got to say that even though we will always be small fish in a big pond (it is not our desire to become a mulit-billion pound company like his) his talk was encompassing of all industries and it really gave me a positive boost, not to mention the contacts that have arisen out of that and points of research to follow up. To hear him say the work that social interest companies such as ourselves is valuable and to hear that he invests in projects such as ours gives me massive hope for our industry and FAF's future.

The day ended with small breakout sessions and I sat in with Derek Wyatt who provided some key contacts for us that I am in the process of following up now, we shared a few glasses of wine after this which sent me on the train back to Kent with a warm fuzzy glow about my face and a sudden need to nap.

Many thanks to The Work Foundation and UCA for putting on a truly brilliant event which could have had us all sitting there drinking wine and talking business till the early hours.

Some links from Friday which may be of use to any other start up creative business's:

http://www.derekwyatt.co.uk/blogs/digital/blog.aspx?b=706

http://www.cockpitarts.com/

It's a BLAST! Kent Foundation. March 2012.

Last night, a local charity 'The Kent Foundation' asked us to speak at their 4th Annual Stakeholders Summit about the success of FAF Arts. As last year we were awarded with a week long enterprise experience residential which was a bit like a business boot camp where we had intense days of learning about all the aspects of running a business. The week proved very succsesfull for myself and I felt very empowered as a young person in business to keep going. Its so daunting on your own to face the world and get yourself out there but Kent Foundation really believe in all their young entrepenurs and last nights event proved it!

So it was at this event (http://www.kentfoundation.org/news/102/) that they invited me to reflect upon in front of an audience of 200business people, local MP's and the Lord Lieutenant of Kent, (whom was very nice but im not all together clear what his role is!) In fact I was sat a big round table up at the front next to him, he was clearly made up with my speech and gave me an good strong hand shake afterwards.

Before the doors opened we got to look at each others exhibition stands and do some networking

45 mins before the main presentation took place the young entrepenurs were asked to have an exhibition stand and take part in lots of networking, this was great and it felt so good to have so many succsesfull people sharing our passions, clearly seeing that what we are all doing is both important and profitable, and it was made all the more apt by today's new unemployment figures. Running your own business is sometimes an option which people don't consider but it is completely viable! (Although i'd love to stress that we don't need to keep fueling the fire! Don't become your own boss to become the boss of other people, we should be empowering each other!!)

Some of the other young exhibitors included I.T and homemade crafts.

Some of the other young entrepenurs there included l8 year old Ami Holt, with her succsesfull baby shower company. She was so lovely and friendly and will go a long way i'm sure! She also won an award for displaying the most potential, she looked so shell shocked when she went on stage to pick it up! Well done Ami! Here's a link to her website:http://www.wix.com/brassm/beebiesbabystore

Our DIU! Inspecting more cake hazards under the table!

FAF Arts supplied the event with the comedy DIU, the Danger Inspection Unit, I had great fun (between the networking) catching glimpses of them performing routine danger checks on all the buisness people and councilors!! Some people didn't get it, which is always the way, but a lot of guests really enjoyed the joke, especially when Peter dived under the table after cordoning off a few cake crumbs! (http://www.fafarts.com/)

So, all in all it was a very succesful evening, we made lots of new friends and have three more dates in the diary already :)

Thanks to everyone's energy, faith and passion they shared with me, it was so great standing next to a FAF banner and talking about what we do best...FAFFING!

Posing for a photo next to said banner!

Feb 2012.

Dearest bloggers.

We haven't written anything since last June, can you believe it? We've been working so hard on all our projects that blogging about our work has sadly fallen to the bottom of the list :(.

2011 was a good year though wasn't it? It saw FAF go through the mill a little, deciding on its future wasn't an easy decision, with arts funding so bleak and the economy the way it is (yawn) it made me nearly want to down tools for good, but then I went to an incredible festival in Amsterdam. The ADM Festival. Renowned for its industrial art and home-grown performances, (intelligent art for soul foods sake) and of course a raucous party. It was within this world of Mad Max's harbour, whilst experiencing some of the most amazing art I had ever seen, that I was emancipated for a moment from the confines of the depressive nature of (yawn) the economy. I received the spark of passion that I needed to carry on. But still, as any founder of any company will tell you, it is a lot of f*ffin hard work and last year I had so many moments of turning back it was un-real. It really has been a long old road getting to where we are now, but I am pleased to say that all the favours pulled in from friends, all the coffee's, question and answer sessions with the pro's, all the 18 hour long days, all the blood, sweat, toil and tears weren't in vain. Our hard work has begun to pay off. The end of the year saw us launch our first online home (http://www.fafarts.com/), with many thanks to my friend and web designer Bridget Tan (http://www.bridgetdesigns.co.uk/).

Things could go tits up tomorrow, the economy (yawn) could squeeze us all until we burst, but it gives me a warm glow to think we run a business that is all about making people genuinely smile. (Plus we get the tax man to say FAFARTS which sounds childishly like 'farts' on the telephone).

Over and out for now, if you haven't yet, then please check out our website on http://www.fafarts.com/ and please let us know what you think!

Kerri X