The BRISTOL 12 is a newly formed “peer group” proposition bringing together a small group of CEO’s, MD, entrepreneurs and leaders with a desire to grow their business, share their experiences, learn new skills and participate in a regular group environment.
The group was formed following our highly popular Leaders Series delivered for Bristol Media, led by Charles Fallon, Founder of SI Partners. A number of the Leaders Series participants are collaborating with Charles to launch BRISTOL 12.
SI Partners are hosting the launch event at Creation in central Bristol, at 5pm on Thursday May 16th. Guest speaker is Chris Avrill, who successfully built and sold UX agency We Are Experience, will share his journey and the lessons he learnt along the way. The founding members of the BRISTOL 12 will also explain how the group will work and the benefits to local business leaders.
To register to attend the BRISTOL 12 Launch Event on 16th May at Creation, contact Nicole Revers at [email protected]
More about BRISTOL 12:
The BRISTOL 12 will meet 8 times a year with a mix of Executive Sessions and Outside Contributors. The Executive Sessions enable members to share their challenges and ideas for input, feedback and support from the rest of the 12. The Contributors will join the group 3- 4 times a year, usually for a few hours, to share their leaderships stories, fresh ideas and the latest contemporary thinking on leadership.
The BRISTOL 12 will include leaders across start-up, fast growing and established businesses as well as the public and charitable sectors. What unifies the group is their desire to be challenged and held to account to improve their leadership skills and the success of their teams and organisations. The members will be expected to commit to attending all the sessions which will be the majority of a day, or after lunch through to the evening, depending on what works best for the group.
Charles Fallon will lead the group as well as provide insights and guidance from his 30+ years of business growth, organisational design, start-ups, funding and M&A as well as his social initiatives in Bristol including Youth Offending and Social Housing.
In partnership with BIMA, we are delighted to welcome Bruce Daisley, European Vice President of Twitter, to Bristol to talk to us about his new No.1 Sunday Times Bestseller ‘The Joy of Work’.
In the course of a career that has taken him from some of the world’s biggest media companies to Twitter, via Google and YouTube, Bruce Daisley has become fascinated by what makes great companies tick. And in his hugely popular podcast Eat Sleep Work Repeat, he has dug right into the DNA of work, talking to leading experts about how we can make our jobs more fulfilling, more productive – and much more enjoyable. Now, in The Joy of Work, he shares the fruits of his discoveries. Are lunch breaks for wimps or do they actually make us more productive? Is it true that you can improve team performance simply by moving the location of the kettle or coffee machine? And what is a Monk Mode Morning, and why do people swear by it?
All of us have moments when we can end up feeling overwhelmed with meetings, our inbox and the demands of our job. What about if we looked to science for the answer? What can all of us do to feel more energised, creative and to start loving our job again? Bruce gives a fast, entertaining and inspiring whizz through the way to enjoy work again.
This Keynote will take place on Thursday 23rd May in the riverside office of one of our approved legal suppliers, Foot Anstey, 2 Glass Wharf, Bristol BS2 0FR from 1230-1430. Tickets are priced at £30+VAT for Bristol Media/BIMA members (£40+VAT for non-members) which includes a buffet lunch and a copy of Bruce’s book ‘The Joy of Work’ to take away.
BOOKING is Eventbrite
About Bruce:
Bruce Daisley is the EMEA Vice President of Twitter and best selling author of The Joy of Work. He joined the company in 2012 having previously run YouTube UK at Google. He has also worked at Emap/Bauer and Capital Radio.
Bruce runs the Apple #1 Business Chart topping podcast Eat Sleep Work Repeat on work culture. Bruce’s book The Joy of Work has been a smash hit, it was the Sunday Times number 1 business bestseller in spring 2019, the Financial Times made it Book of the Month.
Bruce has been one of the Evening Standard’s 1,000 most influential Londoners for 4 years and is one of Debrett’s 500 Most Influential People in Britain. Campaign magazine asserted that Bruce is ‘one of the most talented people in media’.
Aspect announced today that it has been nominated for BEST EDITING in the Video Performance & Craft category in the 23rd Annual Webby Awards. Hailed as the “Internet’s highest honour” by The New York Times, The Webby Awards, presented by the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences (IADAS), is the leading international awards organization honouring excellence on the Internet.
Aspect is a strategic video content and production agency based in Bristol, who passionately believe in changing behaviour through film. Working closely with their clients they’ve developed a smarter way to plan, create and activate incredible branded video content that audiences seek out.
“Nominees like Aspect are setting the standard for innovation and creativity on the Internet,” said Claire Graves, Executive Director of The Webby Awards. “It is an incredible achievement to be selected among the best from the 13,000 entries we received this year.”
Managing Director, Evelyn Timson said of the nomination: “We’re all really proud to be nominated for such a prestigious award and to be working with Marriott on this exciting campaign. At the time of writing this press release we’re 2nd place, so come on Bristol, give us a boost and keep our great city at the pinnacle of creativity in the UK”
As a nominee, Aspect is also eligible to win a Webby People’s Voice Award, which is voted online by fans across the globe. From now until April 18th, Aspect’s fans can cast their votes at https://vote.webbyawards.com/PublicVoting#/2019/video/performance-craft/best-editing. Winners will be announced on Tuesday, April 23, 2019, and honoured at a star-studded ceremony on Monday, May 13, 2019, at Cipriani on Wall Street in New York City.
FOR A LIMITED TIME ONLY, The Square Club is kindly offering Bristol Media members complimentary membership for 3 months. With its central location on Berkeley Square, it’s a great space to use for meetings or to catch up on work if you’re out and about and find yourself with some time to kill in-between meetings.
Established in 1999, The Square is Bristol’s Private Members Club for the film, media and creative industries. Members enjoy a diverse range of benefits which include complimentary event hire, unlimited complimentary tea, coffee and high-speed wifi, as well as discounts in the award-winning restaurant The Square Kitchen, numerous networking events and exclusive access to the Lower Deck Cocktail Bar. There is also a boutique lounge and further seating in the Lower Deck, both of which members can utilise as work, meeting and relaxation space.
Email [email protected] before Friday 19th April if you’d like to take advantage of this great offer.
Find out more about the Club and the membership benefits.
Article written by Beatriz Tanaka and Max Hoelzle Ferreira
Babbasa is increasingly becoming recognised as the organisation that bridges the gap between Bristol employers and young adults from our diverse communities. They provide real opportunities, through mentoring schemes, training, and events like their flagship intergenerational networking event ‘Ask About Me’, returning on Wednesday 24th April, 2019 in collaboration with Bristol 24/7.
This year event organisation is led by 14 aspiring young leaders who Babbasa has engaged and supported in the past: The Youth Ambassadors. Babbasa’s Youth Ambassadors are a group of young people who all share the Babbasa ethos to empower other young people. While they all face challenges they are aware that there is guidance and support out there and recognise that they are in a unique position to reach out and connect with their community.
Hailing from different walks of life, all the Youth Ambassadors share a goal to organise an event that will provide a platform for young people looking to make connections and find opportunities. By collaborating and bringing together their different experiences, they are stronger and more able to empower others. The event not only benefits the attendees but is also a rewarding experience for the Ambassadors themselves, requiring them to step outside of their comfort zones and adopt leadership and professional roles. The Youth Ambassadors are at the start of their journey which began with a search for guidance that Babbasa were able to provide, helping them to improve their social, employability and networking skills.
The Youth Ambassadors keep Babbasa relevant to the people they support. As Max Hoelzle Ferreira, one of the Youth Ambassadors helping to organise the upcoming event, says: “We’re young, and we know what the system needs to help us succeed”. The challenges that young people face are varied and the education system is often limited in what it can offer. The Youth Ambassadors’ have first-hand experience of these challenges.
The Youth Ambassadors came together because they want create something amazing for other young people. They understand that young people are often thrown into the adult world with very little guidance on how to apply their skills and talents and focus their aspirations. One of the many highlights of being a Youth Ambassador is the chance to work with and get to know other young people who have the same drive and the same motivation to make a difference. “We recognised ourselves in each other”, says another Youth Ambassador, Beatriz Tanaka.
Babbasa’s extensive research into the local community’s needs illustrate that most young people lack the connections required to pursue their dream careers. Babbasa’s Ask About Me 2019 in collaboration with Bristol 24/7 is a direct response to this problem. It is one of the most ambitious and unique networking events of the year, connecting 100 young people with 100 established professionals from an array of different industries. The intergenerational aspect of the event is not the only thing that makes it unique — its design and organisation is led by the 14 Babbasa Youth Ambassadors. As Youth Ambassador, Kamari Williams says: “This event is by young people, for young people”.
Bristol creative business Blue Flint Group has re-branded under a new name – Istoria Group – and has commissioned world-renowned, Bristol-based documentary photographer Martin Parr to photograph its seven-strong board, in celebration of the re-launch. The strategic business re-brand has been undertaken to ensure that Istoria Group – already a multi-million pound business and a highly successful, independently-owned collective of five creative and innovation companies, including exhibition, events and experiences company Ignition; interiors and branding agency Phoenix Wharf; strategic communications agency Caroline; children’s book publishers I am a Bookworm and pioneering innovation platform Solverboard – is ready for the next ambitious stage of its growth at a regional, national and international level.
‘We can now offer clients access to a raft of specialist talent, based in a single, collaborative office’, Sam Rowe explained. ‘Our point of difference is that we have shared processes and systems throughout the group, so that clients can decide if they want to work with a single specialist agency – on a shop, restaurant, re-brand, event or exhibition, for example – or else liaise across the group via a single point of contact for all of their creative and design needs.’
The business favours a direct and honest way of working with a highly personable approach and the commission of Martin Parr is a perfect embodiment of this. ‘We’re great fans of Martin Parr’s portraiture and of the frank and wryly humourous edge he brings to his work’, Sam Rowe, CEO of Istoria Group, commented, adding that ‘The commission also reflects our belief in Bristol as a centre of world-class creative talent’. Istoria Group, which is based in Bristol’s Paintworks, is located only a few hundred metres from The Martin Parr Foundation, which the photographer opened in 2017 to preserve his archive and legacy and to showcase and archive the work of other new and established photographers.
New Changes to the Istoria Group Board:
Part of the re-brand includes the confirmation of changes for the Group at board level. Former MD Sam Rowe has now become Group CEO, whilst former CEO & Founder Claire Menzies becomes Istoria Group’s new Chairwoman.
‘My new role will see me managing the board and keeping Group business strategically on track, as well as acting as an ambassador-at-large for our activities, expertise and pioneering values’, Claire Menzies explained. Claire Menzies previously served on the London Olympics Steering Committee in 2012, helping to create new models of sustainable accreditation at what was the world’s first-ever fully-sustainable event. Ignition subsequently became the first business in its industry to receive ISO 2012-1 accreditation for sustainable event management and now has a total of three ISO accreditations, helping to fly the flag for both sustainability and for what Bristol businesses can achieve on a global basis.
‘This is an extremely important moment for Istoria Group’, Sam Rowe added. ‘We are full of ambition for the future. Ignition, our largest creative company, already works with corporate giants in the aerospace and pharmaceutical worlds, including Etihad Airways, Pilatus, Eli Lilly and Roche, but we are keener than ever for all the members of the group to partner with some of the great companies, large and small, that are located in the immediate Bristol and wider South West region. We believe this part of the country has so much potential as a powerhouse for innovation and creativity within the UK and we are here to help companies achieve that.’
The Istoria Group Companies:
Ignition
12-year-old Bristol- and Indianapolis-based exhibition, events and experiences giant Ignition (included in the Top 20 of the UK’s Best Workplaces 2018, Small Business category and a double winner in the prestigious, national EN Elite Awards 2018, taking both the Best Employer and Best Eco Supplier gongs) works across 8 main industry sectors, including aerospace, technology, pharmaceutical, health and education. The company recently communicated its ‘we can all do more’ message on sustainability at MEETSouthWest. Istoria Group CEO Sam Rowe is also the CEO of Ignition.
Phoenix Wharf
Interior design and branding agency Phoenix Wharf has national clients such as SpaceNK, Yeo Valley and The National Trust, as well as regionally-based clients, including hospitality operators Pigsty (Bristol) and Ensemble (Wells).
Caroline
Strategic communications agency Caroline, which has previously collaborated with another Bristol creative giant – Aardman Animations – on a project for The Macular Society (https://www.aardman.com/aardman-and-caroline-bring-mac-to-life-for-macular-society/)
I am a Bookworm
Children’s book publishers I am a Bookworm is one of the Group’s ‘Incubator Hub’ companies, whereby promising small businesses are supported in their growth and direction.
Solverboard
Innovation management platform Solverboard helps organisations bridge the gap between creativity and actualisation by bringing together idea generation, validation and project management into a single workflow. The platform helps bring more of the best business ideas to life and measures the impact of innovation programmes.
About Martin Parr:
Martin Parr is one of the most significant documentary photographers of post-war Britain and the former President of Magnum, the world’s most famous photography agency. Martin opened The Martin Parr Foundation in late 2017 to preserve his archive and legacy and to hold a growing collection of works by selected British and Irish photographers, as well as images taken in the British Isles by international photographers, together with an expanding library of British and Irish photobooks. The space encompasses a gallery and event space, library, studio and shop.
https://www.martinparrfoundation.org/
Young artists from across the South West are being offered the chance to make their own film, audio or interactive creations and have them showcased by the BBC as part of a new talent development initiative backed by BBC Arts and Arts Council England.
The scheme – New Creatives – opens for applications this week with successful applicants qualifying for funding, training, production resources and expert help to create work for use across a range of BBC platforms, among them i-Player & BBC Sounds.
The South West’s arm of the national venture covers Bath/Bristol, Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Gloucestershire, Hampshire, Somerset and Wiltshire and is being run by the Bristol-based media production and training company Calling The Shots in collaboration with Somerset Film; Kaleider (Exeter), Create Studios (Swindon); Screen Cornwall (Redruth) and Bristol’s Watershed.
Calling The Shots director, Steve Gear, programme producer for New Creatives South West, says: “This is a free and exciting opportunity for 16 to 30-years-olds living in the South West to develop their technical and creative media skills with expert mentoring and gain a BBC commission for their ideas and experiences. It’s also a rare chance for young South Westerners of any background, identity, ability and/or culture to win a wider audience for their insights into what it’s like to live in England’s biggest, most rural and most visited region and show that there’s a lot more variety here than the picture postcards suggest.”
In all, New Creatives South West hopes to nurture 100 film, audio and interactive projects over the next two years, with staggered dates for their creation/completion/publication. For entry details and other info visit www.callingtheshots/newcreatives or call Alix Taylor at Calling the Shots on 0117 930 0141. Updates are also being shared via @CTSdoFilm onTwitter and @ctsdofilm on Instagram.
If you missed our latest Bristol Media event, fear not! Izzy, our Junior Content Apprentice, has compressed all the best bits into this quick blog, read on to hear about the SXSW 2019 experience…
Bristol Media Chair, Chris Thurling, attended South by Southwest Conference & Festival (SXSW) for his 5th year in a row last week. Held in Austin, Texas, SXSW celebrates the convergence of the interactive, film, and music industries. It is hugely successful and was attended by over 280,000 people in 2018!
On Tuesday, Bristol Media hosted a ‘lunchtime digest’ where Chris shared his highlights from the event along with Ann Hiatt (former chief of staff for Google and Amazon and SXSW speaker) and Nicholas Blake (Head of Data and Digital Operations at Armadillo). Here’s what we took away:
After Chris’s first SXSW visit back in 2015, he left the event in a happy tech bubble, excited and optimistic for the future of technology. Fast forward to 2019, and it seems a dominant theme throughout the conference was the ethical concerns now surrounding this industry, and it has people anxious. An eye-opening talk for Chris was Douglas Rushkoff’s, ‘Team Human’. In his talk, Douglas spoke about how the internet was ‘idealistic’ in the beginning, but it now serves the stock market more than us. We have gone from being the user to the used and are close to automating ourselves out of existence.
Ann on the other hand is encouraged by the opportunities AI and machine learning offer and the overarching message she took away from her time at SXSW was to remember the human aspect of technology. In other words, we still need good, thoughtful people to harness all that potential for the better.
As well as a run-down of her own SXSW talk ‘Grit, Reinvention, and Pivoting for Success’, Ann shared with us some of the tips she took from a talk by Susan Fowler, former employee of Uber. You might recognise Susan as the woman who influenced how Uber and other Silicon Valley companies now treat sexual harassment in the workplace. Susan wanted to remind us all of a few things:
Ann then prompted us to ponder on the idea that ‘nothing extraordinary comes from your comfort zone’ and that we need to ask ourselves the right questions when it comes to machine learning and AI.
Nicholas Blake thought it was really interesting to hear what the experts were saying about artificial intelligence and machine learning, now that it is no longer science fiction and is becoming seamlessly integrated in our lives. A talk by Cassie Kozyrkov, Chief Decision Scientist at Google, inspired a different outlook on AI; that it is just a tool, it is as safe as the people who design and monetise it. Nick explains it in an analogy: if you work on something with another person, is that collaboration? If you use a ruler to draw a straight line, is that collaboration? AI is more similar to the ruler than the person, because without us to input the data, it can’t function.
What did you think about our lunchtime digest, are you optimistic or pessimistic about the future of technology? If you missed it, follow us on Twitter and Facebook or subscribe to our newsletter to hear about future events!
Izzy joined the team as Junior Content Producer Apprentice for Bristol Media & Ambitious PR just over four months ago and has been a fantastic addition, bringing news skills, a fresh perspective, and you may have even seen her behind the camera at some of our events! She’s provided an update of the last four months and what she’s looking forward to from now until December.
I’ve really settled into my apprenticeship role with Bristol Media and Ambitious PR, the time has flown by! With National Apprentice Week this month and my 4-month job anniversary, I’m updating on my journey so far…
I decided to become an Apprentice whilst I was in my final year of studying Media at college and working part time. When I initially chose college as opposed to A levels, all I knew was that I wanted to work in the creative sector. At the time, an apprenticeship hadn’t even crossed my mind as I thought they were typically only available in engineering or construction, and I was always told that apprenticeships were a last option if you didn’t get the right GCSE’s.
When my college classmates began applying to universities, I began looking for full time jobs. I found that after browsing through Indeed and Totaljobs with the keywords ‘creative’ or ‘digital’, every job that cropped up required experience. I went along to university open days and was tempted with the promise of higher paid jobs if I had a degree, but I wanted to start working as soon as possible and university had never interested me.
A friend of mine had finished an apprenticeship in business admin at the start of my second year of college and was offered full time job within 2 weeks. I was shocked at how easily she found a job, especially since she was still 17 like me, shortly after, I decided to research apprenticeships in Bristol. After reading through some job descriptions and requirements, I realised that it was a perfect fit for me. Many of the roles didn’t require experience and I would get an extra qualification by the end of it.
This was when I found a vacancy for a Digital PR & Content Apprentice for Bristol Media and Ambitious PR on the GOV.UK Find an apprenticeship site. The course I would take alongside the job was what initially attracted me, because my ‘lessons’ were taught by actual industry professionals, and the role was also one that would allow me to put my current skills to use (eg, video and photo editing).
I’ve been working for Bristol Media and Ambitious for 4 months now, I spend 2 days a week with each business then a fifth day with Cirencester College. I didn’t expect to be given as much responsibility as I have, but I’m happy that I have, as it’s given me the opportunity to prove to everyone what I’m capable of.
A part of my job that I’ve really been enjoying is the evenhttps://www.bristolmedia.co.uk/ts that Bristol Media host, I’ve had the chance to see and meet so many speakers and leading industry professionals. One event in particular I found interesting was a Focused Minds Vision keynote by Ros Boughtflower, where we learnt meditation techniques to improve our focus and performance at work.
It hasn’t all been smooth sailing though, a challenge I’ve faced has been adapting my writing style. Until now, I’ve not had practise writing with a business tone of voice, so it’s been a bit of a struggle to keep my blogs and social media posts professional, but this is something I’m excited to develop and get better at as even after this job it will be useful.
I look forward to supporting the team with Social Media Week Bristol in June, I’ve never been before so it will be interesting to see how I can get involved. Also in June is the Bristol Media summer party, which will be a good opportunity for me to network with some of the members, and hopefully get some new industry contacts.
My apprenticeship finishes in December so it is important that I make the most out of my time with both teams and learn as much as possible from them to improve my chances of getting a full-time job afterwards. But for now, I’m excited to carry on developing my skills and finding out more about the creative sector in Bristol.
We’re thrilled that Harry Pearce will be in Bristol on 26th March for our next Vision Keynote. Harry is a partner at Pentagram, the world’s largest independent design consultancy and arguably one of the best! It’ll be a talk about the beauty of the overlooked, the lost and found. Of Disappearing type, chance, blood and hope. Of Pink Floyd, The Old Vic, Ai Weiwei, The RA and 25 years of designing for Human Rights.
This Vision Keynote will take place on Tuesday 26th March in the riverside office of one of our approved legal suppliers, Foot Anstey, 2 Glass Wharf, Bristol BS2 0FR from 1230-1430. Tickets are priced at £40+VAT for members and £65+VAT for non-members which includes a buffet lunch.
Booking is via Eventbrite
About Harry:
Harry Pearce is a graphic designer, accidentalist, eternal optimist, human rights activist and photographer.
He studied at Canterbury College of Art. Before joining Pentagram as a partner in 2006, he co-founded and co-ran Lippa Pearce Design for 16 years.
Pearce has worked around the world devising identities, installations, posters, packaging, books and talks for clients as diverse as the Royal Academy of Arts, Abu Dhabi cultural quarter, Berry Bros & Rudd, Phaidon Press, Pink Floyd Records, Saks Fifth Avenue, Lloyd’s of London, Shakespeare’s Globe, PEN International, Science Museum and the UN. For Ai Weiwei, Anish Kapoor and Anthony Gormley he created identities for their major retrospectives at the RA.
His work has been exhibited in New York, Paris, London, Toronto and Naples.
Since 1993 he has been an active member of the advisory board for WITNESS, a human rights charity founded by Peter Gabriel. He is also a committed member of Alliance Graphique Internationale and has spoken at design conferences across the globe including Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, USA, India, Holland and Costa Rica.
Pearce is the author of two books, Typographic Conundrums (published in 2009) and Eating with the Eyes (published in 2015).
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