Bristol Creative Industries is delighted to be sponsoring Creative Day at Bristol Technology Festival 2024 alongside BCI members Aer Studios and MyWorld.
Now in its sixth year and organised by techSPARK, Bristol Technology Festival is the UK’s largest regional technology festival.
It celebrates the awesome people, innovation, community and thriving tech scene in the city. We are excited to be involved and representing Bristol’s brilliant creative industries.
Each day of the festival from 7-11 October is themed. Thursday 10 October is Creative Day.
Here the brilliant free events to attend on Creative Day:
SXSW UK is being hosted WHERE?
MyWorld, 9.30 – 11am
…we all know it should have been here, right? Join us as we unlock the untapped potential of creative tech in the region and realise what it takes to position ourselves as rightful global leaders.
Fuelled by barista coffee and brunch, this interactive workshop invites participants to collaborate with key community figures and industry bodies to define what creative technology means to our community and chart a path forward.
Panel: Setting the future vision of creative technology in the South West
Motion, 12.45 – 2pm
Join us for an engaging and interactive panel discussion that will dive into the future of creative technology in our region. Building on the insights from our morning workshop, our panel of industry experts will discuss the untapped potential of our sector and work together to define a shared vision for the future.
Meet the panel:
MyWorld Creative Tech Showcase
Motion, 2 – 5pm
Join us and immerse yourself as we explore emerging technology innovations and trends, such as AI, immersive, gaming, sound and how they are going to continue to transform creative industries. The event showcases the technology that has been researched and developed through MyWorld.
The Sheds studio tours
MyWorld, 9am – 5pm
Book a tour to look around MyWorld’s state of the art facilities at The Sheds and experience some of the innovative technical research being developed in the spaces.
Tom Harber, Bristol Creative Industries board director and Aer Studios managing director, said:
“We see our involvement in Bristol Technology Festival as a meaningful step towards driving deeper collaboration with the tech sector and a stronger relationship with key organisation including techSPARK and MyWorld.
“Creative Day at Bristol Technology Festival provides a platform for Bristol Creative Industries to discuss the creative industries’ role in driving innovation in the region and will bring valuable insight for our members, as well as opportunities for cross-sector collaboration.”
If you’re new to Bristol Creative Industries, here’s a bit about us.
Founded in 2005 as Bristol Media, we’re a community interest company that supports the creative sector to learn, grow and connect.
Driven by the common belief that we can do more collectively that alone, we’re about prosperity for creative businesses and that means attracting new talent and new customers.
In Bristol and across the region we:
We are supporting Bristol Technology Festival to foster greater collaboration across the sectors and create opportunities for insight and connections for our members.
To maximise the benefits of tthe Bristol Creative Industries network, support our work and help the region’s creative sector thrive, you can join as a member.
Look out for representatives of Bristol Creative Industries at Bristol Technology Festival events.
Social media expert and Bristol Creative Industries member Luan Wise recently delivered a series of BCI events focused on practical insights for using LinkedIn to make connections, boost your business and find work. The first was tips on optimising your LinkedIn profile.
Dan Martin summarises her brilliant advice.
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LinkedIn is one of the oldest social media networks having launched in 2003. It now has over one billion members in 200 countries and regions worldwide.
LinkedIn’s mission is to “connect the world’s professionals to make them more productive and successful”, with the vision of “creating economic opportunity for every member of the global workforce”.
Luan advises asking yourself the following questions to ensure your LinkedIn profile is relevant and beneficial to what you are trying to achieve.
What will you be using LinkedIn for?
Who do you want to find your profile on LinkedIn?
How do you help solve their problems?
What keywords will they search for to find you?
Who would you like to be in your network on LinkedIn?
What do you want to be known for within your network?
Luan says that while there’s lots you can do with a free account, there are many useful benefits of paid accounts. Before upgrading to a paid account, think about whether the features will benefit you enough to justify the cost. LinkedIn offers a one month trial.
As a Premium Business user (currently £49.99 a month or £359.88 a year), the benefits are:
Luan advises to consider your privacy settings on LinkedIn and who you’re sharing your content with. Go to the visibility section to check your settings
One section you can switch off is allowing your network to see all your contacts. Luan says:
“Leaving it switched on would be like walking into a room and leaving all of my data assets, my connections, my business cards on the table. I don’t want everyone to see so I switch it off.
“I would suggest that you switch yours off, but if you’re looking at someone else’s profile, and you’re in a sales, or business development mindset, there’s nothing stopping you having a look if they haven’t adjusted that setting.”
Your LinkedIn headline appears on your profile and every time you post, so make it count! Luan says:
“By default it will be the job title and company name taken from the ‘experience’ section of your profile. But job titles can sometimes can be a bit vague, and company names don’t always communicate what you do, so add a descriptor.
“For example, if you’re freelance and offer a multitude of skills, you could change your headline to say ‘I help these types of clients by doing this.’
“Have a look around LinkedIn, and see what other people have done with their headlines. Think about making a good first impression, what will appear in search results and what will appear alongside everything you do on LinkedIn.”
The ‘experience’ section of your profile is the CV-like section of your profile, “but unless you are job seeking”, Luan says, “reframe it to be a description of your role and responsibilities and how you can help the person that you want to be viewing your profile.” She adds:
“I would also encourage you to include a small paragraph describing the organisation you work for. If you’re part of a team, all your colleagues should use the same paragraph. Tell people what your company does, its size, its client portfolio etc, so people immediately understand what you do and how you can help.
“You will naturally include keywords that people are searching for. You can also add assets such as website links, videos, PDFs etc.”
In the ‘skills’ section, which allows you to get endorsements for your skills from other people, Luan instead has switched endorsements off and uses it a place to showcase current skills that people are searching for:
“I see the skills section as a set of forward facing keywords. I don’t include all the skills that I’ve developed throughout my career, because there things that I don’t want to do anymore and services that I don’t want to offer. There are also skills, such as AI, that I’m starting to develop and want to be found for over the next 12 months.
“As I’m keeping the skills section up to date, my personal thoughts are that it would take a lot of work to get endorsements and I think there are ways that I can show evidence of my work, my credibility and my skills elsewhere on my profile.
“So my advice is use the skills section, but think about your organisation, the services you offer and your personal skills. You can allocate them to other sections of your profile as well, such as the ‘about’ and ‘experience’ sections. I personally don’t do this but if you’re job seeking or starting out in a new business and want to show more evidence, you might want to showcase them in other sections.”
Testimonials about you from real people are a powerful way to showcase your skills. These appear in the ‘recommendations’ section of your LinkedIn profile. Luan says:
“Recommendations add credibility, endorsement, and social proof to your profile. Ask your peers, colleagues, and clients for recommendations. Go for quality and substance over lots of people saying that you’re great.
“Think about who you want to be named on your profile, and what they can say about you to add to your story.”
Luan says the ‘about’ section is a brilliant place to bring everything together, tell your story and explain why people should connect or work with you.
“This isn’t a CV-style personal statement. I want to see your career story. I want your highlights. I want to know what you’ve done and who you’ve done it for. If you can name drop, then name drop. Tell me what you’re doing now. At the end, put a call to action.
“You will naturally include keywords, and you can keep it up to date to reflect why you are using LinkedIn at any given point. I change my ‘about’ section often, depending on what I’m looking for and what I’m working on.”
In summary, Luan’s key tips for creating a great LinkedIn profile are:
You can connect with Luan Wise on LinkedIn here, follow Bristol Creative Industries here and join our LinkedIn group here.
Becoming a member of Bristol Creative Industries brings many benefits. We regularly add new opportunities so here is a guide to the latest benefits you can enjoy by signing up. This post is regularly updated.
Join Bristol Creative Industries from only £4.95 a month.
Showcase your best work and attract new clients with a company profile in the Bristol Creative Industries member directory. The directory receives lots of visits every month from people looking for services from creative businesses.
Got some business advice or news to share? As a Bristol Creative Industries member you can self-publish content on our website and it will automatically appear on your member profile. We upgrade great content to the newsfeed and homepage, while four posts by members are included in our monthly email newsletter.
To get an idea of the content topics that do well, here are the top 20 most popular posts by members in 2022.
Bristol Creative Industries member Jessica Morgan from Carnsight Communications discussed the benefits of posting content in this interview.
The Bristol Creative Industries jobs board attracts thousands of job hunters every month. As part of your membership, you can post unlimited free job adverts, saving you on average £3,500 per candidate.
Piers Tincknell, co-founder of Atomic Smash, is one of BCI’s longest serving members and he told us in a member profile interview how he regularly uses the jobs board to recruit new employees.
BCI’s monthly members’ lunches are a perfect opportunity for members to catch up with fellow members and the BCI team.
Everyone has a slot of up to three minutes to tell the others a little about who they are and what they do and share any news and/or challenges. You don’t need to fill the full three minutes. We usually find some common themes emerge to discuss over the course of the session. It’s all very informal with no need to stand up and present slides.
The events are free to attend for members. They are a mix of in person and virtual events. The in person sessions are at The Square Club in Bristol and include a free buffet lunch.
Check the events section of details of the next lunches.
Our flagship keynote events and workshops feature world class speakers sharing their expertise. It’s a unique opportunity to access valuable insights for growing your business. Bristol Creative Industries members receive a ticket discount.
An example of a keynote event is the brilliant presentation on social media trends delivered in March 2024 by Drew Benvie, founder of global social media consultancy Battenhall.
Some events, such as our regular freelancer networking drinks, are free for members.
Keen an eye on the events section for the latest events. You can also sign up to the monthly BCI Bulletin to be notified of events.
Big thanks to everyone who joined us at @SquareClifton last night for the Bristol Creative Industries freelancer networking drinks ☀️ 🍷
Sign up to the BCI Bulletin to be notified of new events: https://t.co/5WgBWPoN1C#BristolCreativeIndustries #Bristol #freelancers pic.twitter.com/1BvT60KZFp
— Bristol Creative Industries (@Bristol_CI) June 21, 2023
Wake Up Call is a member exclusive live webinar that takes place every other Friday at 8.30-9am. The content is delivered by members for members.
Attending the free event gives you access to valuable insights from your fellow members and if you host a Wake Up Call, you can share your expertise and attract potential new clients.
See details for upcoming Wake Up Call events in our events section.
If you’re a BCI member and you’d liked to deliver a presentation on a topic of your choice during Wake Up Call, email Sian Pitman.
Research shows that diverse teams are more creative problem solvers, bringing fresh perspectives to solutions, against the echo-chamber effect that results when people in a business come from too-similar backgrounds. With a strong focus on diversity and inclusion, employees feel valued and that they belong.
To help Bristol Creative Industries members achieve this, we have partnered with The Hobbs Consultancy to provide on demand equity, diversity and inclusion (ED&I) e-learning.
The CPD certified online course consists of modules to help you bring about positive change in your business, understand the key challenges in the way for different groups, and explore your own biases and how to overcome them.
The training modules take an in-depth look at different diversity and inclusion topics: race, disability, LGBTQ+, neurodiversity, gender (split into female leadership, masculinity, gender identity), age and social mobility in the workplace.
The price of the training for BCI members is £120+VAT. All profits will be ploughed back into our youth engagement activity.
To access this brilliant training opportunity, log into your Bristol Creative Industries account and click on the ‘members’ training’ section.
We have to start engagement at school by raising the profile of the creative sector to a wider and more diverse audience. To do this, we’re developing ways to bring together creative business members and future talent through mentoring.
We are thrilled to have launched a partnership with The Early Careers Foundation (ECF), a social mobility charity that works with young people from low-income backgrounds to ensure that talent and hard work are what determine their career success, not background.
Through its mentoring programme, ECF pairs employees from partner organisations with 16-18-year-olds for monthly hour-long mentoring sessions.
Thanks to our new partnership, BCI members can now become a mentor and support a young person in building their confidence, developing their employability skills and offering invaluable professional guidance.
Applications to become a mentor close on 1 August 2024.
To find out more about how you can get involved, read this post.
The regular BCI Walk & Talk networking sessions are for a group of 12 BCI members who don their walking boots and explore the stunning countryside around Bristol and Bath.
It’s a great opportunity for members to make some new connections whilst getting some much needed fresh air!
Keen an eye on the events section for details of the next outdoor networking event. You can also sign up to the monthly BCI Bulletin to be notified of events.
We host regular roundtables for agency leaders to discuss strategic challenges. These events are vital for us to hear from the member community about the key issues you are facing and how we can help. A roundtable on funding led to us creating this popular and regularly updated guide to the latest finance on offer to creative businesses.
If you are interested in getting involved with future roundtables, email Sian Pitman.
Reductions on co-working spaces, meeting rooms, hotel accommodation, a recruitment strategy review and a coffee subscription are just some of the many discounts and offers we’ve negotiated for members.
We regularly deliver other benefits. To stay updated on the latest member benefits, sign up to the monthly BCI Bulletin.
Join Bristol Creative Industries from only £4.95 a month.
If you have any questions about membership, email Alli Nicholas
Noble Deeds charity competition to launch at ‘Be Better Bristol’ event
4th June, 2024, Bristol-based digital marketing agency Noble Performs has announced it will be launching this year’s Noble Deeds competition for Southwest charities and not-for-profits at its ‘Be Better Bristol’ event on 27th June at St Georges concert hall.
Now in it’s third year, the Noble Deeds initiative provides one local charity with pro bono digital performance marketing support for a six-month period and is opened every June as a competition which regional not-for-profits can enter. The prize fund increases each year in line with Noble Performs’ turnover growth and will stand at £25,000 for this years’ winners.
This year, the launch of Noble Deeds is being marked by a ‘Be Better Bristol’ event, which will see the local business and not-for-profit community come together for the evening to discuss how to do better and be better across the city for mutual benefit.
Designed to inspire new connections and collaborations, speakers include Nick Sturge from TechSpark, Mark Flower, CEO of Age UK South Gloucestershire and Caroline Amran from Babassa, which helps young people from less advantaged communities into work and education.
“We’re super excited to be launching our Noble Deeds charity competition at this year’s Be Better Bristol event. Our business is all about being better and doing better and making meaningful connections, which is why we chose to launch our business in Bristol in 2018. The city has a real sense of community and collaboration which is such a fit with our ethos and we’re always looking for ways to bring people together to share ideas for inspiration and innovation, said Kate Sikora, managing director, Noble UK.
“On that note, we’d love any interested local charities and not-for-profits who’d like to come along to our Be Better Bristol event on the 27th June to get in touch. As well as entering our Noble Deeds competition for pro bono digital marketing support, the evening will be a great opportunity to network with local businesses and community members,” she added.
Past winners of the Noble Deeds programme include Heart of BS13, a south Bristol social enterprise which supports people living in Hartcliffe, and Emmaus Bristol, which helps people out of homelessness and poverty (pictured).
Noble Performs Bristol hopes to replicate the impact of its US parent company as its UK business grows. Noble’s Nevada Deeds programme has been running for nearly 15 years and donates over US$200,000 to charitable causes each year.
Open to all Southwest based registered charities and not-for-profits who wish to enter themselves as potential recipients, the Noble Deeds support package up for grabs includes upskilling of the existing marketing team ensuring a long-lasting impact for the winning organisation.
To enter, registered charities or not-for-profits must be Southwest based and complete a simple application form, which will be live on the Noble Performs website from Friday 28th June until Friday 12th July.
The entries will be judged by a panel made up of an internal committee of the UK Noble team, with the winner selected by the end of July 2024.
The Bristol-based charity that wins a place on the programme will secure a package of digital marketing support and skills training tailored to suit its specific needs, however this could include; SEO, PPC, Analytics and Paid Social. The package of support is anticipated to run from September 2024 to February 2025 depending on specific requirements.
To find out more about Noble Deeds please visit https://nobleperforms.co.uk/deeds/
To register your interest to attend the Be Better Bristol event on the 27th June please contact event organiser: [email protected]
Since 2019, Square Works has become the byword for luxurious serviced offices and co-working in Bristol. We started with the aim of building a community where professionals could work, network, relax and socialise in an environment that offered the very best – from an exciting events calendar to a light and airy workspace that members can truly enjoy.
Situated on the beautiful Berkeley Square, a ten-minute walk from the city centre, Square Works is spacious, airy and filled with contemporary art and natural light. This unique workspace is spread across three elegant Georgian townhouses, with a range of conference and meeting rooms, communal spaces, kitchens and a fitness suite.
As a BCI member you can get 10% off memberships and meeting rooms at Square Works, contact our reception at [email protected] to take advantage of this offer.
🌸Towards Change Exhibition for Inclusive Advertising🌸
We are thrilled to announce a showcase of civic powers to transform advertising content from controversial to inclusive messaging from our workshops we’ve conducted to the public every week.
See the fusion of social, academic, and advertising industry unravels the impact of stereotypes in advertising and provide a platform for dialogue, learning, and change.
This exhibition is proudly sponsored by Launch, a Google Premier Partner and two-time winner of Europe’s Best Small PPC Agency. Thanks to their generous support, admission is free, making it accessible to everyone interested in exploring this transformative display.
🌸Speaker Session (18:00 – 19:00)
Carol Watson, Chief Inclusion Officer at BCW ( Global Agency)
Dan Srokosz, Creative Director, AgencyUK
Megan Gibson, Paid Media Director, AgencyUK
Dr. Junko Yamashita, Professor at the University of Bristol
Ms. Samantha Ford, Marketing lecturer at the University of Bristol
🌸Comments are from
Polly Wyn Jones, Kantar Global Knowledge Manager, Creative & Media
Nendra van Wielink-Mohamed, Global Media Practitioner
Dr. Terrell Carver, Professor of Political Theory at the University of Bristol
Joyann Boyce, TedX Speaker, Founder AI Consultancy
Olu Osinoiki – 📸 Wedding Photographer
Being a stone’s throw from notable Bristol landmarks like the Bristol Beacon, the Christmas Steps and the Hippodrome, this office is perfectly placed for any freelancers, start-ups and small businesses looking to take that next step. The collaborative duo hope that the space will become a bustling creative hub offering opportunities to new businesses.
You can check out virtual gallery of the office here.
Interested in viewing the space in person? Reach out to the team: [email protected]
As 2024 begins, Bristol Creative Industries co-chairs Lis Anderson and Heather Wright set out their vision and plans for the next 12 months.
Our unwavering commitment to driving value for Bristol Creative Industries members remains our top priority. We will persist in creating opportunities for our community to learn, connect and grow their businesses. Simultaneously we are dedicated to amplifying our influence within the city and nationally advocating for the views and the needs of our local creative industries.
The highly successful programme of in-person keynote events from industry figures will continue to be a catalyst for inspiring new thinking and encouraging reflection and evolution for business growth.
We encourage leaders to bring their wider teams to these events, which may otherwise be out of reach for smaller organisations. We also aim to diversify our line-up of speakers to represent the broader spectrum of creative industries.
Freelancers constantly say how much they love the networking events and the freelancer drinks at the Square Club in Bristol have grown from strength to strength. We’ll be running more of these events in 2024 on 6 February, 23 April, 11 June, 10 September and 19 November.
Member lunches, recognised for fostering valuable real-world partnerships, will continue due to the positive feedback and opportunities they generate.
There are ongoing opportunities for learning for all Bristol Creative Industries members and their teams through the events calendar. This includes access to Wake Up Call webinars (bi-weekly live webinars with a library of recorded webinars to be launched later this year), a new equality, diversity and inclusion (ED&I) training programme and free legal advice surgeries.
Building on the success of the Bristol Creative Industries Internship Programme pilot in 2023, we’re leveraging the insights gained to make it even better this year year, with enhanced experiences and outcomes for both interns and employers.
We have started recruitment for member businesses to take part in the 2024 programme and we continue to collaborate closely with Babbasa to help us reach young creative interns from underrepresented backgrounds in our city.
2024 will also see BCI working more closely with education providers across the region to grow the creative talent pipeline for our members. We’ll be raising awareness of career opportunities in our sector, facilitating mentorships and feeding into course materials.
As we continue to grow, we’re keen to attract new members from the film and TV industry. With strategic partnerships formed with Bottleyard Studios and Bristol Film Office, we aim to connect our members with the many new opportunities arising from the many high end TV productions coming to the city.
To achieve our ambitious goals, we’re actively seeking new Board members. Find full details here as we look to welcome individuals who share our passion for Bristol’s creative industries.
We wish you all a very happy New Year and look forward to supporting and celebrating creative businesses throughout 2024 and beyond.
To stay updated with all Bristol Creative Industries activities and member opportunities, make sure you’re signed up to the monthly BCI Bulletin.
If you’re not yet a Bristol Creative Industries member, join here. We’d love to welcome you in 2024.
Located on the second floor of Sparks Bristol, the sustainable department store that opened in May of this year, the Tabb team’s goal for the space is to significantly increase their ability to support Bristol’s independent filmmakers and creative freelancers and to help them benefit from the city’s fast-growing film and creative industry.
At launch, the creative hub will accommodate 50 permanent residents and 30 flexible hotdesks in a space that, for the previous 70 years, served as an office and breakroom for the staff at Marks & Spencer. Tabb has plans to incorporate a permanent film and photographic studio later in the year and hopes that this is just the start of their work in offering further physical services to help its community make their projects happen.
With consultation from low-carbon, innovative design and construction firm Agile Homes, the ‘Tabb Hub’ will use recycled and custom furniture to create unique and purpose-built spaces for its residents and community, including Bristol Production Van, Foxy Motion Films, Barri Films and FishPunch.
The hub is open to enquiries and reservations from filmmakers and connected creative disciplines, whether individuals or teams, with flexibility regarding how residents can organise and set up the space.
Known as ‘Cahootify’ until December last year, Tabb’s collaborative platform for independent filmmakers, producers and actors has gone from strength to strength. With regular events, festivals and screenings aiming to unite and empower South West filmmakers, Tabb’s community has grown to 8,000 members. Rising stars and established professionals, such as Keith Wilhelm-Kopp, who recently released their debut feature film, Translations (2023), have added over 10,000 short films, animations, trailers and music videos to the platform, with many by teams that found each other through the Tabb opportunities and events.
Sparks Bristol, a world-first project co-created by Global Goals Centre and ArtSpace LifeSpace, offers various indoor independent stalls and shops, from fashion and food to nature and energy, supporting people to make money-saving choices on climate, equality and wellbeing. Sparks Project Manager John Hosken said, “We are delighted that the collaborative and empowering Tabb organisation has taken the space – creating so much opportunity for both organisations.”
Tabb CEO Pete Francomb, said: “We’re thrilled to offer this exciting new space to Bristol filmmakers. The forward-thinking Sparks ethos matches Tabb’s commitment to supporting and enabling creatives. Tabb Hub is a perfect and logical move for the organisation and the community.”
Tabb expects the hub to fill quickly due to the hub’s prime central location and high demand for flexible and multi-use creative spaces.
For more information about Tabb Hub and to enquire about becoming a resident, visit https://tabb.cc/hub or email [email protected]
To learn more about Tabb and their growing filmmaker and creative community, visit https://tabb.cc/
To learn more about Sparks, visit https://sparksbristol.co.uk/
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