Work is underway on the expansion of The Bottle Yard Studios into a neighbouring South Bristol industrial site, which is undergoing a £12m redevelopment backed by West of England Combined Authority investment that will add three new stages to the Studios’ portfolio.
Planned for completion this Summer, the expansion will increase the number of stages on offer at The Bottle Yard Studios from eight to 11 and is intended to maintain and grow film and TV production in Bristol and the West of England.
Titles recently filmed at the facility, the largest of its kind in the region, include upcoming BBC/Amazon psychological thriller Chloe (premiering Sunday 6 February), series one and two of Stephen Merchant’s BBC/Amazon series The Outlaws and BBC One legal drama Showtrial.
Global construction specialists ISG have been contracted by Bristol City Council to convert the industrial property at Hawkfield Business Park, less than half a mile from the main Bottle Yard site, into three new sound stages. Measuring 20,000 sq ft, 16,000 sq ft and 7,000 sq ft, the filming spaces will be accompanied by ancillary spaces including production offices, prop stores, costume/makeup areas and break out areas, amounting to approximately 82,000 sq ft (7,600m²) of converted floor space in total.
Operations at The Bottle Yard’s main site have also been boosted by a further £1.6m investment by Bristol City Council in renewal and repair works that will make the Studios’ existing buildings fit for purpose for the facility’s 10-year business plan.
Overall, the investment in the current site and new studio provision at Hawkfield Business Park is expected to create 135 jobs during the refurbishment with a further 863 jobs created over the next 10 years through an accompanying Workforce Development Programme focused on high-end TV skills and targeting development of new talent in South Bristol.
Dan Norris, mayor of the West of England, said:
“I’m incredibly proud of the investment that the West of England Combined Authority I lead is making here. It’s a fantastic space and the progress in getting it ready is remarkable. The expansion of The Bottle Yard studios sends a strong message that our amazing creative sector here in the West of England is thriving. So many talented people are helping put our region on the national and international map as a go-to location for the film and TV industry. Three new stages will mean even more of our favourite shows like The Outlaws, Poldark and Showtrial can be filmed here. This vote of confidence in the West of England will create a thousand high skilled jobs and should help us to attract even more production companies. I look forward to watching lots of new shows hit our screens, and I’ll enjoy them even more knowing they are made in the West of England.”
Marvin Rees, mayor of Bristol, said:
“It is great to see the expansion work starting at The Bottle Yard Studios. Our £1.6m investment in the current site, coupled with the additional capacity at the Hawkfield site, once developed, will bring confidence to the city’s film and TV production sector and harness growth as the demand for on-screen content grows worldwide. The expansion will also create jobs, skills and training opportunities, support the local supply chain and be a major boost to our wider regeneration plans for south Bristol, bringing growth and opportunity into the area.”
Laura Aviles, senior film manager for Bristol City Council which is responsible for The Bottle Yard Studios & Bristol Film Office, said:
“This expansion is big news for Bristol’s film and TV sector. Upping The Bottle Yard’s stage count from eight to 11 at a time when space for filming is at a premium, means we can welcome more of the productions we know are keen to film in Bristol, a city that saw a 225% increase in filming in the first quarter of the current financial year. We’re making sure Bristol seizes the opportunities presented by the UK production boom with both hands, so that local crew, companies and new generations of talent can reap the benefits in employment, business and skills development.”
Richard Skone, regional director for ISG, said:
“This highly significant creative arts scheme for Bristol is yet another example of smart and efficient procurement practice – fast-tracking the project to site through the use of the high-performing Southern Construction Framework (SCF). The sustainable Bottle Yard Studios development will prove transformative to the capacity and capability of the region’s media sector and, during the construction phase, will prioritise positive social value outcomes for local residents and the wider community. As the UK continues to benefit from a renaissance in investment in the creative arts sector, ISG brings significant expertise to this high-profile and ambitious project.”
Technical specifications for the new stages have been designed to a premium quality, with sound insulation between stages meeting cinema facility standards, impressive internal noise ratings (NR25 db) and reverberation levels of below 2 seconds. Stages will be clear span build spaces with maximum heights of 34ft, providing productions with adaptable studio accommodation of scale, ideal for meeting the needs of large-scale productions filming in and around Bristol.
Sustainability has been placed at the centre of the design and build process of the expansion site. Energy supply for the converted buildings will be supported by a large photovoltaic (PV) array, improved insulation and a sophisticated building management system designed to enable energy conservation. Transport around the Studios’ expanded footprint will be carbon neutral, with electric vehicle (EV) points and ample cycling provision supporting low carbon movement.
The expansion programme will also bring added benefits to local people through a series of training, skills and employability activities, apprenticeship opportunities and community project support co-ordinated by ISG as part of their contract.
Piers Tincknell, co-founder of WordPress and WooCommerce specialists Atomic Smash, is one of Bristol Creative Industries’ longest standing members. He joined in 2010 when his business was him and his co-founder David Darke. The company is now a team of 17.
Dan Martin spoke to Piers about his business journey and how BCI has played a key role in his success.
“My business partner David and I graduated from university with a digital arts degree. We had an assignment to come up with a hypothetical business that we might be able to run. Our idea was a podcasting network. We found that we worked really well together and when we graduated, we decided to set up our own actual business. We gave it three months. If we didn’t get any work or ran out of money, we’d get a proper job!
“We moved to Bristol but had no clients. We rented some desk space in Spike Island and immediately picked up work from other business people there. We were the only people in the space doing any form of web service so it was a rich source of collaboration. We did logo design, built websites, video editing, sound editing and 3D modelling. We did anything digital that people wanted us to do. We really got stuck in!
“A few years in we met someone who suggested we build our websites on WordPress as it was up and coming. We tried a few content management systems and decided WordPress was the one to use after a business adviser said that we needed to settle on a niche to be successful. It was also then that we hired our first employee.
“We posted a job ad on the Bristol Creative Industries job board. We received some applications and made a choice from those we interviewed. That person is still with us today.
“When you’re running a small business, it’s easy to hire the wrong person. Either you’re not going to pay enough money so you get somebody who’s too hard to manage and you need to upskill them so you can’t spend time on the high value work or you end up with somebody who’s not the right cultural fit.
“My advice around is to not panic hire. Don’t wait until you desperately need somebody to start the process of finding the right person. The longer the interview process and the more time you get to spend with somebody, the more likely you’re going to gel and find the right person. It will feel like a gamble because it’s a new fixed overhead, but if you need to think if the business is going in the right direction and you are going to have enough money in, say, six months time, let’s start the process as soon as possible.
“Doing it through Bristol Creative Industries is good too because you can keep recruitment costs down and I think it’s a more natural way of hiring. I totally see the room for recruiters when you’re a scale-up, but when you’re in your early stages and you’re all about building a good relationship with somebody, then doing it yourself can be so much better.”
“We never overtly set out our culture, but the culture we’ve ended up with is definitely a reflection of me and David as we are closely aligned. Our values are the same and that has been amplified into the business.
“Part of our company culture is learning and self development. We weren’t afraid to take on lots of different tasks at the beginning as we just wanted to learn and get stuck in. That has stuck with us and it’s something we encourage everyone in the business to do. Working in technology, you can’t sit still. You need to keep learning. That’s something we got from our university course. There was some software we studied in our first year that was obsolete by the final year!
“As your business grows, it’s really hard to hold onto your culture. I think at the beginning you just attract people who are similar to you. As you are working so closely together, often in the same room, you have to be really aligned to move forwards. When there’s 20 of you, it’s easy for everyone’s values to not quite align but you muddle through. Once you get to a certain size, the business owner needs to be much more overt about communicating their values internally and that messaging needs to be consistent.”
“We got lots of advice from other people at the start of our business journey. The top three tips were get some business insurance, find a mentor and join Bristol Creative Industries to meet new people.
“I’ve met loads of people through Bristol Creative Industries. In the early days, it was a way to get talking to a new contact if we were both members of BCI. It’s a great icebreaker. I’ve also been to lots of networking events over the years and attended programmes and other training.
“At the start when we didn’t have much money, membership was more of a commitment but we still saw the value in it. We enjoyed being able to connect with other business owners and realised Bristol Creative Industries was the best way to do that. As we’ve got bigger and we’ve become more self propelling, we want to give back. The money you give to BCI is about building Bristol as a community and promoting Bristol. We like that BCI is investing in the creative industries. It is so important for us so we want to do as much as we can to help promote it.”
“I think it’s more competitive than ever in the digital agency space. That’s a really big challenge.
“Talent is another one. It’s great that Bristol is growing in popularity and there are lots of big technology companies coming here, but they are hoovering up lots of good developers and designers. As a small business, we can’t compete on salary so we try and compete on other things that are important to people.
“It’s nice having such a great spread of clients because people often come to work for us to be able to get access to those clients. [Atomic Smash’s clients including Spike Island, Bristol Ideas and Bristol Pride]. That wasn’t an intentional, strategic thinking thing, it was just just a natural thing that happened.
“We also communicate the flexibility that we offer and let people know that if they come and work for us, their destiny is in their own hands. We encourage self-starters and if they’ve got ideas, they can run with them. If people are motivated and they want to take on a side project or they want to get a bit more involved in a particular area, they can.
“We also understand that employees are humans with complex lives. We’re flexible around things like taking 30 minutes in the middle of the afternoon to do the school run. My business partner and I have just got down to four days a week. I’ve got a son now so I’m balancing working and parenting. That is open to everyone. Our working week is a shorter than many other businesses as we contract people for 35 hours a week. If they want to condense it into four days, they are more than welcome to do so.”
“The best thing is the collaboration. That has enabled us to grow. We’ve done projects where we’ve worked directly with another agency. They’ve done some design work, and then we’ve done the implementation or vice versa. That has been of been one of the keys to our success.
“Bristol does collaboration really well, which is shown by the amount of people I’ve met through Bristol Creative Industries.
“The Bristol business culture is laid back. That’s great but it does mean that businesses are not always as good as those in other cities at self-promotion. If you look at it from the outside, it can seem like Bristol is not as hungry as cities like Manchester and London.”
“If we had set the business up in 2010 in our bedrooms and not in a workspace, there’s no way we would have met the people who gave us work at the start. Try and set up your new business in a hub or a workspace where there’s other people on the same journey and you’ve got mentors and advisers on hand.
“Find the best people if you’re going to take on staff. If they cost you a bit more, then it’s definitely worth it, and once they’re on board, look after them.
“Finally, I say enjoy the journey! It’s pretty up and down and it doesn’t end, so you’ve got to enjoy it as you go.”
Fancy joining Piers Tincknell as a Bristol Creative Industries member? Benefit from industry expertise, training, leads, curated news, kudos and more. Sign up here.
Your company’s growth depends on your ability to sell and get new customers through the door quickly. But many of us recoil from the thought, let alone action, of selling, networking and prospecting for new business.
Louisa Clarke, partner at The Caffeine Partnership and co-author of Catalyst: Using Personal Chemistry to Convert Contacts Into Contracts, joined us for a keynote event to demystify the science and art of business development and to provide practical advice on how to catalyse relationships that will win you new clients. Bristol Creative Industries editor Dan Martin summarises her brilliant tips.
We all know the cheesy theories and tactics that many so-called experts share when talking about business development. For Louisa, all that management speak makes prospecting for new business sound “academic and joyless”, when it’s actually simply about people and human relationships.
Louisa’s book relates business development to a catalyst, a process to make a chemical reaction happen more quickly, without changing the catalyst itself.
She believes the job of business development “is to be a person whose enthusiasm and energy causes others to be more friendly, enthusiastic and energetic in response”.
When two people share a special connection, they develop a rapport. The person then develops an impulse to feel a need to see that person again. “Business development is about catalysing relationships, creating connections between human beings that change fortunes,” Louisa explained.
“Business development is really just about staying in touch with people and being helpful in a conscious, methodical way”, Louisa said.
To find those people in the first place is where networking comes in.
But the thought of networking, selling and prospecting for new business fills many people with dread. They feel “entrapped and pressurised”, Louisa said, and even if they do form new contacts, “they struggle to turn them into something more commercial because how do you go from contract to contract without losing your soul?”
The danger is you fall into the trap of becoming a professional networker, Louisa warned. We all know at least one of them. The person who makes it all about them, who when talking to you scans the room for someone more interesting, who never follows up and who never says thankyou if you help them.”
So how can you avoid being one of those people and become an effective networker? Here are Louisa’s tips.
If you have that fear of networking, you have to get over it because you have to get out there. The first step is showing up.
You need to be wherever your potential clients are, be it conferences, events, trade show dinners or even the queue at an airport.
Louisa challenged attendees to force themselves to say ‘yes’ to every invitation they get in a month and force themselves to show up.
Most people have a fear of rejection which, Louisa said, stops us from making the first move so we stick with what and who we know.
“But think about the first time you met your best friend, your life partner, your long standing client; all the best relationships start with someone being brave enough to make the first move and someone else reacting positively to the person who had that courage.”
Louisa continued: “When we ask about someone’s journey or the weather or what someone’s work is, what we’re really saying is ‘I’m friendly. Are you friendly?’, Or ‘can I get on with you?’ But it’s too weird to actually say that. So ‘what do you do?’ remains our stock phrase.
“And it’s not what we say in reply that matters, but how we say it. We introduce ourselves so many times in the world of work, no wonder we can often sound bored about it. But the person opposite is hearing this for the first time. Make it interesting for them to hear.”
When someone asks you ‘what do you do?’, think about how you can answer it in an interesting way. Louisa gave the examples of the team at the Caffeine Partnership who say “we help impatient leaders grow their businesses and brands fast” and an executive coach who describes her work as “holding the mirror in front of clients until they start to really see themselves”.
Louisa said that many people forget the golden rule: “Networking is about acting with the aim of advancing someone else’s agenda, not your own.”
She added: “The currency of effective networking is not personal or corporate greed, but generosity. When you are networking, there’s zero pressure on you to make a sale or close a deal. In fact, if you rush to sell and close the deal too soon in the relationship, you’ll find it counterproductive. Networking is about getting to know people and being helpful to them so that when they need you, you are there.”
Louisa shared an example: “I met a stranger at a dinner. We bonded over both being working mums and the conversation turned to a project she was struggling with. It was in the area of employee engagement which is one of our specialties. My radar was on and it sounded like something we could help with.
“I then deployed one of my favourite new business questions: ‘Would it be helpful if….?’. ‘Would it be helpful if I sent you some examples of similar projects we’ve done?’, ‘sent you a book on the subject that my colleague wrote?’, ‘took a look at your brief and suggested how we could help?’ I didn’t try to sell, I just tried to help.”
Meet fellow creatives at the BCI Walk & Talk outdoor networking event on 4 March. Book now.
In these uncertain times, investing heavily in just a handful of key relationships is the wrong approach, Louisa said. Instead, cast your net as wide as possible.
Louisa related a story of someone she met at an event where a colleague was delivering a speech. The woman said she knew the ‘Alan Sugar of Barbados’ and thought The Caffeine Partnership could help him. It sounded too good to be true but three months later, she got back in touch to set up a meeting. It led to a six month project that netted almost $1m in fees and four trips to Barbados.
That example shows you should never close the door on someone who wants to work with you, however far-fetched the opportunity may seem. You never know where it might lead, even to a beach in the tropics.
Talking to strangers when there’s no deal to be done or meeting to secure is much easier. That’s why you should take the pressure off yourself when prospecting for new business. If someone tells you what they do and you jump straight in with a sales pitch, you’ll come across as self interested, obvious that you’re after something and that you have selfish motives.
“Treat every new acquaintance as a chance to practice your ability to build rapport rapidly,” Louisa said. “Don’t sell but help. What is it that you do that could be helpful to that person? Invest the effort in practising not because you’re manipulative, but because you’re in the business of making contacts and might be potentially of use to them.
“The more contacts you make, the better you’ll become at making them. The more people will want your help and the easier it will be to get even more people to see you as a useful contact.”
Louisa said the best model for business developers to adopt is diligent farmers.
“They work consistently, they never slack, they shepherd their flock and steer them from danger. They invest care and attention on each and every one of their charges. Their interests are best served by serving others’ interests brilliantly and when the time comes, they reap the benefits.
“The simple secret to their success is that they create a relationship with their prospects that builds cumulatively over time, that by the time the potential buyer becomes an actual buyer, it’s a foregone conclusion that they will buy from the diligent farmer.”
Like farming, business is a long game. Too often, people only turn the new business tap on when the need for new revenue is urgent. “But if you are a diligent farmer, you will have a constant stream of potential clients who are not just in the market to buy now but are predisposed to buy from you because they’ve been looked after by you.”
“One of the secrets of high performance is consistency,” Louisa said. “All top performers, whether they’re comedians, Olympians, artists or CEOs, are more consistent than the rest of us. They show up to do the work whether they feel like it or not, they don’t procrastinate and they don’t make excuses. They just do it.”
This can be explained by what has become known as The Seinfeld Strategy.
It’s the story of a young American comedian at the start of his career who met global superstar comedian Jerry Seinfeld. He asked him for advice on how he could improve. Seinfeld replied that the way to be a better comic is to create better jokes. The way to create better jokes is to write every day. He asked the young comedian to get a big wall planner with a year on one page. With a big red pen, write a big red cross over the day. After a few days you’ll have a chain. Keep going and the chain grows longer every day. You’ll like seeing the chain especially when you get a few weeks under your belt. Your only job is to not break the chain.
“Notice that nothing was said about results,” Louisa said. “Nothing was said about the quality of the work. All that matters is not breaking the chain.” Consistency and developing a behaviour is the key to success.
According to a study by UCL published in the European Journal of Social Psychology, it takes 66 days for new behaviour to become automatic.
“In that spirit, start your prospecting activity with a 60 day plan,” Louisa advised. “This is less about filling in an activity for every single day but more about keeping yourself accountable for a set period. New business prospecting isn’t something you can turn off and on like a switch. It should be a constant stream of day to day activity.”
Network with fellow Bristol Creative Industries members at the BCI Walk & Talk outdoor event on 4 March. Don your walking boots and meet fellow creatives while enjoying the beautiful countryside around Bristol. Register here
First event: 10th February 1.30pm – 2.15pm
Bristol-based web design and development agency, Unfold has just launched a brand-new events series, Below the Fold. The series centres successful business people, giving them a platform to share learnings from their journeys. Hosted by Unfold’s founder, Harry Cobbold, these events aim to educate and inform attendees with insider knowledge and tips for success.
What it takes to get your business acquired
The first episode in the series will see Gapsquare’s Zara Nanu taking the guest seat, with Harry interviewing her on Gapsquare’s recent acquisition and what it takes to build and acquirable business.
You can catch the event on 10th February 2022 from 1.30pm – 2.15pm. All events in the series will be held virtually via Zoom for the foreseeable future. If you can’t make the date, you can register in any case and you will be sent the session recording following the event.
Register for the event here.
When it comes to freelancers & business, I’ve spent a good amount of time with both the hiring manager and the freelancer hat on.
I’m a former Marketing Manager, now a full-time creative freelancer and I know first-hand the positive impact a good freelancer can have on a growing business. But, I’ve also seen it go tits-up more times than I can count.
Building a business is a constant balancing act, particularly in the early days or during big growth periods, a good freelancer or two to help you ‘fake it until you make it’ can make the world of difference to your business.
This is why I’ve pulled together three tips to make your next freelancing mission a success.
Hiring a freelancer can sometimes feel like a commitment-free relationship, like a friends-with-benefits setup where either party could drop one another at any point, with no hard feelings or consequences to anyone’s feelings.
And while that’s technically true , viewing a freelancer as a disposable resource for your business usually will just mean the relationship is destined to fail. In my experience, the most successful freelance positions I’ve been involved in were subject to a proper recruitment process from the outset.
With the exception of the much-loathed cover letter and CV, I’ve always found that having a proper (& maybe less formal) interview or introductory call, followed by a trial and a two-way conversation about rates, availability and expectations will set you up for success.
This ‘hiring’ process is a great way to weed out anyone who isn’t serious about you and your business. Taking the time to properly vet your candidates means you’ve got a better chance of the freelancer, and the work they do, being a success.
Tip: Don’t treat the trial like an exam or an opportunity to scrutinise every inch of their work. Instead take note of the way they work, the tone of voice, their turnaround time and the way they communicate with you. These factors are going to be far more important to the long-term success of the relationship, rather than a minor typo you’ve spotted in paragraph four.
Rule number one of expanding your team, be it with a freelancer, an actual employee or your very first assistant, is to document your processes and procedures first. And by first, I mean before you even put the job ad out.
Having all the responsibilities, the systems, the tools and the desired outcomes of the position you want your freelancer to fill will help you a) find the right person, as you’ll know exactly what you’re looking for and b) onboard and train them once you do find them.
Take a little extra time to put together a reference bible of processes and procedures that you can arm your new freelancer with. This will mean that from the moment they’re hired, they’ll be able to understand exactly what it is you want from them, when you want it and how you’d like them to deliver it.
If you’ve done your due diligence throughout steps one and two, then you should have no qualms about leaving your freelancer to get on with the job. Chances are, you’ve hired a freelancer to complete tasks that you either a) don’t have the capacity for, or b) don’t have the skills or expertise required. Either way, you’ve hired them for a jolly good reason and the best thing you can now do is let them do what they do best.
In a day and age when we’re all now more than comfortable working remotely and have been forced to trust our employees and team members, trusting your freelancer should feel no different. And if you’ve built an accountability tracker into your processes and systems, then you can easily check in with their work there and make sure they’re on track.
Remember that a good freelancer will generally charge more per hour than an employee on your payroll. So, to get the biggest bang for your buck, keep them focused on (and charging for) their specialist work only rather than any administrative tasks or calls.
Now you’re in the know it’s time to implement these guidelines next time you’re working with a freelancer.
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Jemma Adams - I’m a brand strategist, website designer and digital marketer serving unique and passionate businesses and entrepreneurs in the food, drink and design space tinybrand.co
As we approach a new year, Bristol Creative Industries editor Dan Martin looks back at 2021.
It has been another very challenging year for business. We started 2021 with the pandemic continuing to take hold and we sadly end it with COVID-19 still very much dominating the headlines.
As restrictions eased over the summer and we saw a welcome return to in-person meetings and events, we were hopeful of a return to business as usual in 2022. However, Omicron looks set to have put paid to that with new restrictions very much on the cards in the new year, if not sooner.
But if there’s one thing we know about creative industries businesses in our region, it’s your resilience and creativity!
We’ve seen so much innovation over the past 12 months and we are delighted to see increases across all our membership categories as businesses looked to the network to boost knowledge and form new collaborations.
Our total membership is up 50% over the year with business membership seeing a 26% increase. In addition, individual membership has risen 20% and our student membership has grown by 123%.
Chris Thurling, chair of Bristol Creative Industries, said: “Despite the immense challenges of the pandemic, the year at Bristol Creative Industries has included many positives.
“The situation has encouraged more businesses to see the value of connecting, networking and collaborating. It’s great to see an increase in our membership, our events remaining very popular and the growth of many member businesses. At times throughout the year, our jobs board has featured more jobs than ever before!
“The prognosis for the creative industries in the region is a healthy one. In many ways, lockdown has liberated the creative industries from the south east. Many have realised that to build a successful business, you don’t need to be in the centre of London.
“People still want to be near a strong ecosystem and Bristol and Bath have got the combination of factors needed to be competing as alternative locations for creatives.”
The year kicked off with a big announcement as we revealed the new BCI board of directors. They are Julz Davis, Marissa Lewis-Peart, Heather Wright, Gail Caig and Dr. Susan McMillan.
As we said in January: “The diversity of Bristol’s creative industries is something we are immensely proud of, but we also recognised the need for our board to better reflect that diversity. We need individuals who can bring different perspectives and experiences and help us widen our reach across the city. That will help us to future proof the organisation and better support our members.
“We are extremely grateful to the stellar line-up of individuals who have joined our board. With their incredible expertise, they will help us build stronger connections with creative businesses, government organisations and individuals in all corners of the city.”
Talent and diversity remained a strong theme throughout the year and a focus of our efforts to support our members.
It’s a subject we discussed with Heather Wright, the BCI board director who spent 22 years at Aardman, during an in-depth interview in July.
She said: “You get a better quality of idea when you have lots of different windows on the world in front of you. Everybody comes with a different window and a different viewpoint. The more ideas you have in the room from different places the better.
“That’s the problem with the Westminster bubble; they talk to people like themselves all the time. The only way to break out of the bubble is to go further and have a greater diversity of ideas. That comes from a greater diversity of people including ethnic diversity as well as age, people who are less able bodied etc. It’s all about having people with something different to bring which is not the usual employing people in your image which is often the worst thing you can do.”
In September, we launched The Talent Network which gives 17 to 21 year-olds the opportunity to network with creative employers in Bristol and Bath.
The first event allowed young people to find out what skills creative employers are looking for – now and in the future – and to ask the questions they’ve always wanted to ask such as ‘how do I get a job in TV?’, ‘What skills should I focus on?’ and ‘How can I turn gaming into a career?’.
Chris Thurling, BCI chair, said: “A common challenge for our members is the struggle to hire a workforce with the right skills. There are, however, lots of young people with the skills needed but they don’t know the pathways in.
“BCI is there to do the things agencies can’t do on their own and by adding our unique capabilities, we can help tackle the challenge of connecting talent to businesses. We have already started with initiatives like the Talent Network but it is just the start of many things to come.”
We had a busy events programme this year including our monthly virtual members’ lunches where we love catching up with lots of you.
We’ve also had many workshops and keynote events. Big thanks to all the experts for sharing their expertise.
January:
BCI board member Marissa Lewis-Peart led a student networking event and Kit Altin led an online workshop on writing the perfect creative brief.
February:
David C. Baker, described by the New York Times as “the expert’s expert”, joined us from the US for a brilliant keynote event covering how creative businesses can write the perfect positioning statement. We’ve summarised his tips here.
March:
Social media expert Drew Benvie told us all about the app that everyone was talking about, Clubhouse. Read a summary of his tips here.
Digital agency mentor Janusz Stabik began a series of three workshops explaining the strategy needed to run an efficient and effective agency. Read Janusz’s blog post on how to attract better quality agency clients in three easy steps and download his free strategic growth planner for digital agencies.
Lawyer Rebecca Steer from Steer & Co delivered a Brexit and Covid-19 legal update. Find the latest legal news and advice on Rebecca’s blog.
Katie Scotland began a series of four workshops to help attendees use their strengths to feel more confident, have more impact, build better relationships & create more inspiring ways of working with others.
April:
Paul Feldwick worked at the legendary creative agency Boase Massimi Pollitt for over 30 years. His latest book, Why Does the Pedlar Sing?, examines what creativity really means in advertising. He joined us to share some of his insights. Read a summary here.
May:
The team at Tonic Creative Business Partners shared perspectives on what makes great content.
June:
Kit Altin returned for a workshop on how to be more persuasive, and Tom Evans, co-founder of strategy, design and communication agency BEHAVIOUR, shared advice on presenting creative work.
August:
We held our first in-person event for many months as a group of BCI members joined us to discuss funding for creative businesses. Attendees said it would be useful if we could provide regular updates on the finance schemes that are available for creative companies in the south west and beyond. As a response, we published this post and we’re keeping it updated.
September:
We ran a networking event with a difference as a group of members donned their walking boots to explore the beautiful Mendips. The feedback was very positive and we are planning to run another Walk & Talk event with Outside next spring.
Andy Nairn, who has been named the UK’s number one brand strategist for the past three years, joined us for a fascinating and entertaining event. In his new book, he explains how the history of marketing and advertising is full of brands that stumbled across great ideas by accident or turned misfortunes into huge successes. During the event, Andy highlighted examples and outlined the lessons for creative companies. We summarised his insights here.
Consultant Mette Davis-Garratt and Morag Ofili from Kiltered began a brilliant five-part series to help people make sense of what diversity and inclusion means for their business, why it matters, and how to turn the conversation into action.
October:
With the aim of giving 17 to 21 year-olds the opportunity to network with creative employers in Bristol, we launched a new collaborative initiative called The Talent Network. We teamed up with education provider boomsatsuma for the first event and gave young people the chance to find out what skills creative employers are looking for and to ask the questions they’ve always wanted to ask.
If you’re a creative industries employer and would like to get involved in The Talent Network, please contact [email protected].
Anne Thistleton, who has spent over 20 years as a marketing practitioner in the field of mind science, joined us from South Africa for an online event where she shared fascinating insights about how understanding the way the human mind works can help creatives build more effective campaigns. Here’s a summary of her brilliant advice.
One of the benefits of Bristol Creative Industries membership is publishing your own content on our website. We love reading your news!
BCI members have won plenty of awards this year including Unfold, Mr B & Friends and Launch.
Other reasons to celebrate included Atomic Smash becoming a WordPress VIP Silver Agency Partner, the opening of Gather Round’s second co-working space in Bristol and Gravitywell being named among the top app developers in Bristol.
Congratulations to you all!
We’ve seen some fabulous innovation by BCI members for great causes in 2021. Here are some examples:
We love behind the scenes peeks at our members’ businesses and this post is one of our favourites. It’s the story of how digital designer Mayumi Kurosawa has overcome incredible odds to get to where she is today – a much-loved member of the Proctor + Stevenson team.
Bristol is home to some of the best arts organisations in the UK and we were delighted to welcome two of them – art gallery Royal West of England Academy and concert hall St George’s Bristol – as members in 2021.
BCI members have also shared some brilliant business advice in 2021. Here are the 20 most popular posts.
You can read all the news, advice and updates from BCI members here.
Looking at wider happenings for the creative industries in Bristol and Bath, 2021 has been a huge year for film and TV production in the region.
In a very popular article, The Guardian said: “TV crews are falling over each other to film drama in ‘Bristolywood'”, with a 225% rise in production on pre-pandemic levels. There were four major drama productions under way in Bristol in 2019/20. That grew to 13 during the first quarter of 2020/21 and since January this year, 15 high-end TV dramas have been filmed in the city.
Among the high profile shows calling Bristol their home are The Outlaws, the comedy thriller from local boy Stephen Merchant, and BBC legal drama Showtrial.
Forget James Bond, here’s the red carpet event of the year. Premiere of my new show The Outlaws last night – and proud to hold it in my hometown of Bristol. #theoutlaws pic.twitter.com/YCmlFWhF3d
— Stephen Merchant (@StephenMerchant) October 5, 2021
Bath has also been popular with production companies including being transformed into a winter wonderland in the middle of autumn for the new Willy Wonka movie with Timothée Chalamet.
Animation is a big deal in the region too, thanks to the likes of Bristol Creative Industries member Aardman, which has recently launched Robin Robin on Netflix.
Speaking of Netflix, the streaming giant organised a special event in Bath’s Assembly Rooms in November to celebrate the success of its productions made in the South West. The location for the event is featured in global hit Bridgerton.
As the film below shows, the UK economy has been boosted by over £132m over the last two years as a result of Netflix productions created in the South West of England.
In other broadcast events this year, Channel 4, which opened a creative base in Bristol in 2020, delivered its evening news programme from Bristol Beacon on 10 September. It was part of the Black to Front project, a day of programming featuring Black presenters, actors, writers and experts, contributors, and programme-makers. The one hour news broadcast featured a wide-ranging discussion on contested heritage, Black Lives Matter and Bristol mayor Marvin Rees on what has happened since the toppling of the Edward Colston statue.
Publishing its “blueprint for the future”, the BBC said it will expand its BBC Studios base in Bristol. BCI chair Chris Thurling said: “Spreading investment more evenly across the UK is the right thing to do, and I welcome the BBC’s explicit commitment to Bristol.”
The creative industries education sector continued to grow in 2021 with the breadth of courses on offer to the next generation demonstrated by this guide we published in October to further and higher education in Bristol and Bath.
BCI member bootsatsuma has done some great things this year including an innovative street poster exhibition showcasing the work of some of its brilliant students.
Access Creative College resurrected Bristol’s iconic Bierkeller as an events and education space. The venue previously welcomed some of the biggest names in music to its stage, including Nirvana, The Stone Roses and Arctic Monkeys.
Despite what has been another hugely challenging year for the arts, you could still get your cultural fix in Bristol and Bath with artists and others adapting to the need for safe and outdoor events.
Street art festival Upfest was cancelled again but more than 75 murals were created on the walls of south Bristol for locals and visitors to explore during their own personal walking tours.
Bristol artist Luke Jerram, who has achieved international success, brought his stunning In Memoriam installation to the city’s College Green in October. It was created from over 100 flags, made from NHS hospital bed sheets as a memorial to losses during the COVID-19 pandemic and in tribute to the NHS, health and social care staff and volunteers who have given so much to so many.
Luke Jerram’s spectacular Museum of the Moon, a suspended model of the moon measuring seven metres in diameter, went on show in Bristol Cathedral in August and is displayed in Bath Abbey until Christmas Eve.
As the COP26 conference took place in October, an art piece was installed in Pulteney Weir in Bath to highlight the climate change emergency. Sinking House is a red 5.5m by 3.5m house semi-submerged in the water.
The brilliant Love Bristol campaign continued with the painting of socially distanced hearts which were perfect for sitting with your household or group of six to enjoy takeaways from nearby businesses in the spring sunshine.
The festive edition of the campaign is Christmas Adventures, a trail of illuminated lyrics from classic Christmas songs.
Royal West of England Academy launched a multi-million pound renovation project with pop-up exhibitions in other venues around the city so people can still enjoy the art.
We end the year with uncertainty. As a new variant of coronavirus takes hold, it’s possible we will see in the new year with more restrictions. It may not be a full lockdown but we’re likely to return to Zoom calls, takeaway eating and quieter streets.
There is much to look forward to though. We have been so impressed by the continued resilience and innovation of our region’s creative businesses in 2021 which stands us in good stead for the future.
BCI is here to support and we urge you to take part in our super important survey so we can shape our future support and advocate to the government what the region’s creative economy needs.
As we wish you all a fabulous Christmas and brilliant new year, we’ll close with the words of Alli, our membership manager, from her interview in September:
“We help members to learn, grow, and connect. It’s through connecting that people learn and grow. We are a community of people who have a common interest of working in or being interested in the creative industries in Bristol and the surrounding area. We’re the central hub that brings everyone together.”
One of the big benefits of Bristol Creative Industries membership is the ability to self-publish content on our website. We’ve seen lots of great content published in 2021 including some brilliant business advice. Here are the 20 most popular posts of the year.
Chase Design Group examines the legacy that COVID-19 will leave for brands, and what newly adopted trends and ways of communicating should stay with us. Read the post here.
Having a strong organisational structure in place is key to growing your digital agency. Janusz Stabik explains your options and how to know which structure will guarantee employee and customer satisfaction and allow you to scale your marketing agency. Read the post here.
Carnsight Communications is one of the most prolific BCI bloggers so it’s no surprise that the business has made the top 10. In this great post, company founder Jessica Morgan outlines what her previous career in marketing taught her about public relations. Read the post here.
After the couple of years we’ve all had, the mental wellbeing of employees is increasingly concerning. Armadillo explains how the approach to mental health in the workplace needs a culture change. Read the post here.
Janusz Stabik makes his second appearance in the top 10 with tips on how digital marketing agencies can attract high-quality clients. Read the post here.
In another post from Carnsight Communications, learn five key things to remember when looking to secure engagement on LinkedIn. Read the post here.
Looking for your business to make headlines? OggaDoon shares top tips on how to write the perfect press release. Read the post here.
Brands can’t lead the conversation on social media, says AMBITIOUS in this great post. Read the post here.
“As joint leader of an independent agency, 2020 meant sleepless nights. But it provided opportunities to inspire others and galvanise our team,” says Andy Brown, chief financial officer at Armadillo, in this post outlining leadership tips for 2021 that will also serve us well in 2022. Read the post here.
How can an entrepreneur attract the perfect investor? Gravitywell outlines six qualities investors look for in tech startups. Read the post here.
Want to post your own content on the Bristol Creative Industries website? Become a member.
Some B2B brands find social media a challenge but there’s lots that you can do as this post by AMBITIOUS shows. Read the post here.
The winning agencies will be the ones with an uncompromising focus on their culture, looking at how they can support their people to be their best selves and do era-defining work, says Tonic Creative Business Partners. Read the post here.
If there’s anyone who knows about being successful at blogging, it’s Helen Savage from Blog Write Ltd. She shares some great tips. Read the post here.
OggaDoon shares a list of 10 essential features you didn’t know you could use with Google Ads. Read the post here.
Sparro House Creative Ltd outlines three tips to improve your content marketing. Read the post here.
If your primary audience is other businesses, then case studies are the perfect tool for creating authority, building trust and delivering social proof. George Devane shares some tips. Read the post here.
The phrase ‘SEO; now covers optimisation strategies and techniques on a wide range of different websites including Instagram. Varn outlines how to improve your SEO on the social media platform. Read the post here.
Leaders and managers have often received little to no training in how to have a ‘difficult’ conversation and so we end up avoiding the situation altogether until it becomes really serious. That can mean getting into performance management, grievance procedures or even worse. Jonathan Rees shares advice. Read the post here.
Chris Thurling from Armadillo provides his advice on what to consider when seeking out a marketing agency that’s suitable for your business. Read the post here.
As you prepare to hit send on your latest business mailing, ask yourself whether it would pass the ‘hover test’. Here are five easy ways, shared by Carnsight Communications, to make sure it does. Read the post here.
Please respond to our new survey about the creative industries in Bristol and Bath. It will help us design – and advocate for – future support for the creative economy in our region.
For many of us, sales and business development is the one part of running a digital agency that just doesn’t come easily. Sales calls can feel awkward, forced and sometimes completely disingenuous, and so, we avoid them altogether. But what if the most effective sales calls weren’t sales calls at all?
In this article, I’m going to share my top tip for helping you conquer the fear of communicating with your potential, existing or lapsed clients to land sales. I’ll also prove just how well it works with my very own, very real example.
In my experience, some of the most successful, fast-growing agencies are led by innovative, intelligent and tech-savvy operators. These agency leaders were obviously so successful in their specialist field, that they were able to form their own agency and offer their service to businesses and brands on their own terms.
The trouble is – being a brilliant developer, software designer or digital strategist means you’re often very comfortable behind a computer screen and usually not so comfortable making sales calls. And after all, the best sales and BD strategies usually involve a lot of face-to-face conversations, networking events and generally spending time without your noise-cancelling headphones on.
The good news is, there’s a hack to checking in with your clients & prospects while still being able to avoid those awkward sales calls (this is where I get to the part about chicken wings).
At Digital Agency Coach, my fellow coaches and I don’t take an awkward role-play or scripted approach to helping agency owners develop their sales skills. For years now, we’ve been helping agency owners circumvent the system and land sales without making awkward sales calls.
The trick is to a) remember that your clients are human beings – they’re people with hobbies, favourite sporting teams, pet peeves and favourite restaurants; and b) communicate casually, genuinely and informally with them on a regular basis – chat about your common interests or things that are important to them in order to build a relationship.
It sounds simple, and that’s because it is – but it genuinely works. If you’re dubious, take this real-life conversation below as an example:
Just this week, I had reached out to a former client to simply ask about the name of a restaurant he recommended.
This short, simple and motive-free message nudged me to the front of his mind and prompted a response about coaching.
This simple example perfectly demonstrates how building relationships and checking in with your contacts to spark friendly and non-business related conversation is a great way to make sales calls, without making sales calls.
Pro-Tip: Like all sales efforts this one works best when paired with manageable KPIs. Set yourself a target of 3-6 messages, calls or interactions per day and keep yourself accountable. For tips on setting effective KPIs, check out this article about Lagging vs Leading KPIs.
At Digital Agency Coach, we understand that while agency owners are all brilliant, they are human too (just like their clients).
That’s why we use tactics just like this one to help all agency owners land more sales and achieve stratospheric growth for their agency to gain more profit, more time and less stress – no matter where their strengths may lie.
This year we are celebrating Studio Giggle’s 15th Birthday. Like all great British ideas, the company was conceived in a pub over a beer. It was born out of a desire to create work on the cutting edge of technology and creativity, which is still at the very core of what we do.
When I asked Steve about the intriguing name, he smiled; it’s a question he’s been asked many times.
“Giggle really sums up the way we work. Creativity should be fun! It is often stressful, but by keeping a sense of humour and a lightness to our approach, we can make the whole process more enjoyable for everyone involved.
The creation of The Giggle Group wasn’t a spur of the moment decision. Steve had honed his skills over ten years, starting in theatre then working for various production companies as an editor, director and writer. He met James Carnaby and Adam Castelton, who helped him set up the company and whose continued support and advice are always welcomed. It was this experience that prepared Steve to open The Giggle Group in 2006.
In 2013, two worlds collided as Steve met Jonathan Brigden on a flight to Dubai as part of a UKTI creative industry mission. Jonathan had been running his own company, Knifedge, for 19 years. Knifedege created immersive and innovative events and groundbreaking projection content for an impressive list of global clients. It was evident that Steve and Jonathan shared similar creative ambitions, a love of immersive and live events and most importantly, a sense of humour. We also moved to our current home in the heart of Bristol’s creative community at The Paintworks.
In 2014 when Jonathan and Steve decided to merge their companies, they could create one cohesive animation and event machine.
In 2017 a new era of Giggle began when we rebranded from ‘The Giggle Group’ to ‘Studio Giggle’. This better reflected the growth and transition of the company over the years, from film to animation to creative studio. The “Studio” part of the name was to draw attention to the incredible team, which enabled us to deliver our award-winning work.
In its 15 years, Giggle has weathered some major global events. In 2008 Giggle overcame the financial crash by switching the company’s focus to animation over film production. In more recent years, the Giggle team showed extraordinary skill and creativity during the early days of the COVID19 pandemic. This was a challenging time for the company as we shifted to a remote working model and pivoted our production pipeline to deliver virtual events. This resulted in our most successful year to date. We won Manchester United as a new client, we hired 4 new staff members and developed XR and Virtual production solutions, all in just 6 months.
Studio Giggle in 2021 is a very different company from The Giggle Group of 2006. We now have offices in Bristol and Brighton, with our own Green screen virtual production studio which doubles up as our R&D test space. We can deliver live and virtual events anywhere globally, producing work for some of the biggest brands on the planet. As 2021 comes to an end, and we take a moment to celebrate 15 years of Giggle, we also look to the future. We intend to continue to create spectacular content for both live and virtual events, combined with beautiful animation and film with storytelling at their heart. We aim to always be at the forefront of our industry. We will continue to research and develop new technology solutions that can enhance the work we create for our clients.
We would like to take this momentous occasion to thank all of our team, suppliers, partners, freelancers, family and friends but especially our clients. Their continued trust and belief enable us to evolve and grow in ways we could never have imagined.
Roll on 2036 for our 30th Birthday!
If this has inspired you to work with us then please contact [email protected] or call 0117 972 0081.
Anne Thistleton, the founding partner of LIGHT Consulting who has spent over 20 years as a marketing practitioner in the field of mind science, joined us from South Africa for an online event where she shared fascnating insights about how understanding the way the human mind works can help creatives build more effective campaigns. Dan Martin summarises her brilliant advice
Anne opened her talk with the story of the 2007 experiment which saw world-renowned violinist Joshua Bell pose as a busker in a Washington DC subway. Despite usually being able to command audiences paying thousands of dollars to see him play, out of 1,097 people that passed by, just 27 gave him money, and only seven stopped and listened for any length of time. In total, he made $52.17, $20 of which was from one person who did recognise him.
So why did that happen? “People didn’t hear him because we don’t hear with our ears,” Anne said. “We listen with our ears, but we hear with all of our senses. They are constantly sending information into our mind, enabling us to connect the outside world with our memory and make sense of the world…influencing how we act and how we react.”
The people in the subway, Anne explained, were getting clues about what was going on at an unconscious level. They were telling them that they were in the subway and connecting with memories of seeing past performers who they passed by and didn’t have time to stop and listen to. Joshua Bell was just another busker.
Anne shared more examples of mind science in action:
In Australia, Mcdonald’s increased the price of a cup of coffee from $1 to $2 and sales doubled. A colleague of Anne’s visited and said the “coffee even tasted better.”
A study of a Cinnabon store found when someone was close enough to take in the aromas of the bakery products, they were three times more likely to help someone with a problem or question compared to customers in other parts of the shopping centre.
In a print ad for a delivery company, a clock was put on the wall in the image. It was “a clock that no one can consciously recall but when asked to describe what they remember from the print ad, expectations of speed and service increased by 50%”.
During a two week experiment in a supermarket, French music was played for the first week and 77% of wine sales were French wine. The next week they played German music and sales of German wine increased by 73%.
A study by a team of Yale professors showed that when an offer price by a customer to pay for a new car was rejected by the salesperson, buyers sitting in a soft chair at a car showroom increased their offer by 40% compared to those sat on a hard chair.
Why did all that happen?
“While we as marketers have been stuck in the dark ages of decision making, the good news is that there has been a complete explosion in mind science and how the brain works,” Anne said. “And the undeniable headline is humans are not rational decision makers. We’re not even rational thinkers.”
Take the example below. If you were asked out of the two tables which one you’d like to take a nap on and which you’d prefer to eat pizza from, you’re likely to pick the one on the left for the first question and the one right table for the second. But as the image shows, they are exactly the same size.
This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.
“Even though the image shows the tables are the same size, you still can’t see it,” Anne said. “It demonstrates that in many instances we are still unable to see things in a logical, rational manner.
“Our mind is the most complex system in the world. But with just a few basics, I believe it can materially change how you look at communication.”
The science behind why the above results occurred can be explained by mind science. Watch this video with Anne outlining it in detail:
Now we know how the science works, here’s why the results above in the five examples occurred:
McDonald’s $2 cup of coffee: “Over time, our minds have been trained to know that a high price means high quality and vice versa. And at that point in time $2 was an abnormally high price for a cup of coffee in McDonald’s, but not in Starbucks. As the “Starbucks node” has already been created in the mind of the audience, where expensive coffee means good coffee, then the $2 primes them for a good cup of coffee. McDonald’s can’t sell a bad cup of coffee, make it expensive and pass it off for a great cup of coffee, but they can make a good cup of coffee that can become a great cup of coffee because of the cues that they’re priming their audience with.
Cinnabon: “Aromas of fresh baked goods lights up powerful memories of home and family which makes you feel good. So when someone asks you for help with something, you’re going to do it because you’re already in a much better mood.”
Delivery company print ad: “In Western society, clocks have become associated with timeliness. The clock implicitly lights up this idea and the core message of speed and service, which is exactly what the company is trying to do with that print ad. Even the background items, the ones you can’t recall, are picked up by our non-conscious processor and can have a significant impact on the message.”
Wine sales: “Just like the clock on the wall was bypassing the customers’ conscious visual processor, the French and the German music wasn’t consciously registering either but it was lighting up those ideas via people’s auditory processor. French or German-related memories were guiding customers to those specific shelves.”
Car buying: “We take on information through our sense of touch all the time, whether actively as we’re touching something or passively such as being seated in a chair. It turns out that the hard chair equals a hard heart. It triggers feelings of duty, stability and toughness. For your next salary negotiation, may I suggest you look for that hard chair so that you don’t give it too easily.”
Anne concluded: “The important thing for all of this is that it’s the non-conscious processor that’s wielding the enormous influence. That’s what’s driving so much of our decision making. That’s where the power lies.”
So what steps can you take to use mind science to improve your marketing and creative campaigns?
For every piece of communication you send out, ask what are you lighting up and do it from all of the five senses. Do a sensory audit, Anne said. “Think through every single single sense and it’ll be amazing what it will eliminate.”
Although an exaggerated example, Anne said say you were running a condom brand. Your options for a message on the front of the packaging are ‘5% failure rate’ or ‘95% success rate’. “If you ask the question of what are you lighting up, do you want to be lighting up failure or do you want to be lighting up success?”.
“Focus groups, online mobile surveys, brand tracking. The problem is these traditional methodologies are all talking to the conscious processor because we thought that’s what drove action. But remember, when you talk to the conscious processor and you ask people who’ve just bought either French or German wine did music influence your choice, 86% are going to say no. But that’s isn’t the case because you monitored the behaviour and the only thing that changed between one and two was the music.”
Examples of research which led to failures include Heinz’s green ketchup. The company failed to understand how colour influences a decision, Anne said.
‘New Coke‘, a new recipe for Coca Cola, is another example. “It was the most highly researched new product of its time; 40,000 interviews and $4m spent. It was an incredible disaster because they didn’t realise they were talking to the conscious mind. The brand is so much more than just what is inside the can and defined by a taste test.”
Anne said methodologies that can help you surface what’s happening in the non-conscious processor include metaphor elicitation, implicit association testing, biometrics, eye tracking and facial coding.
The first principle for connecting is that it must be easy, tell simple stories and don’t make them hard to understand. “Stories are the glue of our memories,” Anne said. “It is how knowledge was transferred before the written word. Stories speak to the rhythm and the patterns of our mind.”
Secondly, it must be sticky. Make it memorable. “It’s got to get into long term memory to drive behaviour,” Anne said.
Thirdly, you must then repeat and repeat until it makes a strong connection.
An example of an advert that follows the principles above is this one:
“The ad tells a story,” Anne said, “but they also weren’t afraid to leave things out and because they did that we can co-create, we can picture ourselves in it and we can feel it.”
Marketers and creatives should harness the power of their own non-conscious processor because that’s where your creativity and your imagination lies.
Anne said: “You have got to find your mental playground. Find a consistent time and place with no phones, no music, no friends, just you so you can cultivate your creativity and your imagination. That’s the core of your livelihood.
“One thing you don’t want to do is brainstorms. They go so quickly that you’re only tapping into your conscious processor. That’s not where your power for ideas lies. Also, a typical rule of brainstorming is no criticism. You actually want criticism. I know this almost sounds like sacrilege, but you want criticism because you’re trying to expand your mind. You’re trying to get to the parts of the mind that don’t often get tapped into.
“You need to use criticism because when you hear something, it lights up a different part of your mind, it fires in new ideas, and you start to connect that to what you already know.”
Taking us back to the first story at the start of her amazing talk, Anne concluded: “We are all Joshua Bells. We all need to be heard and mind science provides that powerful learning to enable us to be heard.
The creative industries contribute to making Bristol and Bath amazing places to live and work. But how can they grow and prosper? Tell us in our survey here.
