As part of our membership network, we have 300 freelancers working within the creative industries. Life can sometimes feel a bit lonely as a freelancer so a networking event like this is an opportunity to meet others in the same position. It’s the perfect chance to catch up with old friends and meet plenty of new faces too!
This event is open to freelancers as well as anyone who regularly engages with freelancers. It will allow you to widen networks, make new connections, discuss common problems, and discover potential opportunities for collaboration going forward. You’ll be sure to head home with a new contact.
The drinks will be held in the lower deck at The Square Club on Berkeley Square, and we’ll have use of the amazing outside terrace too if the weather is on our side! We’ll have a private bar to purchase drinks, plus the food menu will be available if anyone fancies something to eat.
Tickets for BCI members are FREE and include a drinks token for the bar. Tickets for non-members are £5 +VAT.
This event is held 5 times per year so do save the future dates for your diaries so you don’t miss them!
If you’re not yet a member of Bristol Creative Industries and would like to take advantage of this event, you can sign up here. You can also read about the membership perks here.
Click below to register your place!
As part of our membership network, we have 300 freelancers working within the creative industries. Life can sometimes feel a bit lonely as a freelancer so a networking event like this is an opportunity to meet others in the same position. It’s the perfect chance to catch up with old friends and meet plenty of new faces too!
This event is open to freelancers as well as anyone who regularly engages with freelancers. It will allow you to widen networks, make new connections, discuss common problems, and discover potential opportunities for collaboration going forward. You’ll be sure to head home with a new contact.
The drinks will be held in the lower deck at The Square Club on Berkeley Square. We’ll have a private bar to purchase drinks, plus the food menu will be available if anyone fancies something to eat.
Tickets for BCI members are FREE and include a drinks token for the bar. Tickets for non-members are £5 +VAT.
This event is held 5 times per year so do save the future dates for your diaries so you don’t miss them!
If you’re not yet a member of Bristol Creative Industries and would like to take advantage of this event, you can sign up here. You can also read about the membership perks here.
Click below to register your place!
This four-week Ableton and Envelop Training (for Live Performances) course introduces musicians and performers to the fundamentals of spatial sound, including ambisonics, binaural audio, and sound diffusion for performance and installation works.
Led by spatial sound composer and artist Nik Rawlings, during the course you’ll develop a creative and critical approach to composing immersive music and sound works, have space to share and reflect on your work with your peers and create a work that is ready to perform or install.
You’ll spend time undertaking independent research and composition, putting into practice skills learned during the course’s workshops and contextualising your work within established frameworks of spatial composition. You’ll also have the opportunity to share sound pieces on an immersive sound system and engage in reflection and peer to peer feedback.
You’ll attend hands-on workshops and talks by artists performing and exhibiting spatial sound internationally, sharing their knowledge and tips for navigating the challenges and requirements that you may face when presenting spatial sound works in different settings, and how to create technical riders and specifications for production teams.
By the end of this course, you’ll be equipped with skills, knowledge and tools that de-mystify immersive sound creation, and allow you to grow as an immersive artist. You’ll also build your portfolio and be confident in your ability to deliver spatial sound works for a wide range of venues, galleries and collaborations.
Ableton and Envelop Training (for Live Performances) is designed for artists, sound designers, composers and producers who are looking to open up new horizons in their work and gain the skills necessary to become an immersive sound artist.
Participants will require some experience using Digital Audio Workstations (DAWs); we will be using Ableton Live and Reaper. Before this course you are required to ensure that you have a working copy of Ableton Live (30 day free trial licenses are available) installed on your own computer.
The next course takes place on the following dates:
Tuesday 6 January, 6:30-8:30pm
Tuesday 13 January, 6:30-8:30pm
Tuesday 20 January, 6:30-8:30pm
Tuesday 27 January, 6:30-8:30pm
This short course costs £325 per person.
Ready to expand your audio skills into the immersive world of VR? Creating Immersive Audio for VR bridges traditional audio production with cutting-edge spatial audio techniques for virtual reality applications. Perfect for producers, sound designers, and audio engineers looking to master VR audio workflows.
Building on your existing Digital Audio Workstation knowledge, you’ll learn specialized spatial recording and encoding techniques using ambisonic microphones alongside familiar recording tools. We’ll work extensively in Reaper with professional ambisonic plugins and spatial panning tools that transform your traditional stereo mindset into three-dimensional thinking.
You’ll explore Higher Order Ambisonics (HOA) encoding and decoding, understanding how these formats create convincing 3D soundscapes for VR environments. The course covers advanced routing configurations for binaural monitoring and specialized 3D audio processing that goes beyond traditional effects.
Technical aspects include proper loudness standards for VR content, specialized encoding workflows for 360° video delivery, and critical evaluation using actual HMD playback. You’ll master the complete production chain from spatial capture through final VR-ready deliverables.
This hands-on approach ensures you’ll confidently integrate spatial audio production into your existing skill set, opening new opportunities in the rapidly growing VR content industry. Professional feedback and peer review support your transition into this specialized field.
Creating Immersive Audio for VR is designed for persons with basic understanding of Digital Audio Workstations, audio processing workflows such as editing, rendering, and using FX such as EQ, reverb, gain.
A basic understanding of spatial audio is useful to make the most of the course, but fundamental knowledge on principles of stereo recording and mixing will be sufficient. If you have been making music in the box or in the studio, and fancy expanding your skills into the world of VR – this is a course to explore.
You’ll need to have various pieces of software installed onto your personal computer before starting this course. Please see the “technical requirements and software” section on our website for more information.
The next course takes place over the following dates:
Saturday 21 February 11am-2pm
Sunday 22 February 11am-2pm
Saturday 28 February 11am-2pm
Sunday 1 March 11am-2pm
This short course costs £515 per person.
BOOKED IN A DAY
Friday 23 January 2026, 10am – 4pm
Tobacco Factory, Bristol
7 spaces (Only FOUR left!)
Details + tix: https://bridiehinson.co.uk/bristol-pr-workshop
Designed for small business owners who want to dedicate a day to building lasting PR skills that will help you reach more people with your mission and message, build trust, and land new opportunities for your small business.
If you want to discover new ways to get in front of the right people (beyond constant content creation!) come learn about opportunities such as guest podcasts, guest workshops, speaking gigs, press features, collaborations, partnerships and more!
It’s a chance to learn how to position yourself, craft key messages and stories, and learn how to pitch for opportunities.
The day will be informative and interactive with time to action the learnings during the workshop itself, you’ll also get mini 1:1s with me and peer support in a small group
You’ll leave with:
clear on the topics, opinions and messages you can use for PR
exciting ideas to promote your business beyond social media
confidence to put yourself out there and pitch
I’ll also be adding a new section in for January 2026 all about planning PR into your upcoming business activity as we look at the year ahead. Including top tips for how to leverage PR to boost what you’re already doing, not add to your plate.
Kate said: “A brilliant, energising day packed with practical tools, inspiring ideas, and expert insight that made PR feel not just doable, but exciting. Bridie delivers the course with warmth and expertise. I left with a clear plan and much more confidence.”
Morin said: “Booked in a Day was transformative. It expanded my understanding of where my voice belongs and needs to be heard. Having my ideas and approach validated by a PR expert has completely shifted how I feel about pitching myself and my expertise from ‘ick’ to ‘yay!’”
The event takes place on the top floor of Tobacco Factory with a balcony and spectacular views
Step into the future of storytelling.
Our Broadcast to Branded Skills Bootcamp is a 9-week,fully funded industry-led journey designed for experienced TV and film freelancers ready to make their mark in branded content. Whether you come from editorial, craft, or production management, this programme gives you the confidence, skills, and insider know-how to transition into a fast-growing creative space.
Working in production teams, you’ll respond to a real client brief developing, producing, and delivering your own branded content piece to add to your portfolio and showcase your capabilities. Along the way, industry professionals from UWE Bristol, JonesMillbank, and Gritty Talent will guide you through every stage: from storytelling and pitching, to shooting, editing, and delivering client-ready work.
You’ll also sharpen essential soft skills – collaboration, inclusion, networking, and career strategy building not just technical expertise, but creative confidence. The course culminates in a showcase and networking event to launch you into your next chapter.
This Skills bootcamp isn’t just training, it’s a creative re-frame. Gain the tools to adapt, diversify, and thrive in branded content, and leave with a showreel-ready project and the confidence to take on new opportunities with impact.
Marketing teams are surrounded by more data than ever, yet so much of it is noisy, inconsistent or simply wrong. This webinar explores how data tracking issues can quietly creep into your analytics, mess up your dashboards and make it hard to understand what’s really working.
Varn’s data analytics expert Haris Alexandrou will unpack the most common problems that lead to messy or misleading data, explain why clean data is essential for smarter decision making, and show you how to set up tracking that gives you clarity and confidence from the outset.
The session will help you cut through the data chaos, track and spot what matters and build your marketing decisions on solid, trustworthy insights.
Bristol Creative Industries members can register here
This webinar is exclusively for BCI members. It’s one of many benefits you get by joining the community. Not a BCI member? Read more about the benefits and join here.
Who is it for?
This session is perfect for marketeers, digital specialists and anyone who wants to rely on trusted data and reports to guide decision making, campaigns and strategy.
About Haris
Haris is an expert data, analytics and tracking manager at Varn, specialising in transforming complex or confusing datasets into clear insight. He works with brands to build accurate tracking foundations that support confident, effective marketing decisions, in an era of increasingly overwhelming information.
> Connect with Haris on LinkedIn
The online sessions take place every other Friday morning from 8.30-9am, and allow BCI members to share their knowledge with fellow members.
The webinars are a 15/20 minute presentation followed by a 10/15 minute Q&A. The sessions are a mix of expert tips and case studies – the perfect opportunity to learn something new before the week is out.
The webinars are exclusively for BCI members. They are one of many benefits you get by joining the community. Not a BCI member? Read more about the benefits and join here.
Please get in touch with Dan if you’re a BCI member and you’re interested in presenting on a future webinar.
Rebecca will break down the latest developments in employment law, copyright and IP, data protection, and AI regulation, translating them into clear, actionable guidance for agency leaders.
This talk will be held in central Bristol – venue TBC soon.
By the end of the session you will understand:
This session is designed to help creative digital agencies stay compliant, competitive, and resilient in a rapidly shifting regulatory landscape.
Rebecca Steer is an award winning business lawyer, long-time advisor to tech and creative digital businesses and friend of BCI. She advises many businesses in the creative and tech sectors and has a supportive and pragmatic style. Rebecca is a Partner at Keystone Law.
> BCI member tickets are £20 +VAT
> Non-member tickets are £45 +VAT
Not a BCI member? Read more about the benefits and join here.
For most self-employed people, 2025 hasn’t been easy. But before you call it a year and put on the Wham! … were there some pearls of wisdom to glean from the fog? Some glimmers of clarity amid the uncertainty and confusion? And, despite what your brain’s negativity bias is telling you, some of your proudest achievements yet?
Whether you’re racing to the finish line or starting to wind things down, it’s always valuable to look back on the year that was — particularly when you’re self-employed and need to take care of your own performance review/bonus/Christmas party.
If you could do with a nudge to carve out some time for both inner and strategic reflection, join me for a relaxed, guided workshop to mull over (pardon the pun) everything you learned in 2025.
Who is this for?
This workshop is designed for freelancers, business owners and self-employed people. Whether you’ve had a fantastic year or a sh*t one, there’ll be something to take from it: strategic clarity, a different emotional perspective, and renewed faith, courage, and self-compassion.
Meet your host, Lucia Fontaina-Powell from More To Life
I’m an accredited life & career coach and a fellow self-employed person.
I work with independent spirits navigating the rollercoaster ride of self-employment—offering a friendly sounding board and psychology-based insight to comb through the emotional and existential tangles of working for yourself (from self-doubt to setting boundaries).
I’ll be walking you through the exact method I use to conduct my own “annual reviews”: exercises I use with my clients, and journalling prompts inspired by by own experience.
What to expect
Because calendars get a bit stacked at this time of year, we’ll be meeting on our lunch break over Zoom. There will also be a recording if you can’t make it live.
I’ll be guiding you through a series of reflective exercises and journalling prompts designed to help you take stock of 2025, and feel optimistic about the year ahead.
Questions and sharing is welcome, but this workshop is designed to give you quiet time with your own thoughts. You’re welcome to keep your cameras off and you won’t have to interact if you don’t want to.
By the end of the workshop, you’ll have:
– A different perspective on what you’ve “achieved” —transcending clients booked and revenue earned
– Insights on where you’ve grown—not just in business, but as a person—to inform your decisions moving forwards
– Clarity on intentions, priorities, and next steps for 2026
– A sense of appreciation for your journey
What you’ll need
Something to write with and whatever else makes you feel comfortable and centred (jazz in the background, incense burning, pets, etc.).
This is optional, but it may also help to bring:
– Any goals, intentions, or visions you set at the beginning of 2025
– A record of what you’re worked on, if you need a reminder
What not to expect
This isn’t going to be a year in numbers. These prompts will be focused on your thoughts, feelings and identity as a freelancer or business owner. Going deeper than MRR and profit to get you thinking about how you’re creating a life and career on your terms—defining your own version of success, rather than measuring it through other people’s.
Any questions, email me at [email protected].
Learn more about More To Life here: https://moretolifecoach.co.uk/home
2026 is fast approaching and for most agencies, the market’s not slowing down. Budgets are tighter, teams are stretched and AI is quietly reshaping how work gets done and what clients are willing to pay for.
In this short, practical session, we will share what we’re seeing inside ambitious agencies and the three financial actions that are helping them protect profit, plan with confidence and stay ahead of the curve.
This isn’t another finance lecture – it’s a strategic look at how to future-proof your agency’s finances before January and not to be missed.
After the session, you’ll walk away with:
– A clear view of what’s working for profitable agencies right now.
– A summary of the 2026 UK Budget and what it means for you.
– 2026 trends that will impact your finances.
– Simple ways to tighten your financial systems, ready for January.
– A new way to think about pricing, planning and cash flow.
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