Creative Industries Network Workshops
The Creative Industry Network Workshops tackle industry-specific issues, including skills and talent development and how to be competitive in a global marketplace. These workshops aim to facilitate knowledge exchange, networking, peer-to-peer learning and collaboration between universities and industry to create a long term, sustainable community and platform of resources within the creative industries in South London.
1 to 1 Business Diagnostic Session
Date & Time: flexible
Venue: Online
This session is designed to:
- Offer an introduction and onboard you to the Programme
- Understand your business: business model, needs, barriers, strengths and weaknesses
- Provide you with a tailored plan to get the most from the programme
Workshop 2: Maintaining motivation and building resilience
Facilitator: Professor Alison Baverstock, Professor of Publishing, Kingston University
Date & time: Mon 22 May 2023, 09.00 – 10.30
Venue: Online
The workshop will offer a structured approach to thinking about maintaining motivation and building resilience. Delegates will consider how to develop a mentality that supports business resilience, how to spot opportunities for developing, supporting and sustaining business resilience, and develop an action plan.
Delegates will gain practical skills, structures for thinking and important considerations for the future including, understanding the resources needed (time, money, collaborators, premises) and how to spot opportunities that complement practice.
Workshop 3: Introduction to bid writing and business storytelling
Facilitators: Kate Scott, School Director of Research, Business and Innovation, Design School, Kingston School of Art at Kingston University and Daniel Read, Lecturer and Researcher (part-time) in the Department of Humanities at Kingston University.
Date & time: Tues 23 May 2023, 09:00-10:30
Venue: Online
In this session, delegates will gain an understanding of the importance of storytelling. Every pitch for business is a bid which needs to tell your company’s story, and a clear story defines what start-up investors will think about your company as a prospect for investment. There are strict rules, codes and conventions to the professional writing of bids, proposals, tenders and pitches that need to be followed. This workshop will introduce you to those rules and to the role of story-telling in the development of your creative business and the role it plays in attracting potential investment through government, trust/foundation and High Net Worth Individuals.
Workshop 4: Policy making – Sustainability of the Small and Medium-sized Enterprise (SME)
Facilitator: Azadeh Fatehrad, Senior Lecturer in Design Enterprise at Kingston University
Date & time: Tues 23 May 2023, 11.00 – 12.30
Venue: Online
The session will focus on ways in which national and local policy can impact and/or support businesses and explore how the interconnections between different entities could be enhanced, expanded or improved. As part of the session, the role of the community is also referenced and explored. The 90-minute workshop includes two external speakers (TBC) followed by interactive tasks and discussion.
Workshop 5: Strategic planning and development using the Business Model Canvas
Facilitator: Sahar Mansoori Zangir, Business Development Manager and Lecturer in Innovation, Kingston Business School
Date & time: Wed 24 May 2023, 09:00-10:30
Venue: Online
In this workshop, delegates will learn how to scrutinise their business model and unpack their value proposition by using the Business Model Canvas tool to:
- Identify and communicate the key elements of a business model.
- Unpack and share what and why a business does what it does (value proposition) and ensure it stays at the heart of building the business.
- Help look for alternative approaches and improvements to the company’s offer while staying true to its value proposition.
- Develop or review the business’s operating model for a more sustainable future.
- Develop a shared language for strategy and innovation by creating a visual of all building blocks of a business.
- Understand and visualize competitors’ business models.
Workshop 6: Project-based working: How To Juggle Multiple Projects
Facilitator: Dr Steven Sparling, Head of the Department of Creative Industries at Kingston School of Art
Date & time: Wed 24 May 2023, 11:00-12:30
Venue: Online
This session is designed to supply businesses with practical tools for managing project-based work. With most work in the creative industries of a project-based nature, this workshop will explore how to manage multiple projects at the same time and how to keep them all advancing, whilst not losing sight of different timelines and speeds of progress. The session will also explore the competing motivations for projects and how to balance them.
Workshop 7: The Fearless Workplace: Optimum Conditions for Productivity, Problem Solving and Wellbeing
Facilitator: Professor Jason Piper, Kingston School of Art Engagement and Development Lead, occupational and business psychologist
Date & time: Thurs 25 May 2023, 16:00 – 17:30
Venue: Studio Theatre, Town House (ground floor), Kingston University, Penrhyn Road Campus, KT1 2EE
Fear is a powerful but toxic motivator that leads to short-term and survival-based decision-making. A fearless workplace can offer the optimum conditions for productivity, problem-solving and wellbeing but what does that look like? This practical workshop will discuss how to identify a toxic working environment, and its impact on productivity and on employee wellbeing. It will also highlight the benefits of a fearless workplace and psychological safety, whilst also helping you recognise fear in yourself and others that you work with. Plus, you’ll have access to top tips to remain fearless and tap into empowering presentation skills to help you get there.
Networking Drinks
Date & time: Thurs 25 May 2023, 17:30 – 19:00
Venue: Picton Room, Main Building (ground floor), Kingston University, Penrhyn Road Campus, KT1 2EE
The bit you’ve all been waiting for! Join the Creative Industries Network team and cohort for networking drinks at Kingston University.
