A conversation on growing robust businesses in the creative sector.
Had the esteemed honour to host the above panel for the good people at SPADA. It’s always a joy connecting with humans doing wonderful things and from a very selfish reason was very much needed that afternoon.
So if you’re interested what a few producers here in Aotearoa are up to press play and have a watch / listen.
As a creative producer, I craft delicious learning experiences…
…this cute line is my attempt to describe the intended impact beyond the generic title, and last week I truly got to manifest this goal.
Teulo has been a fantastic client: inviting me to MC their twice monthly global online talks (which garner on average about 350 souls), record and edit down their podcast series, as well as produce the above.
The brief was to develop an ‘in-studio’ recorded interview experience with a a specific topic-expert which would become the fifth module of a five part in-depth online series for architects and designers.
The process of developing the idea from brief to concept and then to product is a wonderful journey—with my propensity for details (have been told by more than a few how ‘particular’ I am), it amplifies the potential of achieving an output of the highest quality.
“Love how DK can hear my creative ideas and vision, then bring them to life. I have huge trust and respect for DK and really enjoy working with him, as he completely understands what I want to achieve with Teulo. Thank you!”
It all starts with client who trusts, then collaborators who embellish your plans with their own mastery (thanks FlashDog Studios and Mike Potton), on top of trusting in ones own ability to convert a shared vision into actuality knowing that iteration and deviation are oftentimes positives.
Am now hungry for more experiences and opportunities like this…
Tickets go on sale Thursday 4th March 2021 at noon.
As announced back in October, TEDxWellington 2021 will happen on 8th May 2021 and will be the biggest of its kind in the capital with 2,000 delegates at the Michael Fowler Centre.
This will be the 7th TEDx I’ve produced plus held the license for and hopefully will match all previous ones in selling out. As it’s reserved seating it will be first-come-first-served on getting the best spots in the house so knowing when the tickets are available is very important.
As the world continues to hobble forward through it’s pandemic / environmental / corrupt leadership crisis, please do take the time to watch the incredible video essay above on what I’ve always held dear: humans are innately good.
LESSONS
Be fiercely kind because…
There are decades where nothing happens; and there are weeks where decades happen.” ― Vladimir Ilyich Lenin
2021
Will be focused on the following:
Online production: have 20+ events already booked to MC plus producing podcasts for a couple of clients as well so building out the home studio to up the production values in these areas
Masterclasses, coaching and speaking: continuing to deliver in-person internal sessions on ‘purposeful storytelling’ whilst taking on 1-2-1 speaker coaching clients and also be open to speak on stage a few times as well (truly miss this)
Online course: putting together a virtual offering with the hope to launch mid 2021
TEDxWellington: my pro bono to bring the largest ever TEDx to the nations capital (going to be a 2,000 person live event) and shine a light on the incredible talent we have in the region then amplify them through the TED platform
Spent some time sprucing this website up a little using the new Twenty Twenty-One WordPress theme to really minimilise the design and visual clutter. Am still working out a few extra tweaks although on the whole nearly there and so much slicker.
So here’s a 2021 which elates, brings joy and softer changes.
After 11 episodes with 22 impressive humans covering nearly 18 hours of conversations, has it been worth it?
The calibre of guests and their subsequent discussions has been impressive (see below). It’s been such a joy to bring together interesting souls who don’t know each other to explore connections and insights. It certainly celebrating the talent we have in the capital and have learned so much from the discussions.
As an a side, very aware of the positive relationships formed as well as the community being built up through the alums.
Creative Welly is an advertising / sponsor free project and the biggest cost is the time for all involved. It takes a whole day to set up then record two episodes. Then there’s the video editing, reviewing, blog post creation, audio production, uploading all content, distribution etc. I pay for the Vimeo Plus account and a few episodes in switched from the paid audio podcast hosting of Libsyn to the free Anchor platform.
In terms of how many views and / or listens, don’t know. Haven’t looked. This is the deficit in the plan as don’t have the time to promote and upload across multiple platforms, although, to be very honest, this is both not the reason to start this (but totally appreciate for many this is the validating factor).
From a production perspective, there is nothing like this out there. It’s exhilarating to see the result of my vision to craft something unique in the long-form video podcast format space come to fruition.
That being said, the focus next year will be:
hone the format: amplify the ‘courageous’ bit of the conversations;
promotional collateral: before posting live and during review create some shorter form content for cross-platform promotion (Linkedin / Twitter / blog content etc.);
2021 list: continue to curate and focus on revealing the wonderful talent the city (and those passing through) has to offer.
So if you’re not subscribed here’s a quick run down on who you’re missing out on:
A cacophony of thanks, not only to the guests for sharing their generous times, stories and insights, but also deep appreciation to Alex at Xequals for hosting us, plus Jono from Empire Films for producing the superb and unique final videos.
If you’re a viewer / listener please feel free to drop me a line or comment below with any ideas / suggestions for improvement I’m missing out on here, and please subscribe via Creative Welly if you haven’t already.
The world is a bit bonkers and challenging at the moment so here are some things to give your creative attention to (apart from that toxic news cycle).
Consider this an adventure in hope-scrolling:
Randomly port yourself to places in the world via MapCrunch:
As long as there is one upright man, as long as there is one compassionate woman, the contagion may spread and the scene is not desolate. Hope is the thing that is left to us, in a bad time. I shall get up Sunday morning and wind the clock, as a contribution to order and steadfastness.
Sailors have an expression about the weather: they say, the weather is a great bluffer. I guess the same is true of our human society — things can look dark, then a break shows in the clouds, and all is changed, sometimes rather suddenly. It is quite obvious that the human race has made a queer mess of life on this planet. But as a people we probably harbor seeds of goodness that have lain for a long time waiting to sprout when the conditions are right. Man’s curiosity, his relentlessness, his inventiveness, his ingenuity have led him into deep trouble. We can only hope that these same traits will enable him to claw his way out.
Hang on to your hat. Hang on to your hope. And wind the clock, for tomorrow is another day.
