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Creative Welly 2020 Review | Lessons From Nearly 18 Hours Of Conversations

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:

1. Jessica Manins, Co-Founder & CEO, Beyond & Sarb Johal, Clinical Psychologist and Youtube Creator
2. Olie Body, Social Entrepreneur & Executive Menstruator & Ged Finch, X-frame
3. Raqi Syed, Digital Artist & Gabe Davidson, Cocoa Bean Hunter
4. Sandy Gildea, Executive Director, Screen Producers NZ & Jase Te Patu, Founder of M3 Mindfulness for children, Co-owner Awhi Yoga and Wellbeing
5. Hīria Te Rangi, Kaiwhakahaere o Whare Hauora & Guled Mire, Community Advocate & Co-founder, Third Culture Minds
6. Haritina Mogoșanu, Astrobiologist and Space Science Communicator & Gareth Parry, Creating spaces for people to work together, Partner at PwC New Zealand
7. Pia Steiner, Senior Advisor Organisational Development at Ministry of Justice & Thomas van Raamsdonk, Irritator and Inspirer. Building performance geek. GM for Pro Clima in Australia & New Zealand
8. Lindy Nelson, Founded AWDTNZ and AmplyfyingUs: a Podcast in service to the mission & Clive Spink, Chief Executive Pūkeko Pictures
9. Janelle (Jay) Fenwick, Founder – Teulo CPD Education Platform & Tom Probert, Head of Marketing and Innovation – Powershop
10. Bron Thomson, Founder and CEO, Springload & Paul Atkins, Chief Executive, ZEALANDIA
11. Elizabeth McNaughton – Cofounder and Director of Hummingly & Rohan Wakefield – CEO & Cofounder at Enspiral Dev Academy

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.

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Get Away From It All | Whilst Staying At Home

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:

  1. Randomly port yourself to places in the world via MapCrunch:

2. Fly a balloon and feel the stress float away:

3. Gaze through a random window in the world:

4. Take long stroll in other cities:

5. Drift off with these 9 delightful soundscapes:

And remember:

30 March 1973

Dear Mr. Nadeau:

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.

Sincerely,
E. B. White

Source
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#24 December 2020 | Monthly Digital Breadcrumbs

Stop. Stay awhile. Linger. Browse. Explore.

READ

If you own a Mac and updated to the new operating then ‘Your Computer Isn‘t Yours‘, so sad.

Activists are now turning Facial Recognition tools against the police, the trackers become tracked.

French bulldog elected mayor in Kentucky hamlet.

WATCH

EXPLORE

Handz, A 3D illustration library available for free (or pay what you want).

Tiles, a great little free window manager / app for MacOS.

Buy ‘Eau de Bookstore‘ which is a fragrance from one of my fav book stores.

Make WordArt like in the old days with this emulator.

An online tool just to loop over and over a YouTube video.

All monthly digital breadcrumbs posts.
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#23 November 2020 | Monthly Digital Breadcrumbs

A barrage of stuff to wade through and be delighted / surprised / challenged by.

READ

The moment Wales went into national two-week ‘firebreak’ Covid lockdown.

Brexit Is Looming | The Emergence Of The New United Celtic Nation.

Why Peru opened Machu Picchu ruins for one tourist.

WATCH

EXPLORE

This thread of me handing out the TEDxWellington Call for Speakers / Performers cards.

The Rasterbator: enlarge images to multiple pages so you can print and combine them into huge posters.

If you need to chill and with 8 hours of sounds / views from sleeping in a tent when it rains outside.

Top video: Learning and Work Institute’s Annual Raymond Williams Memorial Lecture was presented by the Actor and Campaigner, Michael Sheen. The event was organised in partnership with The Open University in Wales and took place on the 16th November, 2017 (LINK). Full (pdf) transcript here.
All monthly digital breadcrumbs posts.
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Brexit Is Looming | The Emergence Of The New United Celtic Nation

ADDENDUM 12.4.21: Should’ve called it a United Celtic Kingdom (not nation)!

Imagine Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland leaving the UK in a decade, rejoining the EU and becoming a new country: United Celtic Nation.

Today the Prime Minister of the UK said this (btw, Australian-style is code for ‘hard brexit / deal’:

Every crisis is an opportunity in disguise hence the tweet thread I tweetmailed out above.

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TEDxWellington 2021 Call For Speakers & Performers Announced | Going Big

Boldly planning a mammoth capital experience.

For the past seven years or so I’ve been dedicating my pro-bono time to the TEDxWellington endeavour and last night we announced our public call for speakers and performers.

This is a not-for-profit venture for the wider community organisers by a wonderful bunch of humans volunteering their precious time to enable local stories go global.

The next event will be the biggest of its kind with 2,000 delegates at the award-winning Michael Fowler Centre, held on 8th May 2021.

What a time to be considering such a grand thing, however, with the ‘team of 5 million’ again pulling together to eliminate community transmission of COVID-19 from our shores, we’re leaning into the hope this will sustain through to next year and beyond.

So if you know anyone in or associated with the Wellington-region who has an idea worth spreading, here’s their chance to get considered for the TEDxWellington 2021 stage:

APPLY HERE
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Creative Welly Episodes Catch-up | Maturing The Format

The passion project progresses.

Above is the latest episode of the little side creative endeavour launched a few months ago in response to the lockdown anxiety we all felt (and many are still feeling around the globe):

Revealed only in retrospect these past couple of years, is a thematic thread through my past projects / experiences of ‘giving people voice’ (which has become my spoken purpose plus evidenced in both my producing and coaching roles).

Creative Welly is a mash-up-manifestation of this and my hunger for curating good people…

After six episodes, I’m reflecting on how important intentional space is, what the mix of curious humans and intersecting disciplines ignites plus how listening is the fastest route in connecting to another person.

Am still trying to get the balance right of tangent following plus the drawing of the connections between those guests invited to participate. Sometimes it just flows, softly and eagerly, other times it requires a more focused attempt…

…then again, that’s the same with every day conversation with folks we all interact with.

Onwards!

Oh and Episode 5 was released a few weeks ago and is equally worth your time also:

All episodes are shot and edited by the wonderfully talented Jono Tucker, Empire Films. An extremely diligent and personable soul who has added a polish to the resulting video which I never could’ve achieved, thank you Jono.

Hosted at Xequals, a centrally based web development agency who provide us with a kick-ass office which totally gets kitted out for the shoot. Thank you Alex Matthews for being so gracious with your space.

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#22 October 2020 | Monthly Digital Breadcrumbs

Bounce your way through the following assortment of delightful gathered things.

READ

My fatherland is struggling as several more Welsh counties to go into coronavirus lockdown.

Ireland may have the answer when it comes to Facebook and data sovereignty.

Who knew how much tourism power Wikipedia has.

Suing the patent office on behalf of AI.

Why I’m taking a break from Creative Leadership NZ this year.

Cocooning in technology for the privileged.

WATCH

EXPLORE

Here’s a directory of free graphic design resources that you can use for personal or commercial use.

Here is the bible of remote work tools.

A Random Two-Word Phrase Generator for inspiring weird and wonderful ideas / thoughts / names.

Transform any hands-drawn design into a HTML code.

Image credit – Eleri Morgan.
All monthly digital breadcrumbs posts.
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RemoteTogetherNZ – Register Now | New Curator Role

UPDATE:

A new festival exploring the elements of remote and flexible working, 2-13 November 2020 in Queenstown – let’s be remote together!

REGISTER NOW – ONLY $175 FOR EARLY BIRD OPTIONS

In June my friend Trent Yeo calls me with an audacious idea to go some way in addressing the tourism deficit of Queenstown. His pitch was simple: in March 2020 this year, if you had a job you suddenly became part of a global tribe called ‘remote and flexible workers’, lets build out a learning experience around this, attract different humans to the area to explore working from here in the future.

So after some early scoping, tweaks and iterations plus LOTS of conversations, RemoteTogetherNZ was born:

Join us for RemoteTogetherNZ, a festival of professional development, networking opportunities, and wellbeing activities which explore the themes of flexible and remote working in one of the most beautiful places in the world.

The remote world is here to stay and New Zealand has a great opportunity to be a global leader. We are in a privileged position to be able to reflect back on lockdown and despite the challenges it brought, it also revealed humanity, kindness and focus on what was important. If Aotearoa is to lead the world as a global citizen and a regionally progressive nation, then what are we doing with the largest single effort humans spend their waking hours doing – work?

We’re trying to do something which can’t and / or shouldn’t be possible: pull together a world-class, vibrant and compelling, two-week festival, in about 3 months, with over forty different learning opportunities exploring the following themes:

We’ve secured some pots of money from Queenstown Lakes District Council plus Tourism NZ to kick this off and registrations are now open as the programme continues to develop along with the speaker line-up:

REGISTER NOW – ONLY $175 FOR EARLY BIRD OPTIONS

Have been working my fingers off curating the current offer and it’s been a wonderful journey of collaboration with such open and good humans:

Trent – the visionary, energetic catalyst for the whole endeavour.

Scott – on-the-ground logistics ace making sure what we plan is doable,

Jess – leading on MarComms and the weaver of complex narratives.

Cuillin – utility superstar, covering off so many other things the rest don’t have time to do.

So if you’re interested in these topics, work in an organisation or business which is still exploring how to react accordingly to this new epoch, someone in charge of redoing policies and strategies, a leader still getting to grips with this different approach to leading etc., register now and snap up the ‘cheap-as-chips-early-bird’ options!

This is going to be fun…

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