If that all sounds a bit meta, I promise you it’s super practical and packed with ideas.

Join me, Francesca Baker, for a workshop focused on how to market your workshops. Whether you’re running writing workshops, poetry sessions, an expressive arts series or something entirely new and cool, this workshop will help you reach audiences and sell tickets.

We will cover

• Finding your target audience
• Writing engaging copy
• Using social media
• Growing your personal brand
• Potential partnerships

My skillset and experience are varied – covering copywriting, journalism, marketing, research and PR – but always centred around communication and creating a connection. Ultimately, I work with stories – and creating the right messages to resonate with an audience.

I’ve been working in marketing for over twelve years, with a particular passion for the arts. Clients include The National Lottery, The National Trust, Margate Bookie, Lapidus International, Moving Pieces, Fairtrade, Tesco, Mitsubishi, Carers Trust, Lord Mayor’s Appeal, Takeda, Diabetes UK, The Times, BBC, Metro, Stylist, Australia Times and more.

You can find out more at www.andsoshethinks.co.uk and follow me on all social media @andsoshethinks

Thursday 21 January 5pm-6pm

Saturday 23 January – 11am-12pm

Friday 5 February – 10am-11am

Cost is on a sliding scale.

• I’ll pay what I feel, thank you very much
• I’m nailing it this year, I’ll pay full whack – £15
• I know this is worth a lot, so I’ll pay a bit – £10
• Can’t quite stretch, so here’s a fiver – £5
• I’m a creative, I’m skint, but I’ll leave a review – free

Get your ticket here – https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/a-workshop-on-marketing-your-workshop-for-creatives-tickets-132707773523

It doesn’t have to be this way. All communication should evoke some kind of reaction, be it educative, informative, entertainment or emotion. This can’t happen unless there’s a bit of passion behind the words. A bit of creativity. Some life. It can be so easy to stick to the same formulas and language, yet this not only doesn’t benefit the client in the long run, it makes your working life a little bit dull.

What can we learn from creative writing for business writing? I ran a workshop at Petit Miracles to share some exercises usually reserved for fiction and poetry with budding entrepreneurs, all with the aim of improving their business writing.

The most crucial element of any story is the character. Who they are, how they act, and what happens to them is how plot develops. People connect with other people. Novelists say you should know everything about your character, even the things that seem irrelevant to the story. It’s not enough to know that your target customers are women aged 20-40. Be specific. The Petit Miracles team know their customer’s names, when they last laughed, what book they are reading, what’s in their handbag.

How often do you receive some communications from a company, and find that it’s drowning in jargon and long sentences – only discovering the thing that you actually want to know right at the end of the letter or information? We tried distilling down what the business and brand was about to a haiku. With only 17 syllables to play with there’s no room to be vague. Making the pitch poetry was a fun way to play.

There are over 90,000 products in the largest supermarkets, and we’re exposed to over 800 ads per day. How can you stand out? The best brands know that the heart leads, not the head. Decisions are made emotionally rather than rationally. Rather than focusing on what the product is, the entrepreneurs at Petit Miracles thought about how they wanted the product to make their customer feel. It’s not about clothes, it’s about feeling powerful. People don’t buy soap, they buy relaxation and time.

By the end of the workshop not only had we laughed a lot, but all the participants said that they had a better idea of who their customer is and how they want to speak to them. Confidence in writing and marketing improved, and there was a real energy in the room, with everyone motivated to take their business to the next level and ready to tell their brand story.

Part of the nationwide Undivided platform, which seeks to help young people have their voices heard in a post referendum Europe. We were keen that the event wasn’t seen as either pro or anti Europe – just acknowledging that things are changing, and we have an opportunity to be involved in that. And a fun way to do so would be through art and creativity.

Those who attended really embraced the concept, speaking out to explore positive ways to improve their experience of Ashford and life. Everyone was encouraged to say and share what would make their town better, be that health, art, employment, environmental issues, accessibility, infrastructure, education – and all of these and more came up!

Chris Buckett from Kent Urban Sketchers sat down with a group to draw their ideal streets, an activity that showed just how important the idea of community space, green areas and lively streets are for people. Natasha Boardman-Steer, a self defined urban innovator, asked people where they wanted to explore in Europe and why, demonstrating a continued connection with the continent, helped people make badges to show what they are proud of about Ashford, and captured it all on video.

Postcards from the ideal Ashford of the future were a great way to imagine how the town could look, and cut up and black out poetry ideal ways to recycle words to make statements of positivity. Slogans on t-shirts have always been important for activism, and designer and bespoke dressmaker Caroline Bruce worked with us to upcycle old material and wear our message with pride, whilst also sparking conversations about sustainability and the environment.

The Boss(y) Girls Project ran a workshop on gender and relationships between men and women, which saw people of both sexes fired up about inequality, and Kent Refugee Action Network and Ashford BME Association were on hand to speak to attendees.

We were thrilled that MP Damian Green came along for a discussion about his role as MP for Ashford in all of this and what politicians can do for us. In an energetic conversation amongst young and old, right and left, those who grew up in Ashford and those who moved here, we discussed the importance of being part of your community, thinking critically about politics, taking part in discussions about issues facing you and your area, and being a doer and not just a complainer.

We hoped that people would leave feeling excited and empowered, regardless of political affiliation, creative confidence or experience, and that new friendships and partnerships would be formed as a result. As the evening closed and faces left as bright as the canvases and crafts across the room, there was definitely a sense of hope that in this community change could happen.

Day 13 – It’s Friday so it’s time for a group challenge – today we would like you to collectively write a story.

This one was done in person, via text, email, Facebook, across Kent, London and Newcastle, and with friends and family.

It was snowing outside, white and wispy like talcum powder. People were slipping on the ice – giving rise to sudden gasps of surprise as they slid in a direction they had not intended to. As the precariousness of their situation became apparent to them, they adopted a shuffling gait, arms outstretched waiting for the fall, as though they were penguins shuffling across the Antarctic Tundra. To an observer watching from his seat in the warm and safe cafe opposite, it appeared that they had become afraid of the ground itself. As if the very earth was in a temper and people dared not set it off. He checked his pocket watch; it would be doubly difficult to be both unstable and late. It was almost time for the cafe to close up, at which point he’d to be forced to go outside and join the trickles of people slipping and sliding across the pavement. He stood, the pain in his lower back making him jerk upwards robotically, while his eyes and fingers scanned and reached for winter’s armour – scarf, gloves, hat. Thank goodness he was flying home to Havana in the morning.

Bristol’s Creative Youth Network and their seasonal performance of Turkey is a production formed through collaborative workshops with young people participating in their schemes and arts initiatives, all based on true stories . Written by Alice Nicholas, directed by Nick Young and produced by Emily Bull, although very much created by the cast and their peers, this immersive and real life performance at The Station is both tender and gripping – just like the rest of the festive season.

‘T’was the night before Christmas’ begins our narrator Theo (Jake Bartlett), in his dazzling glitzy jacket – and as we hear from the characters it can be everything from borderline hell or most wonderful time of the year.’  Homelessness, poverty, loneliness, broken relationships and illness can all take their toll – and the feeling of being alone and failing is only exacerbated by what looks like the perfect Christmas that everyone else all around is having.  . Often through no fault of their own individuals find themselves unable to produce that perfect day, ‘just like everyone else.’ That’s what Abigail (Cirwen Farrant) wants for her and her unborn baby Biscuit, and she speaks tenderly to her child about the eternal hope of the new year and what it will bring. ‘I should be happy and full of Christmas cheer’ our characters feel – that should weighing them down.

Like most ‘perfect’ things in life, the depiction tends to be a somewhat filtered version of events. Whether it’s the Black Friday consumerist fight, one-upmanship pursuit, the hypocrisy of ‘pretending to believe in Jesus once a year then go back to being c*nts’, the demands of bratty children, finding out Father Christmas isn’t real, or  just the fact that domestic bliss skates on thin smiles that crack by something as simple as not buying ribbon. In the pursuit of the ideal Christmas the endless ‘rush, anxiety, panic and failure’ ring more loudly than any peace and goodwill.

Or so it seems. Because for everyone who walks straight past the homeless, there’s those like Hazel’s (Emily Gilbert) family who invite Alfie (Matt Fleming) and his ‘invisibility cloak’ in for dinner. Or Abigail and her sister Jas hand crafting presents. Or the mother supported through her breakdown.

And people like Creative Youth Network and the participants of Turkey. As well providing a brilliant evening’s entertainment and making the whole audience think, they invited us all to share a meal with them, all donated by FareShare and would have gone to landfill otherwise. Sharing, laughing, and feeling part of a community – that’s what Christmas is about, and that’s what Creative Youth dished up with their Turkey.

https://www.facebook.com/plugins/video.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fcreativeyouthnet%2Fvideos%2F1236804986384535%2F&show_text=0&width=560

The BUST Craftacular London summer session brought some of the best in the capital together to share their skills and wares at York Hall in Bethnal Green. Nearly seventy stalls filled the Bethnal Green venue, including wooden jewellery from Lucie Ellen, quirky postcards by Lucy Wilkins, lovely sewn bags by East London’s Olive Road, some organic haircare courtesy of Glasshouse and prints on offer from Su & Miah.

As well as all the opportunities to part with your cash for something beautiful, workshops throughout the day let participants try it out themselves. London Craft Club set up plant pots for individuals to paint, the colourful thumbs being a giveaway as to who had given it a go. The retro art of friendship bracelets was there with Mollie Makes and The New Craft House, and Live It. Love It. Make It. has brightened up homes (including my own!) with some paper cut wall hangings.

Tatty Devine is one of the success stories of the homegrown creative business. Started by best friends Harriet and Rosie in 1999 as a panicked reaction to a Vogue buyer asking Harriet to see her collection after spotting on her wrist the leather cuff she had made, it’s now a global jewellery range, specialising in bright and bold design. Using acrylic I was taken through the steps of making a bunting necklace, that will jazz up even the blandest of black work outfits.

Most of the designers and makers at BUST Craftacular sell and run workshops throughout the year. From the oooohs and smiles around the fair, it seems like new and old crafters alike will be sampling what’s on offer, and joining the cool crowd.

‘Just wanted to say thank you for offering the great experience yesterday, and it’s something that I would love to do again. I felt that the writing portions benefitted from the sense of presence gained by being outside and exploring, and the sense of motion allows for changing mindsets between exercises.’

‘I have left with some tools for coping with things in a creative way and a renewed enthusiasm to begin writing’

‘I felt comfortable in the setting – Francesca made me feel settled. I have ADHD so group settings are really hard for me.’

‘Would I recommend to friends? Yes, yes, yes, yes.’

‘I enjoyed the mix of writing, history and ‘wandering’ – three things I love so it was a very enjoyable way to spend a chunk of my Saturday.  I think the loop we walked, the stories and the exercises were all linked and organised well.  My only request is for a longer one next time!’