Discuss and Do Festival, Frome

First there were the brown bag lunches; free events organised by Frome Creative Network, offering anyone involved in the creative field or in business the opportunity to hear a variety of knowledgeable speakers.
Next we had the invaluable ‘Old School Start-ups’; a free business festival with drop in business clinics and talks on blogging, branding and a whole lot more in-between.
Then came Discuss and Do events, with talks including social media marketing, new technology for business and working with designers.

And now Frome has just hosted the first Discuss and Do Festival, promoted by Frome Chamber of Commerce; three days of events for businesses, creative businesses and artists.

A year ago I had never heard of social media, although I was using it without realising it as I have a Facebook page.
Then my website was built and I was advised to blog and tweet. I have had a lot to learn, and a long way to go still, as I do daily battle with social media.

Without these events I’m pretty certain I’d still be flailing about in the dark for answers to questions that come about through trying to promote a business online. In addition we have a ‘Jelly’ in Frome; a ‘casual co-working event, where freelancers, home workers and people running small businesses meet up in order to get out of their normal space’, which takes place once a month at The Old Church School, a fantastic workspace/workhub.

All these things are wonderful resources for those of us who otherwise work in isolation. They offer the opportunity to exchange ideas and experience, and certainly, in my case, to learn a lot about the tools and terminology that I need in order to understand the new (to me!) media.

I’ve attended just four of the fourteen events in the Discuss and Do festival this week and my head is buzzing with information as well as ideas.

Over at the Merlin Theatre, ‘Making it as an Entrepreneur’ was a workshop led by Gavin Eddy of Forward Space and The Old Church School, and Rachel Bridge, the former enterprise editor of The Sunday Times, who has written best selling books about entrepreneurs including, ‘How To Make A Million Before Lunch’.

She has also taken her one woman show of the same name to Edinburgh and from her infectious enthusiasm about her subject it was easy to see why it was a sell-out show.

The phrases that I took most encouragement from included, ”you don’t need a PR firm”, ”it’s easier than you think to get into the paper”, and the message that good timing and good execution are crucial.
Now I’m keen to put into practice some of the things I learned at the workshop rather than waiting for a lightbulb moment or any further attempts at the ‘perfect’ press release.
Rachel’s dynamism leaves you with a feeling of ‘Carpe Diem’.

FromFrome at the Cheese and Grain was an exhibition of many of the Frome based businesses and the variety of stalls included everything from the Chamber of Commerce to the sublime Tea ‘n’ Cake; undoubtedly the prettiest display on show, and a charming new business to boot. I had met its owner, Tamsin Westbrook, the previous day at the workshop.
As well as a vintage crockery hire service, Tamsin organises bespoke tea parties “for 6 to 160′, complete with invitations and vintage music.  I think it’s a delightful alternative for a hen party, with the wedding vogue for all things vintage.

‘Getting to the top of Google’ sounded like an intriguing title for a seminar, and as we gathered before the talk, it was clear that the speaker was going to make it entertaining as well as interesting.

Jon Payne of ‘Noisy Little Monkey’, gave a high speed run-down of surely everything you need to know to be on the first page of a search. An explanation of how this works from the moment you type in the keywords was astonishing in its speed and selectiveness. Almost more astonishing is how most of us now take it for granted. I’m constantly astounded by the potential of social media.

These are just two of the pages of notes I made; there are two more pages of writing as well as the drawings, which maybe gives an idea of how fast this man can deliver information!

There was time at the end for questions, and I had to ask something that’s been on my mind for ages….
What if no-one’s looking for you?
As far as I know, there’s no-one recording weddings and events in this sketchbook style; every time people see what I’m doing, they say, ”I’ve never seen/heard of that before…”
So how might potential clients come across my work?

Jon had some useful suggestions, including the use of video, saying that video gets more shares than a picture. It’s something I’ve never even contemplated before. Luckily, Jade and Ed Thomas of Frome TV were also at the talk, and Jon suggested we combine forces to make a very short film of a drawing being made.

And just like that, the aim of Discuss and Do was put into action.
This morning I went to the Archangel where Modwenna Rees-Mogg was talking about Raising Business Finance; the camera was set up, and I did a drawing.

It will be exciting to see how the video looks and to have a whole new means of communication to try out.
And it’s great that after all the discussing, we’re really getting round to some doing.

sgodsill