The speakers in our first evening event are all building exceptional communities aimed at creative audiences. Chris Do (The Futur), Wes O’Haire (Blacks Who Design), Perrin Drum (AIGA) and Milan Moffat (SuperHi) will talk you through what it takes to build a following of like-minded people and evolve it into regular social interactions.
There’ll be Glug Birmingham vibes as Mama Roux’s plays host to proceedings, with Digbeth Dining Club next door delivering the very best street food the city has to offer.
Building Diverse Design Communities – Wes O'Haire
We all know there’s a diversity problem, but how can we use design to help? How can we iterate on solutions? How can we recruit help?
In this talk, we’ll explore how Blacks Who Design got started and cover the practical takeaways that you can use to promote diversity within your community.
Building Influence Online – Chris Do
Every company has customers. Few companies have an audience. An audience gladly shows up and gives you their attention, whereas you have to pay customers to pay attention. The Futur has grown from thousands of subscribers to 500k in the span of a few years. Our audience is highly engaged and active online. How did we do it? Why did we do it? What are the benefits of growing an audience to build influence? Some honest talk, insights, and things you can do to grow your influence.
IRL to URL – building an online-first creative community – Milan Moffatt
How do you help and support thousands of students in 80 countries and 15 timezones that you’ve never met learn online? What are the challenges of teaching online, when all you see are usernames and avatars? What are the benefits of online-only communities and how can we design them to be diverse, inclusive and welcoming?
SuperHi is an online school and community that helps creative people learn new skills, make cool shit and grow in their careers. In this talk, I’ll discuss why it’s important to rethink the ways we communicate and learn online, the challenges of working remotely and how we grew our community from the ground up.
Community Isn’t Always Nice – Perrin Drumm
We may need one another now more than ever, but that doesn’t mean we’re going to get along—and that’s a good thing.
