Wednesday 11 February 2009

Our First Creative Conversation

Last year we at PANDA piloted a series of 'brunches' aimed at more established performing arts practitioners in the North West and giving them the opportunity to get together, share views and experiences on various topics and be inspired by our range of illuminating guests. This worked so well that we have now launched Creative Conversations which have an open application process.

Our first Creative Conversation was on
3rd February, featuring guest Marcus Romer, Artistic Director of Pilot Theatre who came to join the conversation about blogs, podcasts and wikis (seductively titled 'weapons of mass collaboration'). This was most appropriate for me, as anyone who knows me will know I am a very reluctant social networker, preferring to do my communication face-to-face. However, I have been toying with the idea of joining the blogging brigade because (again, as anyone who knows me will verify) I do quite enjoy giving vent to any performing arts related topics that spur me to get my soapbox out. Blogs seem to me like a 21st Century soapbox, and as my bolser wood crate has certainly seen better days in the last century, here I am. And what makes it even better is that you can join in too. I can't wait to start getting comments from you lovely readers - Creative Conversations go 'virtual'.

So you can see why self-confessed enthusiastic amateur Marcus Romer was the perfect guest for February's Creative Conversation. With that much knowledge and enthusiasm for all things social media, how could I help
but be inspired. We skyped, we blogged, we twittered, we wiki'd, we created websites at the touch of a buttton, we even toured Pilot Theatre's Second Life venue; all from the comfort of the greenroom bar! Perhaps the great coffee also played it's part in creating a vibrant couple of hours of conversation, sharings of ideas and some fantastic new ways of thinking (especially from Ben Mellor who provided a case study with his show Voices of Dissent which he created and powered by bicycle!). Whatever the reason, everyone was so fired up that people didn't have time to finish off the immensely tasty croissants and Danish pastries that we'd laid on. Never mind, Rachel and I can always give any left-overs a good home back at PANDA HQ!

1 comment:

  1. This sounded like a lot of fun Liz.When i went on Second life (not for love..honest!) i went into a recreation of Shakespeare's Globe Theatre,it was quite bizarre.

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