The August Creative Conversation marked the official handover of faciliating duties from Acting PANDA Manager, Julia Turpin, to new PANDA Director, Anne-Marie Crowther. From September onwards, Anne-Marie will be running the sessions, though I hope we will also be seeing more of Julia as a participant. On behalf of the Creative Conversations group, I'd like to thank Julia for all her great work on the events series over the last year, not just facilitating but also booking some fantastic speakers for us.
Julia and Anne-Marie haven't sorted out their blogging accounts yet so until then I'll just post their follow ups from the August Creative Conversation here...
Cheerio,
Rachel
Julia says...
Sadly Tuesday's Creative Conversation with Emma Stenning was my last as facilitator for PANDA. I have really enjoyed being part of the Conversations and Emma's session was no exception. Emma's flexible approach to business planning and strategic thinking was really refreshing. I was also reminded of how important it is to be fully aware of the bigger financial picture in running a company, organisation or project and identifying clearly where you want subsidy to go.
If you haven't been to a Creative Conversation before - I really recommend signing up now. They are a really productive way to spend a couple of hours on a Tuesday!
Anne-Marie says...
I really enjoyed my first Creative Conversations on Tuesday. Emma was an engaging guest speaker and gave an interesting insight into the different perspectives gained from festival and venue based producing.
‘To plan or not to plan’ is a question raised in many a current debate and it was good to get Emma’s views on this. It was refreshing to hear someone actually standing firm and arguing that the traditional models of business planning often divert effort and energy away from the flexibility, responsiveness and creative thinking that is so vital – especially in the current economic environment. However, that is not to say we should throw all planning out of the window. Some of the processes involved – for example, discussing and agreeing upon a common vision, is highly valuable in itself.
I look forward to many more stimulating Creative Conversations and hope you will all feedback your own responses, thoughts and reflections together with any suggestions for future themes or speakers!
See you all again soon.
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