Josiah Wedgwood has been announced as the keynote speaker at the first event staged by a group of creative businesses based in Stoke-on-Trent.
The world-famous father of the city’s ceramics industry will address the Createch Social, which takes place at the factory floor venue at the Spode works next month.
The free event is organised and promoted by the Createch cluster, a group of businesses based in the city who have come together to put Stoke-on-Trent on the map and provide insight and opportunity for young people who want to work in the creative sector.
Between them the businesses employ more than 100 people and bring more than £10m to the city’s economy, creating jobs and local supply chains.
The Createch cluster includes Carse and Waterman, i-creation, Inspired Film and Video, Lesniak Swann, Popcorn Learning and VCCP.
Alex Swann, of creative agency Lesniak Swann, said: “Stoke and North Staffordshire is home to some fantastic creative services businesses, freelancers and in-house marketers.
“The Createch Social provides an informal opportunity to meet up with like-minded people, chew the fat, have a drink and enjoy some specialist speakers who have no agenda beyond sharing their knowledge and experience.
“We’re independent of any government body or funding and plan to stay that way, so we’re free to set our own agenda in a way that best suits creative services folk.
“We’ll help creative services professionals to meet each other, where chatting with peers in an informal setting can help spark new ideas, and we’ll put on speakers from the local area and further afield who we think have something useful to share.”
Publicity for the event on social media certainly sets the scene. It states: “We promise to stop running events if we end up being a networking opportunity.
“They’re often awkward, forced affairs with rubbish food and no atmosphere. Bah! Or a chance for speakers or other attendees to sell. No one needs some try-hard pushing their latest bleeding edge Software as a Service solution. Pah.”
The event taking place at 6pm on October 5 is free. The bar is open and there’s free pizza! Find out more by clicking here.
