'Any Which Way'.

Through talking to my friends friend who puts on a monthly live drawing event in huddersfield I am going to get more deffinate answers to each task and more detail in how people already run them and how I can make mine as good as and better!

The drawing event in Huddersfield called 'Any Which Way', is run by a couple of guys who produce their own magazine as well, called 'Dirt Cheap', who post flyers about, inviting young designers to come and work on the boards at the cafe.

The night doesn't have a website, just a face-book page, which as I said before, my event having a website could be a unique selling point.

This is one of the latest flyer for it:

and here is a flyer from one I went to last year along with some photos of a couple of the nights I went to....

 'Any Which Way' is held at Cafe Revolution in Huddersfield. Growing ever more popular, as everyone worked it got hotter and hotter and more and more packed. I even found coloring tiring!

TASK 4. 'Who else is out there - How good are they?'

Research into two live drawing events, Street Wars and The Doodle Bar. An evaluation of my competitors and then also a SWOT analysis of their businesses and then from that some opportunities that I have uncovered from my analysis.

SECRET WARS.

http://www.secretwars.co.uk/

THE DOODLE BAR.

http://www.thedoodlebar.com/

Strengths and Weaknesses.

STREET WARS.

THE DOODLE BAR.

OPPORTUNITIES.

From doing a SWOT analysis on both chosen events I can now pick out and see that there are a number of things that I want my business to be and that it should be. The main thing is that it's different to others in some way, this brings people together and means that my business will entice people to go to it as it's something new to experience. I also have to make sure that I can get as many agencies and creative collectives/networkers to the event as with them comes promised opportunities for the young creatives at my event, which is what it's really all about.

SWOT enabled me to develop an understanding of what these other businesses do well and to take this and apply it to my own and then from their weaknesses I will make sure mine have them sorted. The main thing it helped me do was get ideas for how to come across unique selling points for my events, such as having a transportable event and exhibition space.

Without the SWOT analysis I would not have been able to assess the businesses of my competitors well. Doing this has put me ahead and I am now aware of what's going on around me in the same kind of event as mine. This is important and I will intend to carry these analysis's out time and time again to keep up with the market.

TASK 3. 'How will I promote myself - what do they want to hear?'

After looking at the marketing and communication mix, I've gathered lots of information about how to find my audience. There are lots of live drawing events already going on within the UK and I need to make sure that I get the right people looking at my promotional material in order to get lots of people to the event.

From looking at the M-mix, I've decided that the most successful way for me to get people to my event is through word of mouth, so using Personal Selling. I know that from all the events I go to, I hear about them through word of mouth and then look into them further, so I think it's key that I take the time to talk to people and give them the chance to ask questions about why they should attend the event and what they will get out of it.

Personality for me seems key, if they get to know who I am they will then have an understanding of what the atmosphere of the monthly event night will be. You can get so much more from actually talking to a person and put them at ease and also be encouraging much more easily. Also when talking face to face with someone or on the phone, if you say you'll attend something, some people feel a sort of obligation and so I guess Im trying to say that you can guilt trip some people into attending. This will be my main process in getting young creatives to attend, in business it has a high success rate and builds close relationships with people they may come to the event monthly. However marketing my event in this way could be time consuming and also cost money if I were to travel to cities surrounding Leeds to draw more of a crowd.

For putting on an event and getting a wide range of creatives attending, I believe that Public Relations is a good way to advertise my event. Such as advertising my event in the paper, or possibly trying to gain corporate sponsorship from companies. Once my event has been up and running for about a year I could put the event on as a charity event one month and this in turn would be good advertising for the event but also very credible and would be something the public would want their money to go to. Doing this sort of thing also builds trust with my young creatives that want to come every month. All these reasons seem really good and that they will work well, however through using Public Relations I also have to think about how time consuming it is, travel costs and also taking into account that BAD publicity does arise as well.

From looking at already running live drawing events, it seems the done thing to use Direct Marketing. I think this is one of the most common ways of drawing a crowd. Using Mailers and personal invitations are the best way in being selective but It also builds trust with the person/people receiving the invitation as they know that I have directly thought about them and how this could benefit them personally, which in turn is persuasive in coming to the event.

Although personal invites are costly per head, this is also a cost effective way as you are selecting agencies and creatives that you send personal invites to. This builds relationships but also more importantly makes sure you are hitting your target market, and thus possibly getting a higher attendance than if you were to waste invitations sending them to random companies and young people. Sending out these invitations can also make it easier for me to measure the success of my event, but direct marketing is known as being very highly effective.

The use of these personal invitations is also good in building a strong relationship with these design agencies and young creatives in getting them attending time and time again. Although, direct selling could take me to other cities an possibly other countries in the distant future and I then have to take into account the cost of travel.

Another very important way of promoting my event, is through the Internet. Particulary for an event, you already see lots of people using certain internet sites to put forawrd their own events. As a student I already use many networking sites which are perfect for advertising and getting people engaged in what's going on around them. Especially as what I'm putting on is creative it's important that however they receive the promotion of the event is visual and using the internet means that it's also interactive as well. As well as these positives, there is also the fact that using the internet to market my event is quick and so very time/cost effective.

I know that Twitter is one of the most up to date, cutting edge online sites at the moment and so I plan to use this as one of the main sites that I use to market my event, as well as Facebook events pages. In the future I would like to put up the event own website, however until it has a reputation and good attendance I don't think it's worth it as it very expensive to get someone to put together and if the site is badly designed this could reflect badly on my event. A website also needs constant updating. I had though about advertising but I think this reflects well in the other ways of marketing and I can advertise through the internet and through posters and things round college.

In terms of Place and getting my event to surface, I will be hoping to eventually have my event on a bus with exhibition space and room for the live drawing event plus music. For now I will be dropping into all sorts of well known 'creative hubs' around Leeds and asking for permission to put on a drawing event there.

My place will therefore rely heavily on my advertising, using the internet, personal selling. It's important that people talk about my event in order to get people coming back every month and also bringing along new people, so I think to start with it's important to start really well with lots of different marketing strategies. I plan to drop posters, business cards and merchandise with the event details on it and put them in different creative places. Ultimately going to a college of art and design, this is where most of my audience lye. But I have planned to go into creative hubs, where events are already held or have some sort of creative context to then promote my event. Places such as The Art Market or Nation Of Shopkeepers.

TASK 2. 'Where are they - How will they find me?'

- From looking into 'working in the creative industries in the UK' on the internet it is clear to see that there are many things that will affect putting on a creative event or trying to do anything creative. Firstly there is the recession, but also on a positive note the EU is currently the largest economy in the world, which means that it gives me a good chance of finding these young creatives.

Directly looking at the subject of Politics, I looked into policies and found an interesting article about 'arts' funding being significally safer under Tories', it makes me feel unsure about the funding of the arts under any political party if they ever come into power. They talk about how their manifesto sees the arts getting a lot of funding which is good but if it went the other way this then effects funding for projects and grants for exhibition space or places to put on events. I think this is just something to be aware of that could go either way in any political party, and needs to be taken into account for putting on this event or even anything I plan to to creatively in the future. It just so happens that it was this article on Tori policies that I came across.

Below is a link to the article.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2010/feb/22/arts-funding-safer-with-tories-manifesto

I'm going to make sure that I work around other events that are already happening and are constantly aware of what they're doing not only to be competitive but also due to the fact that I don't want to piss anyone off or take away from any already standing live drawing events.

If I were to take this drawing event further and put it forward within the EU, I would need to make sure I researched each individual country properly. This could be reseraching into

anything from cultural differences or political preferences.

- From an economic point of view, I think it's clear to see what has happened over the last view years and from this there becomes an automatic pesimistic feeling towards trying to do anything. For my event the recession plays a huge part.

But there seems to be a positive outlook for the event being put on as well. The recession has caused businesses to go under and freelance illustrators to be in the lurk, but for me and my event this means creatives are still excited about showing and promoting themselves and their work and agencies are excited to then see work and get people on board with them.

I had a quick look on google for the economy of the Uk and wound up here - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_the_United_Kingdom

Finding this -

From this we can see that it's gone down then up then down again but in 2008 hitting an all time low and this all time low has led to all the unemployment now about.

- As I've already talked about, the reccession has/is having a major impact on all fields of work, and sustainability is one of the most talked of subjects, especially within the art world I feel. Within society an example of how this recession has come into play is through government legislations being put forward that then put a business at risk. One is the smoking ban within pubs and bars, which is also something that could in effect put my event at risk as these are the kinds of places I want to put on this kind of event. However looking at the number of people that do attend this kind of event, creates enthusiasm and added promise for the economy because people going to these things is a measure of creative industries expanding.

So for me this means, within my work ethic I want to promote the use of eco-friendly materials used within my event where possible. I will therefore invest in recycled papers/boards and also environmentely friendly inks/pens.

- As far technology goes, I am lucky to have a target audience that work on the most popular type, which is of course the internet. For older people it will be through agencies and the yellow pages. Through the internet I will be able to promote my event really well also, through facebook events, twitter and other global sites.

In terms of at my actual event, I plan to use interactive whiteboards, as well as drawing a much bigger crowd to the event as these are possibly one of the newest bits of technology in the art world, but also using projectors.

I also plan to film the events and put them on to youtube, this not only records the events and gives a clear indication of whats available to new comers, but also gives my event more publicity!

Doing a PEST analysis was key in my understanding of what's going on in my customers' world ---> their country, industry or sport.

Technology/communication with my audience is key, - what technology might be coming next? Could it give me a competitive rate?

Looking at how other live-drawing events get people together and how they put it on gives me insight into gaining possibilities for my event and then getting/gaining the full potential of the business.

Segmentation.

I looked into defining my customers/attending creatives through this method. I tried to make the table bigger but it wouldn't work! Zoom Zoom Zoom...

The factors within this that I think I needed to think about hardest were the Geographic and Behaviour based factors. Especially as I think that my main audience for this event will be students.

Geographics:

- Students/people traveling from towns will be getting trains or buses. Within walking distance would be good for my event.

- Customers are in the Colleges and Universities in Leeds and neighbouring cities.

- Find these students in bars and clubs/pubs, 'creative hubs' of Leeds - The Nation of Shopkeepers.

Behaviour: 'Getting your head out of your specialism'.

- Knowing that most of my customers will be students. Appropriate media usage:

- Posters, flyers (around the city and around college).

- Internet, Facebook groups, college email.

- TRAVEL they use: foot and bus - advertising it through that somehow.

- Free gifts, free cakes or badges.

- Benefits that my customers will expect, especially if they already attend a monthly drawing event, would be exhibiting their work while they get involved with what's going on, using eco-friendly materials, using some of the latest technology such as interactive whiteboards and getting publicised through the photographers there.

I also had a quick look into the UK National Statistics website for market re-search, seeing what was popular within putting on live art nights although I didn't find much on my topic.

TASK 1. 'Who am I - Who are they?'

'A monthly live art show/event, inviting young creatives/designers to work with an audience, exhibit work, with live music and photographers'.

Too lightly touch on it...

...explaining further...

...Whilst living as a student, I plan to put n this monthly event, and it will not be my primary outcome. This will just benefit creatives and agencies and I want to eventually make money off it to then re-invest into the event.

The general thesis of the event is...

It's a relaxed environment to meet other designers and work with them, creating artwork on boards to live music, whether you draw, paint, cut n paste, doodle, scribble, sculpt, write...whatever.

The basic idea will be getting creative on the wall/boards in any way the designers see fit.

- Although I am putting this on to give young creatives a good opportunity to network and get recognised, (as these will be up coming creatives), I want to invite small to medium businesses/agencies for them to possibly recruit some of the young creatives.

- I will be running the event through 'Cost Plus' based pricing. This will pay for all materials I will use and need, such as pens, paint, boards, and a space to put on the event. Any money I make from the event will be put straight back into the business.

- Place is something that I think will develop in time and as the event grows more and more successful. The first 6-12 months is going to be about building a reputation for the event and then to progress into outer cities, possibly then to the UK. Examples of live drawings events that have done this are STREET WARS - !too come!

...and DOODLE BAR - http://www.thedoodlebar.com/

- Promotion in the un-literal sense is also very important in bringing in a diverse range of creatives, and so I want to use recycled stock/ethical-ecofriendly materials, this is attractive to possible new-comers to the event.

Another way of gaining this top promotion is through illustrators around Leeds and also through creative hubs in Leeds as places to promote or possibly put on my event. Thinking about this I have thought of Nation Of Shopkeepers, which is renown for it's creative happenings. Also theartmarket.

The four P's has helped me in evaluating what and how I aim to put on a drawing event. My professional and creative aims are, getting young creatives and designers involved in a monthly art event and giving them the chance of being noticed/networking with other creatives?

For example... If anyone at the event needs photographers, they can can talk and ask people for jobs and the same with anybody at the event that would need any illustrations jobs doing.

Features. Benifits.

- Free entry. ---> ---> - More attractive to students.

- Young Creatives. ---> ---> - Reliable quality of work.

- Hosted in a bar/club ---> ---> - Drinks are already available, saves on my costs.

- Exhibiting work ---> ---> - Creatives have the chance of employment opportunities.

Business and Enterprise.

I hope that this module will teach me or give me some sort of practice in what and how I will possibly work when I leave University.

Through classes and lectures we have discussed, what the brief actually means and how it will work to better us as practitioners. The main idea is 'making it happen' HOW?

Of all the creatives and creative areas of the world we are one of the most vibrant places. 'The creative industries are the fastest growing sector in the UK.'

We must identify the project and work out what the problems will be and also what I will need. It could be one of two things, a PROFIT making organisation or a NON-PROFIT organisation, which would be working within a budget.

The main idea is how do I relate this to my practice?

My project has to be an international idea, this would further my project/event.

I also need to address my strategy for everything, why I am choosing to do things and how.

Two questions I need to ask myself are   - 'How does my enterprise fit with my practice?'

  - 'How does my enterprise fit with the brief?'

I need to think of what I could possibly do for a project which will be good  for enterprise.

Ideas I've initially thought are either:-

- ME as a Practitioner/Freelance. (How do I work with no college facilities).

- Hold a monthly live drawing evening.

- The Artist Book Fair.

I've decided on preparing to hold my own monthly live drawing evening event. I don't know that I will actually put the night on this year, but strive to sometime next year or the year after.

I will use this module to practice and to understand what I will be doing for it more. Understanding competitors and how putting on a night works.

Some initial thoughts of things I need to consider are:

- Space, with this money.

- What benefit my event will have (imperil in a pitch)

- Competing

- Setting up costs - how much will I need for materials and paying people?

- How do I get profit?