Sookio writes:
Creative Ely is a group for people in and around Ely who either work in the creative industries or have an artistic passion. The meetups provide the opportunity for people to share experiences, build relationships and generate work. We also feature a different speaker each month, covering (so far) photography, interior design, poetry and business topics like marketing and events management.
Since founding in November 2012 we’ve grown to over 200 people who are connected to us via Meetup, Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn as well as those who just jot down the date in their diaries and turn up regularly on the first Tuesday of the month.
The group was created and is organised by our Director, Sue Keogh. After helping get CamCreative off the ground and co-organising the group for four years, Sue saw that there was a need for something similar in Ely.
“I kept going to events in Cambridge and bumping into Ely people,” says Sue. “As time went on I became more and more convinced that we needed something in Ely for the creative community where we could make connections, share experiences and generate work opportunities for each other.”
Showcasing talent
One popular way of showcasing local talent to the community is through the eye-catching Creative Ely posters. Each quarter a new poster is designed by one of our members, giving them the opportunity to display their work to Ely residents and potential clients.
Sharing wisdom
We’ve also been forging links with Ely College, generating ideas for opportunities where we can share wisdom and offer students a real-world taste of working in the creative industries.
Hopefully this will help encourage young people to take up the arts and continue building a creative community in Ely. Who knows, one day our humble city may be known as the creative capital of Cambridgeshire.
Fingers crossed!
Thanks to all the people who have been so helpful month on month – Chris Miszak, Nik Sargent, Martin Black, Zoe Davidson and Lizzy Doe. And to all the Creative Ely members for making it such a fun and thriving group to be part of.
The awards ceremony takes place on 3rd October 2013 and we face some pretty stiff competition from other businesses in the area who have been doing some great work in the community. Wish us luck!
More information
Read more about our work with Ely College in our recent post: Could you inspire a generation of young people?
See more about the awards on the Ely Business Awards 2013 website.
Join us at our next event, A life in radio, with BBC Radio Cambridgeshire’s Sue Dougan, by visiting the Creative Ely meetup page.
Visit the Sookio website.
_________________________________________________