Cultural Conversations: Tales Of Our Cities

Last Friday I attended Cultutal Conversations: Tales of our cities at the Round Foundry, Leeds. The event was the latest in a series organised by The Culture Vulture. During the event different conversation topics are proposed and you take yourself along to which ever one takes your fancy.

The subjects range from 'Blogging without fear' to 'What to do about the council' and the forumla works very well. I often found myself wanting to attend more then one of the conversations which is a great sign. The conversations I attended were 'What to do about the council', 'Better to ask for forgiveness then permission' and a subject which I proposed: 'Retaining Leeds talent'. In each group there are people of different levels of experience, different motives, varied interests and this difference in people often creates a lively dynamic and sometimes heated exchange of views. 

One thing I found myself saying over and over in all three conversations was "Just do it". I really believe that if people are passionate about a project or idea they will find a way to at least get it off the ground and after that anything can happen. There seems to be a lot of people in the city who are feeling the same way. Projects, some at idea stage, some at 'about to go mainstream' are happening all over Leeds. I hear a lot of talk about 'lets take action' and 'so what will be the result' etc and I think people who think of things purely in that way are missing a lot of the magic happening at the moment. There is a big shift taking place right now: people are talking, collaborating, making things happen and this is happening regardless of the support of government or funding bodies. 

The conversations taking place at the moment are building relationships, trust and creating spaces to share knowledge and skills. What I also like about these events is what they allow you to learn in a negative yet still constructive way also. There are people or projects that you will not immediately love or agree with, but this is all part of the process of people connecting. Like-minded people will connect and work together and the 'results' are already there to be seen.

After the afternoons events and conversations we moved onto the 'secret social' where we enjoyed drinks, music and delicious food thanks to Fish&. All in all it was an excellent day and evening, a big "thank you" goes to Emma, Phil, Mike and everyone else who helped to make the event a success.

Leeds Loves Shopping / Birds Yard Goodie Bag

We got these goodie bags from the Leeds Loves Shopping press launch, and we were pleasently surprised with the contents. As you can see in the pictures, Bird's Yard provided another bag within the main goodie bag, and their stuff was fun! Every Birds Yard bag contained different items, so were all comparing to see who got the best stuff.

Here are some of the highlights:

The Perverse Library sneak preview...

We are following closely the development of The Perverse Library exhibition, which opens in Yorkshire next Friday. The exhibition, which takes place in Shandy Hall, Coxwold just north of York revolves around Craig Douglas Dworkin's unique collection books.

To house the collection, curator Simon Morris has commissioned these beautiful 'invisible shelves' designed by Canadian architect, Michael Farion.

As part of the exhibition programme, a free shuttle bus is running from York Station to Coxwold. Places are still available so book yours now...

Leeds Innovation Lab

On Wednesday I attended the inaugural meeting of 'Leeds Innovation Lab'. The event was organised and facilitated by Mike Chitty, who in my opinion is one of the most important assets and voices we have in Leeds at the moment.

The people who attended were from a number of different backgrounds: social enterprise, communications, culture, charities, adult healthcare, the council, financial services and more. The mix of people and backgrounds seemed to work very well. There were a number of common themes and ideas between us all and the enthausiasm for Leeds was really inspiring to see.

As the people who know me personally can testify to, I am really passionate about Leeds and our potential both to improve things internally and then take our city and its talent to a national and international audience. Sometimes when reading certain publications or hearing certain messages in the media it can be easy to almost want to 'give up' or at the most 'consolidate' as a city. Seeing some of the other people at Innovation Lab and hearing their views gave me a shot in the arm and renewed belief that the current financial mess we are all in, could have created the perfect window of opportunity to take a breath and evaluate what we are doing, and perhaps make some changes.

Innovation Lab could potentially be something very important moving forward. Where the idea will end up is still a couple of steps away at the moment but an excellent start has been made. I am sure Mike and everyone else involved will want to keep the momentum going and achieve tangible results and outcomes from the ideas put forward.

It seems there is a lot going on 'underground' in Leeds at the moment. Lots of great events are going on, thanks to people like John Popham & Monica Tailor with Leeds Social Media Surgery, the awesome Emma at The Culture Vulture with the Cultural Conversations events, and many more. Working groups are being formed, people are connecting and talking, tweets are turning into friendships and it seems everyone is wanting the same thing overall... to make Leeds as great as possible. Everyone has their own motives and areas of expertise and there will be a lot of people fighting for their 'space' in this new landscape, but overall I really do feel that this is the most exciting/intriguing time in city for... well as long as I can remember and I am delighted to be a part of it!

Why We Love Toms!

A product that seems to be flying off the shelves in most shoes stores at the moment is the Toms 'classic' shoe. My 'in the know' shoe spy, from a major high street retailer, confirmed that Toms were the best selling mens shoes last week and continue to become more popular every week.

Although the women's aren’t quite as popular, sales are growing by the day. With more and more people wearing the shoe, unusually I am actually not worried if I spot someone in the street in the same shoes... why? Well aside from the fact it is the comfiest shoe ever, buying a pair of Toms helps a bigger project, a project I personally think is amazing. With every pair of Toms sold, another pair of Toms are given to a child in need. Watching the video on the Toms website and seeing little children in developing countries wearing the same shoe is amazing.

While out and about in Leeds, I decided to do a little on research on why people bought the shoes. I actually thought more people would be aware of the ‘One For One’ policy but unfortunately this seems to be more of a trend. Although many people ‘claim’ to be aware of the incentive, in actual fact, they come in to buy the shoes for work, for comfort or for fashion and then find out about 'one for one' when they read the box. Although it’s a little sad that fashion is the main reason so many of these shoes are sold, I am still happy that these shoes are popular and that children in need all over the globe at least have comfy shoes and are in less risk of danger. So go out and get yourself a pair of Toms now and picture that little child running around in theirs. A small step towards a better world :-)