BarCamp Leeds 2007

Linda Broughton, Head of the New Technology Institute in Leeds, mentioned BarCamp earlier this year and, after taking a look at what people had said about it online, we decided it'd be something we'd really enjoy. Unfortunately by the time we found out about when it was being held the registration had already closed, so after some good old-fashioned pleading with Linda we were able to secure ourselves places by offering to help out with reception duties. This was a fantastic opportunity as it meant we were able to meet and greet everyone who attended. Groovy BarCamp mugs were dished out to all too, along with some particularly tasty lollypops.

Photo © Richard-G

Armed with a handy Kodak camera we took photos of each BarCamp attendee and began putting together a 'Networking Wall.' If you go here you can find almost everyone's names from the wall, on Flickr.

Photo © Mohsin Ali

Who can forget the 'Box of Mystery.' I had this crazy idea to tempt people in with a cardboard box. Personally, I think too many sugary sweeties and coffee were to blame. "Oooh BEHOLD the Box of Mysssterryyyy!"

Here's a photo of Katherine with Professor Reinhold Behringer from Leeds Met University. He works in Innovation North, the faculty where we both studied.

Photo © Mohsin Ali

Who says you can't draw on walls? :P

Photo © Mohsin Ali

Here's us doing some networkin' schmoozin with Johnny's bro, Andrew.

Photo © Mohsin Ali

RockStar Versus Kooji - FIGHT! A game of Virtual Table Tennis with Ian Bowden from RockStar. I totally beat everyone that night (including the lad to my left (Simon) note the fear in his eyes) :D RockStar took us all out for drinks and burgers afterwards too!

We met some very nice people during BarCamp Leeds 2007, including some we already knew or were later about to know. Here's a shout out to all who crossed our path (all in alphabetical order cos that's the way we like it!):

Ben Dalton

Deb Bassett

Dominic 'The Hodge' Hodgson

Imran Ali

Linda Broughton

Lorna Mitchell

Mark 'Ernie' Earnshaw

Maz Hardey

Paul Bacchus

Paul Jenkins

Paul Stanton

Reinhold Behringer

Ryan Taylor

Simon Edwards (Freestyle)

Simon Wheatley (Virtual Tennis Virtuoso)

Tom Smith (Wacom Extraordinaire!)

City of Light

We were given a leaflet about Leeds Light Night from Chris Nriapia (the BBC Big Screen Manager) who we met up with earlier this month. He recommended going along and taking a look at all the exhibitions set up around the city, so we did. We started with Millenium Square and were given a personalised 'Zombie Tour' of the local vicinity, then across to the Electric Press where we were able to interact with a video installation of a paranoid pedestrian. Everytime you approached the screen without care, the walker would eventually catch you out by looking over his shoulder. Old School Board was our next destination to take a look at one of their staircases, followed by a visit to the Civic Hall to watch a huge video projected onto the side of the building. It was a really cool night and we're definitely going again next year!

Opportunity knocks

Leeds Metropolitan University asked us to create a DVD highlighting the best moments from their international volunteering projects. A series of motion graphics and video were used to great effect and the outcome was a well received promotional tool.

Don't over-(re)Act!

To promote this year's conference on digital live art we were asked to design the branding and website from ground up. To support the events surrounding (re)Actor2 Kooji have produced posters, a brochure, branded items and animation which will feature on large screens around Leeds city centre!

T-Shirts and Suits

During our trip last week to Manchester for this year's RSA Flying Start Programme we were fortunate enough to hear a talk by David Parrish, International Business Advisor for creative people and author of the book: 'T-Shirts and Suits: A Guide to the Business of Creativity.'



"David Parrish helps creative businesses to become even more successful by bringing together creative people (T-Shirts) with smart business thinking (Suits)."

For those who work as freelancers or run businesses in the creative industries this is a must read. A fantastic book, crammed with advice and the great news is you can read the full version in interactive PDF format for FREE here!

(Better yet, grab yourselves a paperback copy of the book here and read it in it's full papery glory :D)

Useful Links:

David Parrish - Creative Industries Business Adviser and Trainer
T-Shirts and Suits Creative Enterprise Network
T-Shirts and Suits Blog
David on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn
Join the TSS Group, Be a Fan of the Book on FaceBook
View and print the eBook on Issuu

The sweet smell of success

Commissioned by The British Library and Harewood House for the Wilberforce 2007 project, this online graphic novel and printed booklet was a collaboration with pupils of Easingwold School. The aim was to promote awareness of the abolition of the slave trade in Britain in the 1800s.

http://www.bittersweetproject.net/

Darling, we're the young ones

For the awards and celebrations event at Guild Hall, Young Enterprise Yorkshire and Humber required a professionally designed, printed programme to hand out to guests. The leaflet needed to do more than simply list the day's events, it had to convey a positive image of the charity organisation to show that they are making a difference to young people across the region.

Kooji does Poland

We travelled to the city of Lublin in Poland, to work with Arts Therapy Centres: Matki Teresy z Kalkuty (Mother Teresa of Calcutta) and Fundacji Miedzy Nami, (The Among Us Foundation). The standard of Arts and Crafts was incredible and we felt it was a privilege and an honour to meet and be a part of such a creative endeavour.

Farewell

On the last day we travelled to Fundacja once again for the presentation of work produced during the two weeks we had been taking part in the art workshops. We also met many of the artists as they worked with ceramics, textiles and woodwork. Often they would demonstrate what they were doing and kindly let us have a go.

Katherine in the ceramics workshop at Fundacja Miedzy Nami

A selection of beautiful ceramic pieces

Marzena showing Katherine their album of artwork

There was a naming day ceremony also which meant a great deal of sweets and cakes were consumed. Apparently every first name has a special day devoted to it! This tradition should definitely be adopted here in the UK.

At the end of the afternoon we were presented with special goodbye gifts. It was really overwhelming how generous they were and how we were treated like VIPs. The presents were mostly pieces of artwork and crafts from the artists at the day centres. Katherine held back the tears as everybody applauded. Sadly we were unable to say goodbye to some of the artists we had met at Mother Teresa as they had been taken out for the day but we will remember them always.

We’ll never forget the expressions on everyone’s face when we presented them with our parting gifts on the last day. Our sponsors kindly donated a variety of gifts and we were so pleased with their reactions. One lady, who hadn’t spoken a word to us the whole two weeks, suddenly declared “parasol!?” when Katherine handed her a Yorkshire Forward umbrella. She also seemed quite pleased with her Enterprise rent-a –car mug, though couldn’t understand why there was no piping hot tea inside when she unwrapped it! Johnny (Johnny’s polish counterpart) was so happy with his brightly coloured Dean Clough mouse-mat, coaster and magnetic diary. It was such a pleasure to see him so kiddy over his presents.

The staff at Fundacja opening their presents

The story doesn’t end here as we intend to return in a year’s time. Janusz has been building his new home and after discovering that Katherine is a horse fanatic (lots of animated gestures and neighing) has suggested that the whole group venture off to a retreat out in a nature preserve. He has invited us to stay with him in his new home and we are greatly looking forward to seeing everyone again soon.

OUR SPONSORS:
Thanks go to the following companies for their kind donations:

Bentley and Co
Dean Clough
Duchy Parade Films
Enterprise rent-a-car
FCN Distribution
Gapwork
Genesis Social Enterprise
Graduates Yorkshire
Kooji Creative
Leeds Metropolitan University
Luminary Solutions
Martin House
New Technology Institute
Pace Micro Technology
Praxis Centre
Tis Development
Yorkshire Forward
Young Enterprise Yorkshire and Humber

Painting a present to remember us by

During our time visiting the Mother Theresa Day Centre, we proposed a collective project to paint a wall in the canteen. This would be a colourful addition to the room and something the residents could remember us by. However the room was due to be re-wired which would mean the wall being damaged and the painting ruined. A compromise was reached instead.

Johnny and Katherine hard at work

The painting is taking shape...

We were given a large wooden board to paint a joint painting from us to them so they could hang it on the wall with the other work. The only catch was that we had about 2 hours to finish it. As the deadline approached we asked if would be able to stay behind longer as we didn’t want leave it unfinished. Luckily Janusz agreed and gave us the key to lock up after we finished. We hope the residents enjoy the painting as much as we did creating it!

Johnny deep in thought

There's nothing better than getting covered in paint!

Our Present :)

>>> Farewell