Drink n’Doodle

It’s Thursday night and my hands are fidgeting, I’ve been working all day… what do I do…. Lets head on down to Manchester’s very own Drink’n’Doodle event! Drink n’Doodle is a monthly meet up in Manchester aimed at bringing together creative people, who want to enjoy a casual doodle over a few drinks. The event is held on a monthly basis and attracts a variety of creative types.

The night started off with two long benches covered in white paper and a huge pot of pens, pencils, felt-tips and charcoals. I went for the pencils and away I went. To my left was a freelance motions graphic designer, to my right an ex-recruiter who just loves to doodle foxes… a real mix. The drinks were flowing, the doodles were expanding the room was full of laughter so I decided it was time to get a cheeky bit of networking in 🙂 I swapped a few business cards/emails/cheesy jokes and the night was coming to an end on high spirits! Literally! So if you’re in Manchester and fancy a doodle check out Drink’n’Doodle on MeetUp.com!

Some fun facts about doodling!

1)     Is your boss giving another dull speech? Doodling while listening can increase your memory retention by upto 30%.

2)     Doodling is super fun!

3)     Drinking’n’Doodling is even more fun!

4)     Some psychologists recommend doodling!

CING Networking Event

It’s been 4 weeks since I joined the become Manchester team and I’m really enjoying it. On the 4^th of Feb it was the Creative Industries Networking Group and time to test my new found networking skills, learnt at Become’s Internal Training Academy.

The Creative Industries Networking Group (CING) was launched in 2008 with a mission to support and facilitate the success of its creative industries members. The core of CING is its monthly networking events, held on the first Monday of every month. The majority of CING’s members work in creative fields such as design, photography, film, animation, music, fashion, art, crafts, digital, advertising, marketing, architecture, and television. CING also welcome students, graduates, those thinking about setting up their own creative business, and also anyone who is looking to commission or employ creative practitioners.

It was pouring down with rain but the Become Manchester team put on brave faces and we were ready to mingle. The event was being held at Brew Dog in Manchester which was a really cool venue.

The event kicked off for me with encouraging words from Justin… “I’ll see you in an hour!” a bit apprehensive at first, I walked over and shook my first hand…  No big deal, everyone at the event was really friendly so I really didn’t have anything to worry about. We went on to meet some interesting people, an intellectual property specialist, designers, illustrators, actresses, copywriters and company directors.

Working at Become and having an understanding of the current job market allowed me to partake in engaging and relevant conversations, from advising graduates on the types of work needed to break into the creative industry, finding a lead of an upcoming company expansion & pointing someone in Become’s direction if they’re thinking about a job change.

I found the networking event to be really useful but also a very enjoyable experience. Not to mention a good excuse to practise my “Elevator” pitch!