Networking: The Plan

The Poetry Collective

When I was at thought bubble this year I spent most of the first day sat alone at my table because Hollie had to still print out some of her work at college. The tables were quite large and so I was sat relatively far away from other people. It was also quite loud and crowded in the hall so I just assumed since I couldn't really distinguish what anyone else was saying that no one could hear me either. I then spent the next 2 hours or so singing parts of songs to myself repeatedly. Mainly man or muppet, I found out around the time that I'd exhausted the chorus of that song  that I was not in a sound proof bubble.

Dilraj Mann was sat next to me and it was around this point he leaned in and spoke to me. It turned out he'd been able to hear me singing the entire time. I was suitably horrified but it led to a very fun and interesting conversation. We chatted throughout the event. It was chatting to him that pushed me to approach other people at other tables and just generally get out there in the illustrative community.

This gave me my networking plan

It started as I would send a short illustrated poem about how I met the person, for Dilraj it would be about my terrible singing. I want to send out poems to lots of different illustrators and just see who has time to send one back. I'm not looking for high quality, I just want to open up communication.

Then the ultimate plan:

At thought bubble I talked to a lot of people who were in a similar position to me, early in the business and not long out or in uni. I want to get to know those people because in ten years they are going to be my competition, my community.

So Thought bubble 2015 I applied for a table and didn't get one but I'll still be attending the event and I've been offered some table space form other people in our class who did get a table. 

I'm going to use my time at thought bubble as networking time. I want to talk to as many people as possible concentrating mainly on the fresh faces and  ones who are relatively new to professional illustration. Basically people who I feel are at a similar level to me. I want to invite them to have a dialogue of silly poems. Something I would make into a zine and pitch to travelling man or other local comic shops to sell in their small press section.

I want to build a little community of up and coming illustrators. An open contact book of potential collaborators. And just generally having people in a similar position that I can ask questions to. We can have a facebook group and use it to notify each other of events coming up and any meet ups or work people want to collaborate on. It should be something that everyone can get something out of.