Youth and the Creative industry meet and thrive at this years UK Creative Festival and Creative Circle awards

You know something special has happened when a digital introvert like myself sets up a profile and writes a post. 5 years from founding, our work with Young Creators UK brought the voice, vibes and vitality of our young diverse creative community to the heart of the UK creative Sector. The vibes were immaculate, the voice resolute and clear and the message, vital.?

Let’s Go!- The amazing team behind the UK Creative Festival, Careers Fair and Creative Circle awards gave our work and community a real platform to bring its best self forwards for the benefit of all we serve, support and inspire. We were treated with respect, empathy and actively listened to. This all started 4 months ago, I was working tirelessly on @young Creators UK’s 3 year vision, as part of the Future Connected Cultural Leaders fellowship 2024 at the Impact Brixton. Sitting having coffee, overwhelmed from financial forecasts and strategy I ran into Blake over lunch. I can be surprisingly quiet when not leading, a true ambivert, fortunately i caught good vibes from Blake and pushed myself to speak. I doubt either of guessed how significant that moment was and what it would lead to. (Side note - you never know who’s in the room, trust your instincts and connect with good people).?

Skin in the Game -A multitude of Zoom calls and introductions later Young Creators UK were onboarded as a key partner for this year’s UK Creative Festival and invited to the esteemed Creative Circle awards. We went into a 2 month sprint as we not only had to grasp this opportunity but also we wanted to add real value and arrive with equity. In preparation we restructured our senior management group into specific roles with me taking care of all other day to day activities, to ensure that our immensely talented young leadership and creative team could deliver. Izrael Appiah compiled 3 years of impact data, case studies and managed the books, Yasmin Keil created the youth facing Digital and out of home creatives for the promotion of the UK Creative Festival, completely redesigned our website and developed a huge array of branded social media, outreach and other client facing assets and Nhu Hyunh lead on all business and creative development activities and organising all aspects of YCUK’s attendance at the festival, fair and awards. Their commitment, drive and the quality of their work was a true testament to 1000’s of young people who have contributed to the co-design of our unique service. In short they smashed it. Outside of navigating YCUK and the remaining team through our most commercially challenging year to date, my focus was on getting the team ready to arrive with equity, the right mentality and resilience to step into the industry at this level and know they belong. I designed and ran workshops, supported the development of comms and engagement plans, up-skilled the team on production and most importantly helped got them ready to arrive as their authentic, creative and remarkable selves.?

A Mad Ting - We arrived in beautiful margate, anxious, focused and ready to jump into the unknown. With divine grace the clouds parted, temperatures rose and sky was washed with azure tones. This is Britain, good weather means good times ahead. We started off with finally meeting the many Zoom associates face to face, Sarah, Chris, Michael, Jeremy and Dina all greeted us with broad(and a little stressed smiles) and instantly made the young team and I feel welcome and at ease. We walked around the festival with Jeremy and Dina passionately sharing the extent of work behind the festival and awards. Chris and Michael also walked with the team catching up and checking in the team. A great start, YCUK is a family, a tribe united by values, purpose and vibes. This felt like a natural meeting of allies and the tribe and vibes grew. That evening we met up with Michael and Jonathon on the beach shared fish and chips and a drink watched the sun go down. What a day. Day 1 of the festival and careers fair. With our newly designed merch deployed, tunes pumping, our stand and studio set up. We all gathered in anticipation not knowing how the day would go but with faith that out bold leap and submission to universal forces beyond our control would again lead us to opportunity and real impact. We networked, recorded and output media, inspired young people, the industry and delivered workshops and panels(I’ll write more about our panels and talks in another post). Holy Boka and Jonathan took to the stage with Tom Skinner and Madeleine Dowd, all dropping gems on TikTok entrepreneurialism. There was a moment where Mr Holy actually made me cry with pride and joy as he described his creative process to an awed room. I ran a workshop on networking and the rest of the team ran tings on the stand and comms. We made friends, found allies and showed the value of having young diverse voices in the industry. We ended the day on the beach at the after party and running into our friends from Renaissance studios. Blue skies, a great day, good people and most importantly real impact was made.?

The Big Day - On day 2 it was the turn of the senior management to deliver. Izrael chaired a panel I curated with some of my favourite cultural and creative leaders in Mr lee, Tamara Barton Campbell and Ben Cross as well as my long term collaborator and former mentee Yaz Keil. Their authentic conversation on culture as a super power was amazing. I couldn’t have been prouder of Izrael and Yaz stepping up, holding power and speaking their truth. The other panelist brought their A game lighting up the room with warmth of their humanity and offering great insights as cultural leaders. Next up was Nhu Huynh and I, we were stepping onto the main stage with industry and creative leaders, Rory Sutherland, Laura Jordan Bamabach, Charlene Chandrasekaran and rising star and former YCUK member Jonathan Reid. Calm, no biggie. We discussed our why as creatives, the importance of purpose, vulnerable leadership and diversity and had a brief look to the future. It went well and was a real wow moment for me. Hearing the audience give Nhu hyun a round of applause for incredible achievements and sharing a stage with Jonathan Reid. This is why I do what I do, to help great people do great things. All the panelists really inspired me with their insights, creative intelligence and humility. Rolling on, we went into the afternoon. The team continued to smash the stand and comms, increasing their in event media capture and delivery from the previous day. We all got changed and marched onwards to the Creative Circle awards. Nestled in a quiet corner and generously gifted a table on the front row. The team brought the vibes applauding the winners, spontaneous dance offs, sing alongs and charts - being our weird playful selves. We had a great time, as did anyone who ventured over to us. In a surreal moment I looked around and saw the heads of major national creative companies, industry legends and my team dancing, laughing and sharing joy. It was a beautiful moment. Moments like this, although fleeting, show change is possible, wanted and needed and that it can not only be done but done with authenticity, joy and play.?

On behalf of myself, YCUK and 1000’s of young people we’ve worked with I would like to say thank you to everyone involved with UK Creative Festival and Careers fair as well as the Creative Circle awards. You had the opportunity to give under represented young creative talent a platform to show its best self to the industry and you had the bravery to take it. Young diverse perspectives delivered to the heart of the Uk Creative Sector, with equity, with grace and most importantly with pure immaculate vibes. More to come…