Beautiful Venue? Tick. Beer and homemade lemonade? Tick. Delicious treats? Tick. House packed with people and enthusiastic speakers? Tick and tick. Overall, We Are Pop Up’s latest Pop Up Meet Up in Brighton was a great success as budding entrepreneurs, artists and people with retail spaces came together to discuss ideas and upcoming projects.
Objective
Held in Taj’s Tea Parlour, a beautiful and quaint pop up located in Brighton Square, the Pop Up Meet Up sought to announce new initiatives as well as teach ways to fund and start your own pop up. Teaming up with Brighton & Hove City Council*, we were delighted to have a fantastic line-up of speakers who shared their experiences and advice.
Speaker’s Corner
Our very own Abi Freeman was excited to announce that We Are Pop Up has achieved our goal of opening 10 pop up shops in Brighton since last year. She also introduced the recent #ShopShare initiative, allowing independent businesses to rent a shelf, table, or concession in an existing shop.
Next up was Sophie Giblin of Kollektiv Gallery, who has launched not one but two successful pop up art galleries funded through Kickstarter and run by emerging artists for emerging artists. Both crowdfunding campaigns hit 50% of their target within an incredible 24 hours and hit full funding within 2 weeks. Impressive. With her list in hand, Sophie gave us a handy step-by-step rundown on what to expect when starting your own Kickstarter campaign. Notable tips included: condense your campaign elevator pitch to one sentence that you can repeat everywhere, from Tweets to email signatures. Also, if you don’t raise all the money you set out to raise, you don’t get to keep the funds.
We were also pleased to have Branwen Lorigan from Brighton & Hove City Council, announcing their latest endeavour, The Loop Brighton. Created in collaboration with members of Brighton & Hove’s creative community, they aim to inform of upcoming festivals, resources, showcasing spaces, and more for individuals and creative organisations. To become a member, email them here.
Ashleigh from Somewhereto South East England dropped by to tell us about their initiatives and projects in Brighton. As a service funded by the Big Lottery Fund, they help young people find space to fulfil their ideas and events all around the UK. Follow him on Twitter at @somewhereto_SE for their latest updates.
Taj Noel Cambridge of Taj’s Tea Parlour was kind enough to host our event in her parlour as well as share her experiences in opening up her very own pop up. Her key takeaway from the experience: using We Are Pop Up helped her secure a space without the hassle and stress, allowing her to focus more on her business.
For our latest spaces in Brighton & Hove, see here. If you’d like to list your pop up project then you can get started here, or to list your property, click here.
*Part-funded by the European Union’s Interreg 4a Recreate project
