10 Brighton & Hove Networking Events for Artists, Makers, and Creatives

by Aug 23, 2018Art Explored0 comments

As an artist in the digital age, a strong online presence is essential. But how can artists, makers, and creatives grow their digital network successfully? It may sound counterintuitive, but an important tool for increasing your online visibility is face-to-face networking.

By forming meaningful connections at events, you are able to build a strong tribe who can amplify the content you share online. When authentic connections share your content, you reach a wider audience and your network grows organically.

As well as being an effective way to build your audience, face-to-face networking in Brighton can be insightful and inspiring. By attending the right meetups, you can learn ways to improve your business from other’s expertise.

We live in a vibrant city with a wealth of meetups bringing together creative people who are keen to help each other thrive. To celebrate the launch of SOL Design Collective’s Monday Meetups, we explore ten events that will help you build a strong network and a more resilient business.

1) Brighton Creative Café

The Brighton Creative Café runs regular creative Saturday morning meetups. Bring along your current project to work on and discuss over coffee. You can work solo on your creative project or collaborate with other members. The event’s slogan is “work, create, discuss, caffeinate”. What better way to spend a Saturday morning?

Brighton creative cafe

2) Sussex Artists Club

The Sussex Artists Club is a social and business networking group for professional artists, arts professionals, and professional visual creatives. The focus is making new connections as opposed to coming together to make art. The group aims to support professional artists locally, offering a free social environment for the sharing of ideas, inspiration, information, and opportunities.

Sussex Artists Club

3) Wild Artists

Wild Artists is a series of events organised by local artist, Moyra Scott. Moyra’s events are about expressing yourself freely and creatively without fear of being judged. Meet with fellow creatives spirits and unlock your artistic talent. Moyra describes creativity as a “pure magical energy and connection between souls”.

Wild Artists

4) Cult Milk’s Drawing Club Drawing

Cult Milk’s twice monthly Drawing Club is a super laid-back, creative event for anyone who loves drawing. A far cry from a professional networking event, this one’s a fun way for illustrators to connect with fellow drawing fans socially.

Drawing Club

5) The Happy Startup School’s Ideas Café

If you’re at the early stages of building your creative business, The Happy Startup School’s monthly Ideas Café is a great way to inject momentum. Gain business insights from the startup community and come away feeling energised and inspired to make things happen.

Ideas Cafe

6) Content Club

Content marketing can help you tell your creative story and grow a community around your work. If you want to learn more about content making and marketing, Content Club is a workshop and networking opportunity that’s not to be missed. Attend to connect with content makers and learn how to use content to grow your business.

Content Club

7) WordUp

Many creative businesses use WordPress to build their websites and WordUp is a meetup for users of the platform. If your website is built in WordPress and you’ve reached the limits of what you can achieve alone, the event is a great opportunity to meet someone who can help. Everyone who attends is incredibly supportive, so you’ll never be short of technical advice.

WordUp

8) Inspiring Talks

Every creative business owner needs to keep topped up on inspiration and Inspiring Talks will help you do exactly that. At their upcoming September event, there will be a talk on the “Art of Sales – And How It Can Make You A Happier Person”. Sales is often a sticking point for artists. This talk will be a good opportunity to learn how to monetise your message.

Inspiring Talks

9) Wildfire Women

Wildfire Women is an annual weekend event that celebrates the highs and lows of creative, talented women. This year, the theme is “Behind the Scenes”. Women will be taking the stage to share how they’ve tried, failed, persisted, succeeded and why they feel it’s so important for us to share our stories, messages and our creative work — and why it’s so important for you to share yours.

Wildfire Women

10) SOL Design Collective’s Monday Meetups

Here at SOL Design Collective, we’re super excited to announce the launch of our regular Monday Meetups — an opportunity to meet like-minded creatives who are keen to make their businesses more resilient. Our first event is on Monday 3rd September and the focus is on “Planning for Creative Success”. Do you have a plan to help you visualise and realise your ideas? At this meetup we will share some of our top tips on how to plan, and the steps needed to keep you on track. Find out more and book your ticket via Eventbrite.

Takeaway

Attending a mixture of art-focused and broader business networking events is a powerful way to breathe new life into your business. Making connections with the right people will help you grow a strong network, enabling you to reach a wider audience online. Getting to know people with a diverse range of business skills will empower you to build a more resilient — and ultimately more successful — creative business.

Book your ticket for SOL Design Collective’s Monday Meetup here.

Supporting artists and makers to build a thriving creative practice.