What is CreativeMornings?
CreativeMornings is a volunteer-run breakfast lecture series for creative types hosted on the last Friday of each month. With chapters in 224 cities across 67 countries, it’s the world’s largest face-to-face creative community.
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When I started volunteering with CreativeMornings RDU in the winter of 2021, events had been held virtually for almost a year with no end in sight. Attendance had seen a dramatic decrease globally, and some chapters had stopped hosting events altogether. Raleigh’s chapter was still hosting events consistently but saw a significant decrease in attendance.
2021 - 2022 Virtual Event Promotion
In 2021, attendance for virtual events was dissipating in addition to social media engagement.
My solution: Pandemic-proof social media videos
I conducted 30-minute recorded Zoom interviews with the speakers a few weeks before their talk and then used that footage to create high-energy, graphics-heavy promotional videos for the events. I also used the interviews to write speaker bios for events and other social posts.
Erin Terry | RESILIENCE
45-sec hype video
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Erin Terry is a standup comic based in Raleigh, N.C. whose collective, “Eyes Up Here Comedy,” produces shows featuring the region’s best standup comics—who just so happen to be women. Erin is also co-producer of the annual Women in Comedy Festival in Boston. In 2018, Erin received an Indy Arts Award by INDY Week for her work with women in comedy in the Triangle.
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Eyes Up Here Comedy flips the script on the longstanding boys club of comedy, handing the mic to comics who are otherwise overlooked. Creating more room for marginalized voices in comedy, Eyes Up Here Comedy runs the premiere women-only open mic show in North Carolina: Everybody But You, Bro (EBYB).
David Menconi | PROCRASTINATE
15-Sec Speaker Announcement + A Week of Q&A
Blakeley Pritchard interview with David Menconi; Edit + motion graphics: Blakeley Pritchard
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David Menconi is an award-winning music journalist and the 2019 Piedmont Laureate. He spent 34 years writing about music for daily newspapers, 28 of which were at the Raleigh News & Observer. Recognized nationally, he’s written articles for Billboard, Rolling Stone, New York Times, and Spin and has published four books. He’s currently wrapping up a tour for his most recent book, “Step It Up and Go”. Read David’s reflections on the talk here.
4 Q&A Video Posts
A different Q & A video was posted each day during the week of the event.
Courtney Napier | MATRIARCHY
Interview, edit and motion design by Blakeley Pritchard
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Courtney Napier is a writer, journalist, gatherer, and antiracism coach from Raleigh, North Carolina. She has written for national outlets like NewsOne and The Appeal, as well as regional and local publications such as Scalawag Magazine, WALTER Magazine, The Carolinian, and INDY Week. She is also the founder of Black Oak Society, a collective of Black creatives in the greater Raleigh area. Their flagship publication, BOS Magazine, is a literary magazine focused on “giving Black Raleigh her flowers now.” Courtney has coached individuals and organizations as they seek to lead and live in a way that undermines white supremacy and honors the humanity of all people.
Introductory speech writing for CreativeMorning host
Thank you, Teachers!
A first-of-its-kind CreativeMornings Raleigh event
Designer: Blakeley Pritchard
Two years ago, our local chapter decided to start hosting a once-a-year event that foregoes the monthly global event theme and instead focuses on a Raleigh-Durham-specific community initiative.
The “Thank you, Teachers!” breakfast lecture features a panel of local educators chosen by the CM audience and the greater Raleigh-Durham community to speak on creativity, equity, and inclusion in public education.
My graduate research contributions
The teacher appreciation initiative is part of our larger mission to improve our community outreach, expand our audience, and diversify our event partnerships in both demographic and project scope. My research in audience psychology, positive psychology, and Robert Cialdini’s “Principles of Persuasion” helped inform this mission and was the driving force behind my creative direction and production of this social media campaign.
See my Research Topic Memo for an overview of my research objectives as they applied to CreativeMornings.
Communication Challenges:
We needed to keep our current audience in the loop on the key differences between a typical event and this one while building excitement for the event itself. Inspiring people to attend a lecture on a Saturday morning instead of their work week would also be a challenge.
Traditional Event vs “Thank you Teachers! | Key Differences
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It’s usually the responsibility of the local CM host to find one guest speaker each month.
This time, we called for nominations for local public teachers to speak at the event. We reached out to the CM Community and Raleigh-Durham community at large via email and social media a couple of months prior to the event.
From there, our team selected our top 4 nomination candidates to speak
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Instead of one guest speaker, the event featured a panel of 4 public school teachers and 1 moderator from the education community.
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Since its inception, all CreativeMornings chapters from around the world have held events on every last Friday of the month. In order to cater to teachers and their schedules, we hosted this event on a Saturday morning.
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Usually creative professionals, entrepreneurs, and artists. This event expanded our audience to educators and anyone interested in nontraditional methods of learning and establishing greater equity in public education.
Explaining and promoting an a-typical event:
I led a month-long Instagram campaign that promoted (and explained) the event to our current audience and expanded our reach to local educators, foundations, and schools.
Month-Long Instagram Campaign
My role: Project Management, Creative Direction, Editing, and Motion Design
Director, Designer, Editor: Blakeley Pritchard
Videographer: Phillip Teasley
Week 1: Inform our loyal CreativeMornings audience
Explaining the event
This CreativeMornings RDU event is very different from our typical monthly event—in primus, format, location, date, and time. So to reach loyal CreativeMornings audiences, I created this video to kick off event promotion with a briefing on the event’s main idea and goals.
Week 2: Celebrate Teacher Appreciation Week + connect with audiences current and new
Director, Designer, Editor: Blakeley Pritchard
Videographer: Phillip Teasley
Volunteer-generated-content, all week long
We filmed 5 CreativeMornings RDU volunteers reading letters of gratitude to teachers from their past. Members sent the physical letters to their teachers and then tagged them on social media when their letter reading was featured.
Letters of Gratitude objectives:
Encourage the Raleigh-Durham community to thank their teachers during Teacher Appreciation Week
Make teachers top of mind while promoting a teacher-centered event
Increase social media engagement with Raleigh-Durham educators and organizations
Week 3: Reach educators + build anticipation
Director, Designer, Editor: Blakeley Pritchard
Videographer: Phillip Teasley
Speaker Announcement
Our social media team posted this 1 week before the event. Tagging the featured teachers and their organizations helped us reach new attendees outside of our art and design circle.
Week 4:
Final Event Push!
Our final attempt to get people to come out on a Saturday morning!
Director, Designer, Editor: Blakeley Pritchard
Videographer: Phillip Teasley