I drove to Digbeth and parked in the Trinity Street car park, where I ran into one of the newer members of the Forum, David Furmage, and together with his son, we walked over to The Mockingbird. It was just minutes after 7pm, the official starting time for our First Monday networking events.
These evenings usually get off to a quiet start and build up over the next hour but already there were a number of people there. I only recognised Andy Conway, who was sitting comfortable on a bar stool.
I was pleased to see that Drew Roper had remembered to come early and set up The Producers’ Forum banner and as discussed at a board meeting the week before, I brought sticky labels and a sign-in sheet. We’ve never tried to formalise these events in any way, and I was pleased to see that people were happy to give us their contact details, agree to being photographed and okay about wearing a sticky label. The sticky label became very important as you shall see.
It was a younger crowd than usual and we discovered that many of the networkers were students from Coventry University and BCU. Most of them seemed to have learned about the event through There was also the usual core of attenders: Pip Piper, Brendan O’Neill with his dog, Carl Timms, and our photographers Phill Parnell and Zhenya Ulriska. (And congratulations to our photographers, who have announced their engagement and plan to marry this autumn.) It didn’t seem long before the place was heaving. I turned to Andy to ask what had we done to get this size crowd and he didn’t know either. A few questions later of complete strangers, I learned that BCU were putting on a magic show in the theatre and there was a very long interval in which the audience was taking advantage of the bar. As part of their evening, and adding to the sense of occasion, there was also a fortune teller on hand and a table filled with sweets and popcorn being sold for a charity.
During that interval, there was little room to mix and mingle. People who had come for the networking were pleased when they realised that they could identify other networkers by the sticky labels they wore. The bar area was packed out and noisy, but eventually the theatre audience went back to their seats and the 35 or so networkers could have conversations without having to shout.
Normally, I go round to see how I can help those who are too shy to mingle or to help people who want to meet people in certain roles, e.g. producer, director, scriptwriter. There was such a buzz in the room that it just didn’t seem necessary.
We are delighted with the popularity of these evenings, though we are having conversations about reserving the use of The Mockingbird for when we need the theatre for screenings or other type events and move the networking elsewhere, when we can have a room to ourselves. There’s a pub in the Jewellery Quarter who have offered us a free room and that may be the solution. Let us know how you feel about a change in venue.
Carole Manship, Chair of The Producers’ Forum
Photos by Phillip Parnell (Phillip Parnell Photography)
What do you think?
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