EXPERIMENTS IN GROUP WISDOM

OPENING NIGHT: THE COACHING CLUB - coach and be coached in a creative space

Thu, May 28 · 7:00 PM BST

Central London TBC, London, GB

A one-off special to launch a new series of events 🎉

Jude & Bonny are collaborating to bring coaching to everyone.

Why? Full story coming soon on Substack.

In brief, they believe:

• Coaching can be life enhancing, inspiring, creative, and fun
• Everyone can learn coaching skills
• Having the experience of both coaching and being coached is doubly valuable
• Peer-to-peer connections are special :-)

At THE COACHING CLUB, we will:

• Learn a new skill (drawing on Jude’s expertise and experience as a coach)
• See how it works in a short demo
• Practice in pairs
• Shuffle the pairs
• Reflect together

Jude and Bonny will guide the process, but you will also receive a tiny booklet for illustration (a Zine by LESS STRESS PRESS)
For this OPENING NIGHT SPECIAL we will share a method of discovering “how well you know yourself” 👀

NOTES ON THE GENERAL ATMOSPHERE:
Although we’ll be learning new skills we'll also be aiming to have an enjoyable evening, with good humour and fun. This will be less like school and more like a thoughtful and interactive evening in a pub.

WHO SHOULD COME:
Everyone! We believe that the more perspectives, the richer the experience. This group is not about being experts, it is about thinking creatively together and learning new ways to create space for one another.

WHERE WE’LL MEET:
Venue is TBC, but will be in central London.

YOUR HOSTS:
Jude is an experienced NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming) Master Practitioner and utilises NLP tools and techniques when she coaches. She offers 1:1 sessions, with the first Introductory Session completely free with no obligations - www.judewattscoaching.co.uk

Bonny is just starting her training as a coach. She is also a former coachee of Jude’s! She is offering 1:1 sessions at a reduced cost while in training - www.bonnyastor.com/coaching

MORE INFO & LINKS:
SUBSTACK - newsletter and reflections
INSTAGRAM - occasional visual updates on this event and others
WEBSITE - everything else

#coaching #creativity #inclusivity #openmindedness #community #newskills

WRITE CLUB: one hour of silent writing (or reading) in the company of others

Fri, Jun 12 · 6:00 PM BST

The Southbank Centre, Belvedere Rd, Lambeth, London SE1 8XX, London, GB

The first rule of WRITE CLUB is that you do not talk during WRITE CLUB.

This very simple meetup is based on the premise that public and peer accountability enables more productive writing than sitting at home and getting distracted by the fridge.

We will write/read for an hour in silence. (I will be writing thought experiments for my other meetup group: THOUGHT EXPERIMENTS IN PUBS)

If you'd like to hang out afterwards, or if you prefer just to hang out, I have another event immediately afterwards in the same place :-) You can find that here: HANGING OUT AT THE SOUTHBANK

And if you'd like to finish the evening with a dance, there is a free social salsa meetup just outside The Southbank Centre just afterwards. More info here.

This event will take place in the foyer of The Southbank Centre. You can find us by looking out for:

• A tote bag with WRITE CLUB sewn onto it
• My T-Shirt, which will have HANGING OUT embroidered on the back of it
• A big red flag with THE SUNRISE CLUB emblazoned on it (though this clearly isn't THE SUNRISE CLUB! If you want to find out about that, you can do so here.)
• Other writers - who may be spread out across the centre. They will have white pieces of paper with the WRITE CLUB stamp at the top of the page.

There are plenty of places to buy refreshments, but you can also bring your own if you prefer.

WHATSAPP GROUP
INSTAGRAM
SUBSTACK

Looking forward to meeting and writing with you :-)

Bonny

HANGING OUT AT THE SOUTH BANK

Fri, Jun 12 · 7:00 PM BST

The Southbank Centre, Belvedere Rd, Lambeth, London SE1 8XX, London, GB

Inspired by Sheila Liming's 2023 book, Hanging Out, this event is about "daring to do nothing much, and even more than that, about daring to do it in the company of others."

If you're curious, you can read more about my rationale for the event here, and how our pilot event went here.

This event will take place in the foyer of The Southbank Centre.

You can find us by looking out for:

• Me - I will be wearing a black T-shirt with HANGING OUT written on the back
• Our table - which will have a red flag draped over it with THE SUNRISE CLUB emblazoned on it (though this clearly isn't THE SUNRISE CLUB! If you want to find out about that, you can do so here.)

There are plenty of places to buy refreshments, but you can also bring your own if you prefer.

If you feel like using this event as a carrot for some creative work, please join us an hour earlier for WRITE CLUB - an hour of silent writing/reading in the same location.

And if you'd like to finish the evening with a dance, there is a free social salsa meetup just outside The Southbank Centre just afterwards. More info here.

WHATSAPP GROUP
INSTAGRAM
SUBSTACK

Looking forward to meeting and hanging out with you :-)

Bonny

REGISTER INTEREST: ZINE MAKING with LESS STRESS PRESS: cultivate creativity

Sun, Jul 12 · 7:00 PM BST

Central London TBC, London, GB

A special event to share the creative practice of zine making 💭✍️✂️🎨📖

N.B. We are gauging interest for this workshop before confirming final details. Please RSVP 'Attending' if you are interested!

IN A NUTSHELL, zine making creates opportunities to:

• spend time exploring ideas
• hone in on something you love or care about: a cause, a message, a skill, a place (the possibilities are endless)
• get creative with collage, drawing, writing, printmaking (etc.)
• produce compelling and unique booklets that you can print cheaply and share with friends and strangers offline

After lots of creative brainstorming of their own, Bonny and Ellie have landed on zine making as the perfect way to both open up space for playful, low stakes creativity, and focus their minds on bite sized projects. You will soon be able to see some of their zines here.
They’re excited to share with you!

IN THIS WORKSHOP, we will:

• Introduce the practice
• Share some examples: brief history of zine making, LessStressPress examples
• Get to know each other’s interests
• Brainstorm using collage and scribbles: get into a low stakes, creative headspace
• Use a template to plot our zines: 2 covers and 6 pages of content
• Design our first zines (everything is possible with analogue materials, but if you love digital design, bring a laptop)
• Sharing circles
• Optional finale:
• Visit the print shop visit together
• Print copies of our new zines
• LESS STRESS PRESS Pop Up Shop: hand out copies of our new zines to strangers :-)

BY THE END OF THE DAY, we'll have

• learned a new practice to spark creativity and clarify thinking
• met a new group of people and learned about the things they care enough to make a zine about
• had some thought provoking conversations
• produced our own original zines, ready to share :-)

NOTES ON THE GENERAL ATMOSPHERE:
Although we’ll be learning a new practice we'll also be aiming to have an enjoyable day, with good humour and fun. This will be less like school and more like a relaxed hang out in a café with an additional creative twist.

WHO SHOULD COME:
Everyone! We believe that the more perspectives, the richer the experience. This group is not about being experts, it is about thinking creatively together and learning new ways to develop and communicate ideas.

N.B. We are gauging interest for this workshop before confirming final details. Please RSVP 'Attending' if you’re interested!

SUBSTACK - newsletter and reflections
WHATSAPP GROUP - stay in the loop
INSTAGRAM - see what we look like
WEBSITE - everything else
#creativity #inclusivity #openmindedness #creativepractices #community #newskills #zinemaking