March: In the studio
Space was so 1969, now it's biomimicry. Radical imagination. Free Community Event Marketing Plan.
Happy equinox earthlings…
I’ve just been watching a telly series about space travel. I’ve never understood the fascination with space, it’s just too big for my little mammal brain to comprehend, and besides that, we have some incredible stuff here on Earth. It’s so worth sticking around for.
Like sea horses, for instance.
Wow.
That was the example that Berry Liberman gave in a recent Wisdom and Action podcast, about biomimicry, with renowned biologist and author, Janine Benyus. Go and have a listen if you’re into rethinking how we design and make decisions. We are surrounded by genius on this planet and it’s worth paying attention.
In the studio this month
I’m in the studio right now, still feeling the warm fuzzies after representing Eastside Repair Cafe at last weekend’s Warrane Community Garden Harvest Festival.
We lured folks in with our very cool darned socks and chatted endlessly about repairing the things we love and reducing waste. It was a smashing time.
On the Monday before the Harvest Festival, our little comms team (me, Katie, garden coordinator in the fluro, and Em, garden volunteer) got together for a last marketing push before the big day.
I’ve written a free resource for community groups, just like ours, who need to promote an event, but have few resources and limited marketing skills.
If that sounds like you, you can download it here.
The crux of the marketing plan is to be as efficient as possible (because volunteer burnout is real). It’s about understanding your audience, so you can put your energy where it matters, and it’s about understanding your allies. These are people, groups, and businesses in your orbit that may have established audiences. Helping your allies to help you promote your event is a powerful way to create a ripple with no marketing budget.
We used the Community Event Marketing Plan to get the word out, and the good vibes definitely felt like it was a well-attended event.
A few last things
I quickly whipped up this lino print sign (above) for the recent Bob Brown Foundation Forest Rally. It was still tacky as we walked toward Parliament Lawns, with 3000 of our closest forest defender mates. The people-powered energy calling to end native forest logging in this state was electric.
After I hit send on my last newsletter about imagination, I discovered this excellent quote:
Radical imagination is the audacity to live in the world as it is, while dreaming of something different, and believing that dream is possible even when you cannot see it…
Radical imagination is the instinct that was taught out of us, but a skill we most desperately need for a liberated future.
— Ozy Aloziem
How good is that?
It’s from this excellent Ted Talk called: A dinner party game to spark your radical imagination.
That’s about it in the studio this month, apart from a whole lot of photo editing and writing newsletters.
Now, go listen to that biomimicry podcast. So good.
That quote is so good! Feels you could also substitute the word imagination for hope and it would still work, which makes me think that radical hope is really just the audacity to imagine something better. Thanks xo