Inspiration Day

Went along to an Inspiration Day at Surgeons Hall, organised by Crossover Scotland and supported by Creative Scotland. The idea was to bring together creatives from a range of disciplines to hear a number of different speakers and network a bit. We started with the film-maker Jeanie Finlay, director of Sound It Out and The Great Hip Hop Hoax. She talked about the importance of just making things happen and pursuing the projects that really interest you, as well as touching a little on crowd funding, when the BBC reject your idea. And how pleasing it was for them to come back and ask to show it once it was made! Followed by Shay Moradi, a partner in an interactive agency who do work for a number of organisations, including the 'gamification' of library use. After lunch we then had Rhianna Pratchett talking about writing for computer games. I thought she was probably the best presenter of the day with a good lecturing style. Then some former participants in other Crossover schemes and someone from Creative Scotland before the last two major speakers - Marianne Maxwell, a producer at the National Theatre of Scotland pictured here, and finally Rohan Gunatillake, an 'innovation producer and entrepreneur'. He had developed a meditation app (although I think he said he did everything 'except the coding', which I found an interesting reflection on the process). All in all an interesting day to inspire thoughts of collaboration across multiple disciplines. Now, if only I had something to say!