Schedule

Join this briefing session to learn more about SHIFT. We'll introduce the programme, explain what to expect, how it all works, answer any questions you may have and have a chance to get to know others in the cohort. This session will provide everything you need to get started.

Your career path won’t look the same as everyone else’s because you’re not the same as everyone else. This session looks at the often neglected stage of planning – deciding what’s really most important to you and how you work with that as you get where you want to go.

Great coaching isn’t about giving advice, it’s about helping people think. In this workshop, You’ll also discover how to get better support for yourself by making the most of the different perspectives within your network whilst also learning how to ask powerful questions that help your peers tackle challenges, gain confidence, and find their own solutions. Whether you’re working on a project, considering your next steps, or supporting a friend, you’ll leave with practical coaching skills that can improve conversations, strengthen relationships, and unlock fresh thinking.

Learn how to check in with yourself, set healthy boundaries, and create sustainable approaches that prioritises your mental and emotional health, allowing you to be the best version of yourself.

In your creative career you’ll lead, invent, or join all sorts of different activities – and different pieces of work have different shapes. In fact, it can seem like you have endless options on how to spend your time and talent. This session will help you classify the different kinds of activities you might be involved in so that you can choose the most useful options that align with you and your priorities. 

In our changing world, a flexible practice is always going to be the winner. This does not mean you need to compromise on your practice or your values, but this does mean you can consider how your practice might enable you to develop a range of ‘offers’ for the world. By using the example of my practice, we will explore what aspects of your practice you can craft into a bespoke range of work that will give you some financial security while protecting your core creative practice. 

Roman Rappak – The Realities of the Music Industry
Jamie Bankhead – Getting into Video Games
Molly Hankinson – Say Yes to Everything (So You Can Start to Say No)
Anne McKinnon – Producing Your Own Project
David MacPherson  – Growing In: Your First steps in TV and Film
Robbie Gordon – Co-creation and Building a Socially Engaged Company

From identifying the key elements of a creative business (time, money, legal, networks), to choosing the right gigs to achieve your goals, and knowing the operational considerations that will drive your career forward – we’re going to cover the absolute basics of what you really need to begin a successful business or career. 

Explore the art of pricing freelance creative work, providing valuable insights and tools to help participants determine their ideal rate. It covers key factors influencing pricing beyond personal preferences, including the true cost of artistry, market expectations, and competitor benchmarks. Through a hands-on approach, you will also use a ‘Daily Rate Calculator’ to set a fair and competitive price that reflects the value of their creative efforts.

Iona Fyfe – Access Riders and Self Care
Maria Than – Generative AI Storytelling and Heritage
Lucy Nurnberg – Translating Your Skills in Different Markets
Billie Adele – Driving your arts career
Bob Winton – Planning your Workflow as a Small Company
Ollie Barbieri – Embracing an Accidental Trajectory 

No one can get excited about you and what you’re doing unless they have a way in to understanding it. This session helps you talk to different audiences about what you do in appropriate, accessible, clear ways. So that everyone, from funders to professional gatekeepers or communities who have never heard of what you do, can be enthused about what you’re doing and give it their support or attention.  

This session demystifies the process of securing funding for creative projects and ventures, breaking it down into three key steps: getting your house in order, conducting targeted research and telling a compelling story. Medeia draws on her broad fundraising experience to outline different funding options—including grants, sponsorships, crowdfunding, and investment—while offering practical advice on how to approach each one with clarity, strategy, and confidence.

Michiel Turner – Making Your Social Enterprise Work
George Dyson – Working to a Brief
Panda McGlone – Making a Living while Living as an Artist
Jaclyn Fauteux – Behind the Scenes: Producing for Festivals
Emma Walton – Building a Portfolio Career Around Your Practice
Jack Nurse – International Collaboration

People often discover you or your work online before they meet you, which is why your digital presence matters. This session explores how to design and curate a personal brand that feels visible, intentional and considered while communicating who you are, what your work stands for and how you want to present yourself online to grow your network and create new opportunities.

Through a combination of insight, discussion and creative exercises, this session will equip you with strategies for realising your creative ambitions. We will explore what it takes to turn good ideas into actionable plans – and set you on the course to start to make them happen today. Deeply practical, this session will help you to balance the opportunities of burning ambition and wildest dreams alongside the challenges, tensions and uncertainties of real life. This session will set you up to apply all you’ve learned in SHIFT to set you on a course to long-term success, whatever that looks like to you. 

This slot is a chance for participants to finish off the week with some inspiration from those who have a vast amount of experience within their industry. They will share their wide ranging perspective across the trends and the futures of their field, and how it fits into the bigger picture for the arts & creative industries as a whole.

Barrington Reeves
Patricia Flemming
Brian Baglow
Michael Hines
Alexis Ffrench
Rob Morrison
Gillian Garrity

This event will take place in person in the Theatre in Glasgow. Details to be confirmed soon. 

This event will take place in person in the Snug in Glasgow. Details to be confirmed soon.