“Shooting For Success” in Stoke-On-Trent

“Your route to growing your business is by developing great relationships with current and potential clients. Winning more work from your existing clients while gaining new clients – and keeping all of them happy – is the way to make your future secure and helping your business grow.

And if you want to deliver bigger projects and more ambitious work - one great way is to work for the public sector on large scale projects.  But how do you get started?  And how do you maximise your chances of winning work when tendering to the public sector?

This one day training course is delivered by Helga Henry of Fierce Earth.  A successful creative company in it’s own right – Fierce Earth has won grants and tenders for work (for themselves and their clients) from the public sector in excess of £3million in the last 5 years.  They will share the secrets and live examples of winning work by building relationships and knowing what the public sector are looking for.

Thanks to Great Minds, this one day course is brought to you as part of Stoke Your Fires by Fierce Earth, the company who recently delivered Metapod Training here in Stoke on Trent.

Date: Wednesday 22nd February 2012

Time:  09:30am – 6:00pm

Location: The Mitchell Arts Centre, Stoke-on-Trent

Cost: FREE of charge (with a penalty for those who book and then do not show up)

Places are strictly limited and will be allocated by application only.  Forms will be available from December 19th.  The deadline for application is 31st January.  To obtain an application form please email dean@fierceearth.com or call 0121 689 1051 and leave a message with your address and one will be sent to you.

This opportunity is open to all however in case of over booking priority will be given to residence of Stoke-on-Trent

Telling a Different Story

As a leader and owner in the cultural industry, do you want to work more on creativity and less on snags and misunderstandings? Do you want to surround yourself with creative energy? Getting the most from your team and empowering your team to be as flexible and innovative as possible is becoming a priority.

Fierce Earth, in collaboration with Creative Alliance, is going to run a new three-day course in February and March 2012: Telling a Different Story is a professional development programme which helps you create and lead high performance teams to do just that.

There is a real need for organisations in the sector to invest in their staff, besides spending time to get the right knowledge and skills can save your time, energy and money.

This unique programme is designed and delivered byHelga Henryand Noel Dunne, both highly skilled and experienced trainers who run successful creative businesses

 

PROGRAMME OUTLINE

Building your team

Talent spotting: -Recruiting the right person for the right job.

Talent management:-Policies and systems for when things go wrong.

Talent performance: -Developing the leadership skills of questioning and feedback, to help others perform

Amplifying team potential

Amplify your networks: -Nurturing and developing your team’s networks of contacts.

Amplify your profile: -Creating an “outward facing” organisation

Amplify your business: -Turning good ideas into action.

Details

 This course will be available both in West Midlands and inEast Midlands.

 Dates:

EAST MIDLANDS

Thursday 2^nd Februay 2012

Friday 3^rd February 2012

Friday 30^th March 2012

WEST MIDLANDS

Thursday, 26^th January 2012

Friday, 27^th January 2012

Friday, 30th March 2012

Venues

East Midlands:   

QUAD

Market Place

Cathedral Quarter

Derby, DE1 3AS

 

West Midlands:

BIRMINGHAM HIPPODROME

Hurst Street
Southside
Birmingham
B5 4TB

 

Costs and booking

This programme is supported by East Midlands Visual Arts Network.

Places on this programme cost £1275*

*£637 of the cost of this course can be covered by applying to the Leadership Management Advisory Service. To apply for this funding and get the 50% discount see www.embltd.co.uk/lmas or contact Creative Alliance for an application form. Support is available to help you complete it if required.

For more information:

 

Phone: 0121 224 7308

Email: booking@creativealliance.org.uk

About the trainers

The course will be held byHelga Henryof Fierce Earth and Noel Dunne.

You can find some information about Noel Dunne on the website

http://creativealliance.org.uk/who-we-are/test-profile/

and aboutHelga Henry

http://fierceearth.wordpress.com/the-team/helga-henry/

 

Supported by

This programme is delivered and supported by

CreativeAlliance, Fierce Earth, QUAD andBirminghamHippodrome.

 

How to apply or get more information

Please email Helga - helga@fierceearth.com and she can answer questions, send you an application form. The course is open to 12 organisations who complete the form and pay the fee.

The training course will be preceded by a presentation event that will be held on Wednesday 11^th January in the room above the Stageside Bar, onThorp Street,BirminghamB5 4TB. For this event we are pleased to welcome Jan Teo, a Director at Deutche Bank and Chief Operating Officer for service centres inEurope. She will discuss “The strength of true diversity”. Don’t miss it!

Hello Culture

Hello Culture is a one day conference in Birmingham on Thursday 17th November focussing on how the cultural sector can utilise digital technologies. A series of panal discussions and workshops will explore topics such as the tools of digital engagement, fundraising and the rise of crowdfunding, and cultural innovation in the digital age.

Fierce Earth’s Helga Henry will be joined by social media guru Pete Ashton to discuss ‘Connections that Count’. They recently delivered together Metapod Connect which explored how to build lasting offline and online relationships and their session will give participants a new perspective, some useful tools and a chance to share their strategies for making connections that count.

Helga Henry: ‘Networkers’ need to step out of the comfort zone

In her latest column for the Birmingham Post, Fierce Earths’ Head of Development and Training highlighted the role of networking in creating a ‘creative city’;

Fierce Earth has a new team member. Artist Dean Melbourne is now a Training Co-ordinator part-time having assisted on a number of our courses in the past.

When not at Fierce Earth he is an accomplished painter and last week saw the opening of his first solo show at Bryant Priest Newman architects in the Jewellery Quarter.

I mention it (not just because I’m proud of our talented staff) but because the opening saw a really eclectic mix of people in one room – architects, designers, entrepreneurs, lawyers, consultants, nurses, artists, producers and politicians.

And in a microcosm I had a glimpse of what a “well connected” city could look like. Sometimes it is easy for us all to “network” inside a bubble – especially so if you spend time on certain social media networks – where you hang out exclusively with people who essentially think the same as you.

The gene pools of our networks are strengthened by diversity: knowing people from a wide range of sectors, specialisms, interests, disciplines, politics and faiths opens up our curiosity and tolerance. Listening to opinions that differ from our own and exploring those differences takes maturity and confidence, but is also stimulating and rewarding.

“Technology, talent and tolerance” comprise the holy trinity of attributes the cultural commentator Richard Florida prescribes to build the “Creative City”. Birmingham has, in my experience, bags of talented people. I am looking forward to seeing how the new performing arts school, Birmingham Ormiston Academy encourages young digital and performance talent.

I am not qualified to speak about the state of the technology of the city. Perhaps we need to skill up in that area.

But what we can all do right now is burst out of our habitual bubbles and build resilient and plural networks. It may take a little confidence and courage to step out of the comfort zone: but the rewards on a personal and, ultimately, a civic level could be immense.

Read More http://www.birminghampost.net/birmingham-business/business-comment/more-business-comment/2011/09/30/helga-henry-networkers-need-to-step-out-of-the-comfort-zone-65233-29508981/#ixzz1cM4hwpaX

The “End of the Rainbow” at B’ham Hippodrome: a reflection on young talent and addiction by Daniela Bassi

End of the Rainbow production shot

Tracie Bennett as Judy Garland

Because Fierce Earth is now part of the Birmingham Hippodrome, we often have the chance to watch many shows, from ballets to prose, through to musicals. So this week I spent my Wednesday afternoon at theatre enchanted by Peter Quilter’s musical drama, on the one hand as a trainee on a mission, on the other as a young girl and hopeful singer.

“End of the Rainbow”. A title that hints at an end. Anyone who knows the story and life of Judy Garland can immediately figure out what is going to happen in the show. Judy Garland had a turbulent life studded with great success and dark moments of deep inner turmoil.
Her baggage of insecurities and anxieties is arose from a childhood that has nothing to do with the young age: Frank and Ethel Gumm put their daughter on a stage since she was two, instilling in her the belief that she should always be a winner. At the same time feelings of inadeguancy started to haunt her and overwhelmed her. Later, her psychological problems were also compounded by her entry in the studio system.

Hollywood medics regularly gave the young performers a wide range of new wonder drugs, such as amphetamines and phenobarbital, to help them cope with the frenetic rhythms of the star system.

Judy freely admitted her habit to her second husband, Vincente Minnelli, with whom she had her first-born Liza, in 1946. The next year she had a big breakdown during the production of “The Pirate” and attempted suicide. Over the next twenty years she spent her life rushing from one love story to another, from a clinic to the stage, in an endless loop.

In 1967 she met the club pianist Mickey Deans for the first time. And the show talks about this last period of her life, spent with Mickey. She already endured irrational bouts of paranoia and wild fury, enhanced by the assumption of her “happy pills”, but Mickey was continuing to provide her the narcotics.

Very sorrowful scene. Nevertheless, you can’t stop laughing. I couldn’t believe it, but Tracy Bennett’s interpretation is so stunning and hilarious that you feel transfixed for the whole duration of the show. She doesn’t play Judy Garland, she is Judy Garland, actually. The brilliant exuberance of this comedy and the unruly innocence of the protagonist really strike you deeply. Besides, the moment of Judy’s death is not represented, but it’s told by Hilton McRae in a very sensitive way, as he deserves a special mention for the touching interpretation of Anthony, Judy’s loyal friend and pianist.

Unfortunately, drink and drugs are nothing new in the show business, as well as we know that their ready availability is a dark shadow on this sparkling world. We could draft a long list of victims of the addiction, just remember Marilyn Monroe’s drug overdose, Kurt Cobain’s suicide or Elvis Presley’s death after years of abuse, and other two recent examples: Michael Jackson’s in 2009 and Amy Winehouse’s death in 2011.

Although it seems obvious, the point is that a prodigious and public childhood almost always leads to a hopelessly problematic adult life. Wealth, fame, affection (often ephemeral) are not enough to heal the severe wound in their soul. This kind of professional career cannot provide the security or stability that they always longed for. The only thing that could have saved them, would probably have been a childhood far from the spotlight and away from parents obsessed with the desire to get more and ever more from their children.

Anyway, we will enjoy forever of the artistic heritage that these falling stars have left us, but I really hope that know and understand the roots of these problems could help young artists not to sacrifice their lives in the name of the talent that makes them great.

WE HAVE A NEW ADDRESS – please change your records

We will have more news to follow about this – but the Fierce Earth office address and phone number has changed.

With immediate effect our address is:

Fierce Earth Limited,

Birmingham Hippodrome, Thorp Street, Southside, Birmingham B5 4TB

Landline:   0121 689 1051

Watch this space for more news, but for now, simply change your address books!

Shout Festival returns

SHOUT, Birmingham’s Festival of Queer Culture, returns in November for it’s third year. The programme, which is now available online and in print, builds on the sucesses of the last two years.

It encompasses the visual (A Spot of b)other, Imagined Intimacy), performance (Stevenage, Invisible), talks (Italian ‘Lesbian’ Literature, Queer Theology) and an extensive film programme which has already started with weekly screenings at mac birmingham.

A reoccuring theme in this years festival is rememberence of Birminghams LGBT past with performances remembering The JUG nightclub, a landmark in the city’s scene from the late 70s to the mid 90s, and the early Birmingham Woman’s scene with ‘Get Your Docs OFF’. A highlight of the festival will be Gay Birmingham, Back to Back in which the National Trust property on Hurst Street, some of the last remaining ‘Back to Back’s’ in the city, serve as the starting point for an exploration of 4 stories from 4 periods told by Women & Theatre.

Once again SHOUT has invited an art historian to work with the collection of Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery. In Queering The Portait David Hoyle will lead a promanade around the galleries uncovering queerness on canvas.

Fierce Earth are glad to support SHOUT, another sucessful festival in the cities cultural calendar.

Introducing…Daniela Bassi

Hi everybody!

I’m Daniela, 26, from Italy and I will work at Fierce Earth for the next 3 months as a trainee. I took a three-years degree in Communication Sciences and I’m also a singer. I come from a small town in the countryside, so when I arrived in Birmingham I was really scared and homesick. I felt a very tiny girl and B’ham is so huge!

My first two days at Fierce Earth I  attended the Metapod Connect course. First I was a little confused about it because of the language. I’ve been studied English so many years so I didn’t suspect it was so difficult to me to understand. Anyway, I listened to Helga Henry speaking and I thought immediately she was a great entertainer. She does her work with with passion and transfers positive emotions to other people. After the first day course, we went to the Radisson Blue to have dinner, it was a great night with great food and great people!

So, despite of the fact that I can’t understand every single word, I felt inspired by the main content of the course and now I’m mor confident in exploring the opportunities of web and social media.

And what about the city?! I’m exploring it as well! It seems a neverending city to me, it’s funny! Little by little I know nice people and I’m starting to speak a little bit more, even if I’m not so good yet. I feel less homesick, but I miss singing very much, so I would like find some musicians to sing with. Anyway, my work at Fierce Earth has just started and I still have got a lot of things to learn, so…See you soon!!!

Daniela

 

 

Do you want your team better Connected?

We’ve often said networking is key, not only for team leaders but for empowering people at every level of your organisation to build your business. As employers consider their staff, talent spotting, talent development and talent performance have become requisites for leaders.

Fierce Earth offer Metapod Connect, which equips the future leaders of your organisation with these skills in 4 intensive days. A few places remain for the next dates which are 26th-27th September and 31st October-1st November.

Course attendees will develop greater knowledge of and skills relating to the development of their own network and how to empower staff to grow the organisation.  The link between outward facing organisations and the benefits it brings will be explored.

By the end of the course you will have a practical guide for developing a team approach to networks and relationship building, with practical ways in which that networking and outward focus can be harnessed for the organisation.

Helga recently delivered networking training to Rewired PR, whose Managing Director Ruth Pipkin said;

Getting the most out of networking is a vital skill for people at any stage in their career, and good networkers can have a hugely positive effect on a business. Working in a busy PR agency my team are often out and about meeting new contacts, but converting them to business leads is the real challenge.

 

Through (Metapod/Helga’s) training my team were able to develop their approach and, crucially, gain a more insightful understanding of the new business pipeline, how to develop meaningful business relationships and ‘getting to yes’. As a result, I now have a more empowered sales force to support in building the company and reaching our aspirations for growth.

To book places, or for more information, please email helga@fierceearth.com

 

Dean’s Observations of PSI3 in Stoke on Trent

As I joined the company Fierce Earth in collaboration with independent producer Gemma Thomas was well into the production of  Place, Space and Identity 3 in Stoke-on-Trent.  Six artists commissioned to create six pieces in the six areas of Stoke on Trent and a group of creative industries start-ups taking part in a Metapod Be Effective course.

On my first visit I course assisted on the Be Effective training as they did a day about marketing. The group is made up of a good mix: craft makers a games designer, a musician, a music producer, a couple of writers (one fiction one non). The atmosphere was a familiar one and really took me back four years to when I attended Be Effective in Wolverhampton. Everyone eager and slightly nervous and the group had obviously bonded and were clearly driving each other on. The training by Helga and Pete was challenging at times for them (again I remember having my preconceptions challenged) but at the end of the day they were all really fired up and ready to go and make things happen.

On my second visit I sat in on a meeting with the producers and the Artists and the toured the sites of the projects. A couple really stand out for me. Rich White is lead artist for the project and took on the challenge of responding to Winton Square which sits outside the train station. I liked Rich’s approach to the task. No pre-conceived plans being shoe-horned into a space but a genuine response to a space that locals apparently didn’t even know was a square.  Rich had made drawings of a proposed Platform 4 which would bring visitors who climbed it face to face with Josiah Wedgwood as the figure seemed to create some opposing views for local people.

Rich White on Platform 4, Winton Square, Stoke

Probably the project that I liked most was being delivered in Cobridge by Rob Hewitt of Redhawk Logistica. Setting out to tackle the areas excessive “greyness” and bring some colour to the streets by encouraging residents to choose from a colour palette and have their front doors painted. As well as brightening  the area a little Rob also encourages the participants to think about colour and engage in a discussion. As a bit of a cynic about community arts I was surprised by my reaction to this piece. I think its got a lot to do with Rob himself. His project is like him. There is no shouting or fanfare, both he and his work are softly spoken but intense, and most of all sincere. I can think of very few people particularly artist who could walk into a new and suspicious community with an idea like this and gain a feeling of trust and engagement so quickly.

What I really like is that the concept is not diluted to make it work in the community it does that thing that you hear so often banded about often without justification. It works on many levels.

My third visit was last week and things had moved on. The group attending the training had clearly been busy in their month gap between sessions and started by sharing new business cards, blog addresses and twitter handles. They then relayed their success stories before getting stuck into a day of fundraising. Some significant personal transformation are taking place and the group are already mourning the end of the course the ends next week.

The biggest physical change came in the form of Platform 4 nearing completion in Winton Square complete with Rich in high vis and pondering the wrapping stage. It is always exciting to see a piece go from paper to reality and for the record I shook Wedgwood’s hand as up close he is quite and endearing chubby faced chap. Infact he looks a bit like David Cameron a few years down the line.

Rich White's Platform 4, Winton Square

To see more images of the projects and hear about them in the artists words visit the PSI3 site here