Here I am from a small town in Wales walking through the streets of Nottingham to discover a lovely venue Broadway Cinema for y This Way Up 2019 conference. Entering the venue I take a seat and notice that I’m sat next to a lady who is also from Wales – I felt at home straight away, cup of tea in hand and excited for the next two days of sessions.
I always find it hard to decide what to go and see when it comes to an event like this as I just want to see and discover everything. I decided to try and go to talks that would be beneficial for Yr Egin and that could help us as a venue to develop and also for me as an employee to gain knowledge and confidence when it comes ac my work as I’m fairly new to the role as Customer Experience Assistant (Marketing) FAN BFI a Yr Egin has only been open for just over a year.
I enjoyed hearing views, opinions and tips from individuals from other venues during the sessions as a lot of us can relate to the same topics such as for example programming and also how to capture, develop and engage audiences which is something I would like to broaden my understanding further as part of my role with assisting with marketing.
Over the two days it was brilliant to hear so many inspirational speakers talk about their work and to guide us forward. I was fortunate to learn a lot about understanding how to capture wider audiences and to build relationships with other venues and platforms.
I think it’s so important that we introduce so many people to film. I thoroughly enjoyed listening to Yasmin Begum’s session on intersectionality – she was so passionate and enthusiastic sharing her ideas on how to make us more inclusive and telling us that price shouldn’t be a barrier for entry and that we should think outside the box when it came to engagement.
The session about More Than a Cinema related to our venue a lot as Yr Egin as the session title states is more than just a cinema – we also work with the community. It was great listening to how others work with a wider community offering them a space to be creative and collaborative and everyone sharing ideas thinking outside the box.
I think the Show and Share session was brilliant as it was great to see what different festivals and projects individuals and groups are working on across the UK giving us a taster on what they do.
I have benefited a lot from attending This Way Up 2019 and look forward to sharing and putting these ideas into practice back at Yr Egin.
Read about Yasmin Begum’s trip to the Island of Tiree for Screen Argyll’s, Sea Change course.
