The day kicked off at the Rialto Theatre in style with Louise Blackwell from Fuel Theatre charting her journey from freeform experimental performance student at Dartington College of Arts to becoming a tip-top Theatre Producer. Along the way she found inspiration in a brilliant drama teacher and performed a dance piece in Brighton sea! After her talk she fielded questions on diversity in the arts and how someone might go about getting the chance to perform in a Fuel show before dashing off to London to get back to the day job…

Following hot on the heels of Louise was Tom Chute from Brighton WordPress design company Pragmatic delivering a workshop to a packed room back at Dv8’s Brighton campus. Students got to field ideas for their own website and learn how important it is to keep up to date with the latest developments for security and the best designs.

Next up at Rialto was Broadcast Journalist Alex Strangwayes-Booth who talked through her experience of working for the BBC. Alex gave some great tips on how to get a foot in the door with work experience and Apprenticeships plus how being a bit quirky and daring can go a long way!

 Now was the time to launch our first panel discussion as our very own Music Tutor Jason chaired a chat with Rough Trade A&R man Paul Jones and Brighton promotions impresario Alex Murray, founder of One Inch Badge. Over the course of 45 minutes there were too many gems as to how to get ahead in the music business to mention but the main headline was make sure your music is good and be nice! A particular highlight of the day was seeing Paul Jones post-discussion sat with a phone to his ear as it pumped out music student Josh’s latest composition. Props to Josh for not passing up the opportunity for exposure!

Second panel discussion of the day focused on words and in particular the excellent and varied work of Thomas H Green (Artsdesk) and Paul Levy (Fringe Review). Excellent titbits of advice included; find the time in the day when your brain is at its best and making sure you use that time to write; blag and blog as much as possible; and get good at time management.

Whilst words were being discussed downstairs some students had the privilege of an engaging in an interactive workshop with Sarah Perryman, Brighton Fringe Participation & Development Manager. Over the course of an hour students heard some great anecdotes and advice from Sarah (“I once put on a show in Brighton in May that wasn’t part of the Fringe and no one came!) before being guided through the conception and design of their very own show. I won’t give away what it was in case it’s the big hit of Brighton Fringe 2017 but needless to say it was a unique and exciting idea playing to the varied strengths and interests of our students.

To close the day we had a final panel discussion around the theme of pictures and media. Photographer Nick Ford was joined by Creative Director for Studio Syrup John Davison and Artist, Writer, thinker and collusion breaker (!) Simon Drake. All manner of topics were covered from the trials and tribulations of being freelance to the importance of social media to promote yourself and your work, and how important it is to be able to make a good cup of tea when starting out! Each panellist finished with a final piece of advice that summed up nicely what we learnt throughout the day:

Simon Drake “Trust your instincts, if there’s a part of your brain that says it’ll probably be alright, it won’t“

Nick Ford “Be yourself“

John Davison “Be good”

And with those words still ringing in our ears we said goodbye and thank you too all the amazing guests who gave up their time for such a brilliant day. Also thank you to every student and tutor from Dv8 Sussex and beyond that came along and helped make Creative Careers Day 2016 such a success. See you next year!

Don’t forget you can to apply for our courses for 2016/17 here and be a part of all this magic. For more information email apply@dv8sussex.com or call 01273 550432