Tony Clarkson

I was also a bit bored because nothing seemed to happen here relevant to the design industry. Arts and crafts are covered well, but there's not much on design. I was conscious of categorising it as design, but I wanted to get the right people to come along.

Even though I've lived here for 25 years, I don't really know anyone who does the same as I do. So I wanted to open up a network and see who's around.

Creative Boom IRL was the starting point. It made me realise there is a scene here, and lots of talented creatives, which I knew there were, but not much goes on. It's normally traditional business networking in areas that aren't relevant. You'd be sold pensions or insurance. But what we want is creativity and inspiration. A chance to meet others doing the same thing.

It's about doing things that probably shouldn't work. Taking the long way round, ignoring the obvious route, making something from very little or simply carrying on when the sensible thing might have been to stop. Our speakers will each take the theme in their own direction, sharing the decisions, detours and moments that shaped where they are.

I want to bring people together and show that there's a big creative community here that can support each other and help each other out.

In my eyes, we weren't successful at all. My version was to have work to be proud of.

Just ask. So what if the answer's no? At least you know and can move on from it.

I've always been a generalist in that if a client asks, 'Can you do XYZ?', I'll say yes and then figure out how.