Creative Forces Podcast with Guy Kilty

In 2009 Rowan Hoban and Sarah Bird spotted a gap in the market for family-friendly festivals and decided to co-create the Just So Festival in their spare time. Just under a decade later, Just So has gone on to win multiple awards and Rowan and Sarah, through the arts organisation they created alongside it, Wild Rumpus, organise events all around the world from their horsebox office in the Whirligig Woods on the festival site at Rode Hall in Cheshire. In this episode, which was recorded in the woods in one of their caravans, Rowan and Sarah explain how a chance meeting led to them starting their business, what makes their partnership work, and why being outdoors fuels their creativity.

Dave Haslam is a DJ, journalist and author. After setting up his own fanzine, Debris, in the early 80s, Dave DJ’d over four hundred and fifty times at Manchester’s legendary Hacienda nightclub before going onto gig at festivals and club nights all around the world and play alongside bands like the Stone Roses and New Order. As a writer he’s now published his fifth book, ‘Sonic Youth Slept on My Floor; Music, Manchester & More’, a brilliant memoir of his life and career. In this interview, Dave explains why sharing has been the main theme of the various things he’s done over the years, why he loves weirdos and why he’s just recently formed a band.

Tessa Cook is the co-founder of OLIO, the smartphone app which connects neighbours and local businesses so they can share surplus food rather than throwing it away, and since its launch in North London in 2015 it’s now being used by hundreds of thousands of users in more than 30 countries. After leaving the family farm in North Yorkshire Tessa went on to study at Cambridge and Stanford and enjoy a successful career in business which included stints at the publishing group Emap and the technology pioneer Dyson. In this episode Tessa explains how she learnt a lot about entrepreneurship by watching the way her parents worked, how she suffered from ‘impostor syndrome’ at Stanford, and how she worked on a number of different company ideas before experiencing the lightbulb moment that led to the creation of Olio.

Andrew Bloch is the co-founder and group managing director of Frank, one of the UK’s leading consumer PR agencies. After starting life with just three people in 2000, Frank now has offices in London, Manchester, Glasgow and Sydney, and counts Disney, Volkswagen and Sir Alan Sugar among its clients. In this episode Andrew explains how he got into PR by accident, how he overcame his doubts about whether he was ready to start a company before co-founding Frank, and how he swapped PR for rent in Frank’s first office.

Charly Lester is an entrepreneur, dating industry expert and journalist. After creating the hugely popular 30 Dates Blog as a twenty-nine year-old financial contractor, Charly went on to become the Guardian’s dating editor and created The Dating Awards covering the UK, Europe and the US. With professional matchmaker Caroline Brealey she’s now launched A League of Her Own, a club for female entrepreneurs, and the Dating Expert Academy, an online accreditation program for aspiring dating experts. She’s also now head judge at the 2017 UK Blog Awards, chairing a panel of 40 expert judges. In this episode hear how Charly’s entrepreneurial streak has come to the fore in a variety of ways, the impact her parents have made on her life and career, and why she works best at night.

Ajaz Ahmed is the chief executive of AKQA, the digital agency he founded when he dropped out of university at the age of 21. With a client list over the years that includes Nike, Virgin, Rolls Royce and Netflix, Ajaz and AKQA have consistently pushed the boundaries in their field and hoovered up more awards than any of their competitors along the way. In this episode hear how AKQA grew from just a handful of people to more than 2,000 based in studios all over the world, how his upbringing in rural Berkshire informs his view of the future, and the daily routine he employs to ensure he’s at his most creative.

Stanley Chow is an artist and illustrator whose iconic and instantly-recognisable portraits of celebrities, footballers and musicians have received worldwide acclaim and generated a client list which includes the New York Times, The New Yorker, Manchester United and The White Stripes. In this episode hear how Stan’s love of drawing developed from a young age in his family chip shop in Manchester, why social media provided him with his ‘big break’, and why his love of football has been so key to his success.

At the age of just 22 Julianne Ponan became the owner and chief executive of the superfood brand Creative Nature. Just six years later Creative Nature products are stocked in the UK’s biggest supermarkets, and she and the company have won a ton of awards. In this episode find out how Julianne has grown the business, from prospective customers spitting out her first batch of snack bars to being sold nationwide, how she’s coped with anaphylaxis from a young age and how that’s inspired what she does now, and the rule she tries to live by when it comes to business opportunities.

Nicholas Royle is a writer, publisher and editor. He’s written seven novels, two novellas and three volumes of short fiction​. He’s a senior lecturer in creative writing at the Manchester Writing School and head judge of the Manchester Fiction Prize. If that wasn’t enough, he also runs Nightjar Press and works as an editor for Salt Publishing. In this episode find out how he keeps track of his ideas, why he’s fascinated by doppelgangers, and the exact seat where he feels he does his best work.

Creative Forces is a brand new podcast. Each episode is a conversation with a creative individual, hosted by Guy Kilty. Launching March 2018.