Our last meetup was a round table style discussion time. It was the first time we’d done anything like this. Since our group has so many new faces we wanted to make sure everyone had a chance to speak up and share. When you’re young and running or starting a business there are tons of questions that you have and sometimes it’s hard to track down the answers. We wanted this meet up to be a place where attendees could get their questions answered without having to be worried about what others would think if they asked them. So…  everyone was able to submit questions anonymously for discussion after dinner. While everyone snacked on tapas from mi Tomatina in Winter Park, we pulled questions out of a jar one by one and opened up the floor for discussion. Some great topics were discussed from “what is success?” to “how do you balance customer satisfaction with your own artistic vision?” to “is it normal to get only 4 hours of sleep a night?”.

We hope everyone had an amazing time, we know we did. We can’t wait to see you all again over the summer! Stay tuned to the blog and twitter for upcoming meet ups and get togethers! And if you’d like to use this image for your own blog post about the meet up, you can download it here courtesy of Studio222 Photography and It’s Better Together. Please make sure you link back to us if you use it.

We hope you can join us THIS Thursday, April 29 for our next meet up, a chance to get to know other It’s Better Together members better over drinks and tapas at mi Tomatina in Winter Park. We’ll be hosting a “round table panel” where everyone is the panelist and the everyone can ask the questions, opening up the conversation to whatever you’d like to talk about.

Everyone has questions about starting and running their own businesses and sometimes we just don’t know where we can get the answers. It has always been the goal of our group to support and help each other so we’re excited to open up the conversation and talk about the ins and outs of life and business here in Central Florida for young, creative pros. Attendees will be able to write questions on cards anonymously for discussion during dinner. We’ll pull cards at random and open up the conversation to discuss the answers. This will be the perfect place to ask that question about business or life or art that you’ve been afraid to ask. Come hungry, with a few questions and with an open mind.

Click here for more details and to RSVP (reservations are mandatory)

Hope to see you on Thursday!

The team graciously shared insights on how Lure Design and L2 Design Collective, their sister company, work together; and about how to create dynamic and amazing partnerships like theirs with Drive New Media and Think Creative. As a studio that has always had a goal of staying small and turning out the highest level of creative and innovative work, Lure Design has been blazing trails in Orlando for years. You may know them without realizing it, as many of us did, when we saw this poster that recently garnered international attention at it raced around the internet, shared by graphic designers and creatives alike, because of it’s witty message.

Towards the end of their talk we asked all 4 members of the Lure Design team what their one piece of advice would be if asked to give it based on everything they’ve learned working at Lure and we got some great nuggests of wisdom:

“Know yourself and your limitations”

“Be true to yourself, always.”

“Be organized both for yourself and for your clients.”

“Always partner with the best.”

The team also graciously created a design based on our It’s Better Together logo and allowed every single attendee the chance to pull a screen print. The prints came out amazing, each looking completely different than the last as each member chose different colors and pulled their print on different recycled posters. For all of our graphic designers in attendance, this was an especially special experience!

After the posters were made, Lure design graciously provided us with an entire table full of refreshments and everyone was able to mingle and chat. And, as always, everyone was able to meet each other organically without any pressure to try to meet everyone because we put together our business card packs. This is something that we are really proud of and make it a point to put together at each meet up to allow everyone attending to not have to worry about “networking” or giving their card to as many people as they can. It takes the pressure off trying to remember to meet every single face in the room and allows everyone the freedom to mingle naturally. This time, Ashley of Ashley Brooke Designs was kind enough to design our name tags and business card packs this time. When everyone first walks in the door, they drop off all their business cards or marketing materials on a table and take a name tag. During the first half of each meet up, while speakers are talking, a small group of us go through and put one card of each attendee in each pack. Then, before everyone leaves, they take a pack home with them so that they have all the information of everyone there.

We had a wonderful time and want to thank each and every one of you who attended and who continue to attend and make our meet ups wonderful. If you weren’t able to make it this time, know that we host these meet-ups quarterly and the next one is coming up in April so if you haven’t already, subscribe to the It’s Better Together Blog and follow It’s Better Together on twitter to stay up to date with any announcements, business tips, daily inspiration, and more. We are so excited to see what happens in 2010 with our group and we’d love for you to be a part of it with us.

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Over the next few weeks we’ll be introducing new post “curators,” freshening things up on the blog and planning for our upcoming meet ups and events. We are thrilled and how our group has grown in its freshman year and are really looking forward to continuing our journey together.

-Trisha, Becka & Anna

We hope you can join us for a evening of connecting with other business-savvy pros in the weddings and creative industries! Local design veterans Lure Design will be hosting us for a studio tour and talk with open Q&A about running a successful creative business. Afterwards, we’ll keep social time going over at Stardust Coffee & Video.

Who: Young wedding and creative industry pros interested in connecting with other business-savvy creatives in the Central Florida area
When: Thursday, January 28, 2010
Time: 6:30 p.m.
Location: Lure Design in Orlando

For more info and to RSVP, click here.

Also wanted to give you the heads up that Lure is hosting a holiday event this Saturday, December 12 at their studio located at 1009 Virginia Drive in Orlando. They’ll be selling 2 Design Collective holiday cards, screen printed gig posters and more. Bring an unwrapped toy for Toys For Tots and get a limited-edition screen printed holiday poster. Definitely stop by for holiday snacks and spirits!

And another big thanks to Peter Nieves for sharing his financial knowledge with us. If you enjoyed Peter, take a minute to send him a quick “thank you” note or email letting him know. I know, personally, that he has helped me so much in the financial side of my business and he is always so wonderful to work with, to talk with, and to learn from. And it was extremely gracious of him to give us so much of his time!

We hope that everyone who came felt completely welcomed and had a chance to meet a bunch of other young pro’s at similar stages in life and business to themselves. Our vision for this group is that we would continue to grow as a community of support and friendship and we have more fun plans in the works for the future that we are so excited to see come into reality. Thank you to everyone who came out again and for everyone who came out for the first time! You are the heartbeat of our group and we are so glad to have gotten to meet you!

If you didn’t get a chance to take notes, or missed out on the meeting, you can see quoteables from Peter’s talk and question and answer time on the It’s Better Together twitter page.

We also finally got a feed burned for this little gem of a blog. There are so many things to come that we’d hate for you to miss out on, so take a minute to add the It’s Better Together Blog to your reader asap! Go ahead. I’ll wait…

I’ve added a bunch of photos to our It’s Better Together Flickr. You are more than welcome to use them on your blog or facebook pages. Keep in mind all images shared here and on the flickr pages are shared under the Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0 license. (That allows others to use the images, but they may not alter them in any way. This includes cropping that removes artist’s branding or watermarks.)

And now, without further delay… a photo recap:

Again, thank you to Seven Sister’s Coffee for hosting our event and keeping the coffee bar open extra late!

Anna Bond made us these adorable ice-breaker name tags. And the girls from Orange Blossom Ink made us business card take home bags in gorgeous varying patterns.

To keep the meet-up from being too “Hi! Here’s my card!” we had a business card table where everyone could leave their cards and then we had them all sorted into the gorgeous little bags for each attendee to take home. I’m kind of in love with this system.

I promise, I put them all back afterwards…

Our guest speaker, Peter was so thoughtful and brought everyone packets FULL of accounting and tax information that we can all have on hand quickly for the future. Brilliant!

Our attendees at this meeting ranged from graphic designers, to illustrators, to planners, to hair stylists, to calligraphers, to photographers.

The night ended with more mingling, and Peter answering questions one on one. Again, thank you again Peter!

We created a list of the attendees’ twitters and you can follow the It’s Better Together list here. (If you aren’t on it, it’s because I couldn’t find you on twitter, just send us a quick message if you’d like to be added.)

We are planning on having quarterly meet-ups with featured guest speakers and social get togethers in between. Our next meet-up will most likely be in early 2010 so be looking out for announcements about that and other get togethers happening between now and then!

xo,
Becka

Who: Young wedding industry pros interested in connecting with other business-savvy creatives in the Central Florida area
When: Thursday, October 29, 2009
Time: 6:30 p.m.
Location: Seven Sisters Coffee House in Orlando

For more info and to RSVP, click here.

Rifle Design

Mama’s Sauce

Orange Blossom Ink

Studio222 Photography

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