What is CreativeMornings?
CreativeMornings is a volunteer-run breakfast lecture series for creative types hosted on the last Friday of each month. With chapters in 224 cities across 67 countries, it’s the world’s largest face-to-face creative community.
How it works
Every month, each local chapter invites a guest speaker from their creative community to discuss that month’s global CreativeMornings theme. Past CreativeMornings Raleigh speakers have included designers, novelists, entrepreneurs, radio hosts, illustrators, and more. They’ve centered their talks around themes such as “courage,” “procrastination,” and “resilience.”
CM Raleigh’s New Teacher Appreciation Event
Two years ago, our local chapter decided to start hosting a once-a-year event that foregoes the CreativeMornings global theme in favor of local community outreach. The event features a panel of local educators chosen by the Raleigh-Durham community to speak on creativity, equity, and inclusion in public education. The teacher appreciation initiative is part of our larger mission to improve our community outreach, expand our audience, and diversify our event partnerships in both demographic and project scope.
Traditional event vs. Teacher-focused: Key differences
Speaker Selection Process
Event speakers are selected by CM Host and CM team —> Speakers nominated and chosen by CM audience and creative community at large.
Event Format
One event speaker —> Panel of 4 public school teachers + 1 moderator
Day and Time
Friday morning —> Saturday morning (so teachers can attend!)
Audience
CM audience (creative professionals) —> CM audience, local educators, education and DEI foundations, and educator and DEI supporters
Month-long Instagram Campaign
STEP 1: Reach current audience
Event Announcement and Explanation
This CreativeMornings RDU event is very different from our typical monthly event—in primus, format, location, date, and time. So to reach loyal CreativeMornings audiences, I created this video to kick off event promotion with a briefing on the event’s main idea and goals.
STEP 2: Expand Audience + Celebrate Teacher Appreciation Week
A week’s worth of volunteer-generated-content during Teacher Appreciation Week
We filmed 5 CreativeMornings RDU volunteers reading letters of gratitude to teachers from their past. Members sent the physical letters to their teachers and then tagged them on social media when their letter reading was featured (seeking permission first to respect privacy)
the Letters of Gratitude videos are meant to:
encourage the Raleigh-Durham community to thank their teachers during Teacher Appreciation Week
Make teachers top of mind while promoting a teacher-centered event
increase social media engagement with Raleigh-Durham educators and organizations
STEP 3: Reach more educators, inform, build anticipation
Speaker Announcement - 1 week before event
STEP 4:
Final Event Push!
Tagging these teachers and their organizations helped us reach new attendees outside of our art and design circle.