Paris Lectures
Paris Lectures was a creative meetup & workshop series created by my partner and me in Paris, Ontario, a dream project from start to finish. Inspired by Stanford’s d.school’s creative warmups and my experience with Creative Mornings, we curated the kinds of events we wanted for our community, celebrating fellow local makers with complete creative freedom over every piece of promotional collateral. A microcosm of entrepreneurship and a bridge to authentic community, we kept the 20-lecture series running for just over two years, designing posters, hosting tech skills workshops, initiating fundraisers for causes in our community, and planning and running an incredibly fun, original and popular series of regular meetups. This laid the groundwork for additional local events to thrive, including the celebrated DT Concert series from our friends, Tim & Michelle.
My role: Founder, host, design, events
We grew the attendance from 13 people in a room above the hotel bar to a regularly sold-out 150 person venue, quite the achievement in a small town of 12,000. More than that, we helped forge connections between people in our community, connections that led to introductions, or jobs, and new collaborations.
Speakers included designers, writers, coffee makers, community advocates, scientists, industrial designers, and neighbours from up the street. We aimed to create a platform that didn’t otherwise exist in Paris, a place to tell stories and share ideas. One of our favorite events was Raconteurs, a storytelling event that prompted belly laughs and tears alike.
