Hi All,
You know that awkward middle period of the campaign that Lucy mentioned in last weeks campaign diary? We entered that period with aplomb in week 3 of our campaign. A strange time indeed. It has been both a quiet period where you have a chance to figure out what we’ve missed so far and to do some new stuff to get ‘this thing’ across the line, and a period where a surprising amount of energy amongst the team is expended chasing new leads, sending out updates and emails and generally keeping the wheels in motion.
We spent much of that time speaking to our networks, our backers and people in the industries that we cover and the indie publishing scene to ask for feedback, support and ideas – What can we do to make this better? To reach more people?
And so, on the advice of magazine retailers that we’ve been speaking to and universities and creative hub managers from around the UK and further afield, we’re adding in some new bulk purchasing rewards today to the campaign. If you’ve been waiting to buy 10 or more copies of Issue 1 for your shop, the tenants of your incubator or your students, dive right in and claim your magazines today. *pushes keyboard away and waits for orders to start rolling in* (but not really). Some of these bulk orders are designed specifically for retailers/hubs and so we’ve added them as secret perks. To find out more, email [email protected]
We also took part in #EthicalHour on Twitter on Monday evening and it was great to connect to new people doing seriously interesting things from around the world. It was a chance to share what we’ve been up to during the campaign, find out interesting tips and hints from other people who have crowdfunded ethical products and we’ve met a load of new people, some of which have joined our movement and backed us in Indiegogo. We’ll be back there every Monday from now on to chat to ethical businesses and leaders. Search #ethicalhour on Twitter to find out more.
For the avid Ethos social media channel followers amongst you, you’ll have noticed by our recent scandi-updates that Fiona and I were recently in Oslo for Oslo Innovation Week. I think we found time to fire off some tweets and Facebook posts in between events, meetings and drinking our new favourite Scandinavian craft beer from Oslo Brewing Company anyway. We’ve posted some stories from our trip online already and have some more lined up for the coming weeks from brewers, makers, hubs and more. Its the third year on the trot that we’ve been to Oslo for Innovation Week and its always an inspiring way to spend a few days in October to ready you for the end of the year, especially as social innovation and global sustainable development goals featured to heavily this year. You can expect some of the stories we’re working on from Norway in Issue 1 too.
As things stand, we can print and deliver a beautiful first Issue 1 to those that have supported us through the campaign and to the retailers and spaces that will stock it. Our next goal is to raise enough to commission some writers and photographers that are ready to start working on the content that we have planned from around the world.
I’ll also take this opportunity to express my eternal gratitude to everyone that has supported our campaign by both backing it and sharing it so far. We’re very excited to share the first magazine with you in January and we’re due to start working on it very soon.
For those who haven’t had an opportunity to support us so far, there is still 9 days to do so as of today. Sharing the campaign with your networks, or personally to anyone who you think might like it, is just as valuable to us as cash donations. But then why miss out on getting one of the first issues from the most exciting new magazine launch of 2017?
Cheers,
Andrew
