Pull Up a Chair: a new monthly meet-up for cultural freelancers

We’re trying something new.

For the past few years, we’ve hosted monthly online coworking sessions for freelancers. But we’ve noticed that the thing people often need isn’t necessarily another hour in front of a laptop getting work done. Sometimes it’s a chance to chat to other freelancers, swap experiences, ask a question, hear a different perspective or simply remember that you’re not the only person figuring things out as you go.

So we’re retiring the coworking sessions and making a little more room for conversation.

Introducing Pull Up a Chair: NECF’s monthly online meet-up.

Pull Up a Chair will be an informal, relaxed space for cultural freelancers to connect, talk and share ideas. Each month, we’ll have something to get the conversation started. It might be a timely issue affecting freelancers, a question we think is worth exploring, a conversation with an artist or someone working in the sector, or something that’s come up repeatedly in our community.

There won't be a packed agenda or a requirement to participate. Come along for the whole session, drop in for half an hour, join a breakout room for a chat, or find a quiet corner to get some work done alongside other freelancers. Just bring yourself and, if you fancy it, a cup of something.

And importantly, we want freelancers to help decide what we talk about.

We'll be inviting suggestions for future sessions, so if there's something you've been wondering about, struggling with, excited by or simply think other freelancers should be talking about, tell us. It doesn't need to be a fully formed idea. A question or a sentence is enough.

Our first Pull Up a Chair

We're planning our first session for the end of September, and we're starting with a big question:

What could the new Arts Council England NPO portfolio mean for freelancers?

Once the new NPO portfolio guidance is published, we'll get together to think about it from a freelancer's perspective.

What would we like to see NPOs doing differently? What should organisations be committing to in their bids? What could meaningful support for freelancers look like once they're funded? And what would a genuinely freelancer-friendly NPO sector look like over the next few years?

We'll share more details about the first session soon, including the date and how to join.

For now, we're opening the door.

What should we Pull Up a Chair about?

Suggest a topic by filling in the Google Form

We'll hold the door open. You just pull up a chair.