Across the Pond ECD Jim de Zoete speaks at UK Creative Festival

Our very own ECD, Jim de Zoete, took part in a panel at the UK Creative Festival to discuss mental fitness within the creative industries. He shared some great insights and takeaways, which you can read about in Anna Brent's linked post.

Anna said:

“Such a great day yesterday at the UK Creative Festival in lovely Margate 🍦 . The aim of the event is to connect, educate, and inspire young untapped talent with the best of the UK creative communities.

I was super proud of Jim de Zoete for taking part in a really important debate about Mental Fitness in our industry with Ben Akers, David Gibson, Caroline Pay and Nicola Forristal.

The panel shared historical negative experiences such as environments where presenteeism was a badge of honour and the feelings of shame around poor mental health.

But it was inspiring to hear them all feeling a great sense of progress in our industry's work culture. There is still a lot to do, but the panel recognised that in an industry obsessed with productivity we need to:

💚 truly take care of the brain, our most valuable tool in creativity

💚 role model an openness on the subject

💚 focus on the 'whole human' and not just the employee

💚 protect downtime and flexibility

💚 respect our individuality”