CreativeMornings is reaching new creative communities around the world! We’re so excited to introduce you to the organizers of new chapters in Antwerp, Vilnius, Jerusalem, and Brisbane. Meet Wenke Mast, Antwerp, Belgium Which CreativeMornings chapter would you like to visit and why? All of them! Every time I visit a city I check if there is an event scheduled during my stay. Unfortunately, I have not been lucky. I loved the creative scene in Melbourne when I was there last year but it just wasn’t possible to attend the event. I really felt like I was missing out on something good. So maybe I should just go back one day. Get on a plane and fly a really long time, just to get some breakfast and be inspired. Sounds like fun! What excites you? Information, learning something...

We’re thrilled to announce the judges for the CreativeMornings and FreshBooks Master Freelancer Awards! Join us in welcoming: Legends and experts in their respective industries, they’re excited to look through the submissions and crown three winners. Let’s get to know them! Ingrid Fetell Lee Design Director at IDEO, Ingrid is currently on sabbatical writing The Aesthetics of Joy, a book about the connection between design and emotional wellbeing. Loves polka dots, pancakes, and the color pink. “I’ve read predictions that 40% of the workforce will be freelancers by 2020, and it makes perfect sense. The tools have gotten so much better. It’s easier than ever to strike out on your own and craft a business out of your passion.” — Ingrid Fet...

CreativeMornings keeps growing and growing! We’re thrilled to introduce you to the organizers of recently launched chapters in Taipei, Sofia, Charlotte, and Richmond. Give them a virtual high-five for being awesome. Meet Oliver Chang, Taipei, Taiwan Which CreativeMornings chapter would you like to visit and why? Well, this is a tough question for me. I would love to visit all of the chapters! But at this moment, I’d say NYC because it’s where CreativeMornings started. I really want to meet Tina and the awesome team in person and learn from their experience of building such a great community for creatives. Also, I want to dive into its creative, sharing, and inspiring culture. What excites you? Organizing meaningful events, bringing people together, and enab...

Last month was all about risk — and the circumstances and perspectives that exist in order for us to take one. This month, we’re delving deeper into those circumstances and defining our realities. Reality, on the surface, feels so tangible; so concrete. But (to, perhaps cheaply, use a turn of phrase), in reality, it isn’t quite so simple. Our existence is made of several truths, always shifting under our feet. The theme was chosen by our Belo Horizonte chapter, illustrated by Craig Ward, and presented in partnership with Shutterstock. This month, 141 cities are tackling the elusiveness of reality (or maybe just giving us a good, old-fashioned reality check) at breakfast events with speakers including: Melizarani T.Selva, a spoken word poet and storyteller curious in cult...

Freelance life can be lonely. And it can be tough to get the recognition you deserve. That’s why CreativeMornings and FreshBooks are launching the Master Freelancer Awards. It’s time to show us your best piece of freelance work — the website you designed that bends the rules, the photo you took that made it on that billboard, the copy you wrote for the poster that went viral — and tell us why you rock the freelance lifestyle. It’s absolutely free to enter, just like every CreativeMornings event. The process is simple: fill out this entry form and you’re in the running. Oh, and for the duration of the campaign, we’ll send you words (okay, maybe some gifs!) of encouragement, because we know that as a freelancer, you sometimes don’t get enough of ‘em. Don’t worry, you got this! (Not a fr...

As a community of creatives, entrepreneurs, community organizers, and out-of-the-box thinkers, we’re no strangers to taking risks. We tend to be comfortable with (or simply inspired by) taking chances in the face of uncertainty. But what drives these decisions and what’s at stake? What are we gambling with when we take these blind, scary, unpredictable leaps? How do we, as individuals and as communities, tackle the insecurity and instability that come with risk? The theme of RISK was chosen by our Munich chapter, illustrated by Andreas Preis, and presented in partnership with FreshBooks. In April, 138+ chapters around the world are grappling with these complicated and open-ended questions at breakfast events with speakers including: Kevin Cavenaugh, a designer and urban planner seeki...

Over the past seven years, we’ve collectively produced almost 3,000 events – and we’ve never charged our attendees for a single one (unless you count hugs or high fives as a currency!). This magic wouldn’t exist without the dedication of our incredible CreativeMornings organizers. Around the world, these organizers volunteer their time and energy to provide a free inspiring talk for their local creative community…and they even bring you breakfast! All of this effort adds up to be quarter of a million cups of coffee per year, 79,800 hours of work, and immeasurable amounts of inspiration. This year we’re hosting the second CreativeMornings Summit (the first one was pretty special) in Austin, Texas. It’ll bring 350+ organizers from across the globe tog...

The world around us is always in flux. We, as individuals and as communities, affect how and why, as well as when and where, we push for change. As creatives and entrepreneurs, makers and doers — we have the chance to (re)shape and (re)define the world around us. This month, 137 cities (give our newest chapters a virtual high-five!) will be exploring the shifting lenses and multifaceted theme of Change. It was chosen by our Barcelona chapter and illustrated by the Barcelona-based Victor Bregante. The conversations will be as interesting and complex as the topic itself. Turn and face the strange at events with speakers including: Jacqueline Novogratz, the founder & CEO of Acumen, an organization dedicated to changing how the world tackles poverty (New York City) Mathew Chow, a d...

We navigate the muddy waters of ethics every day. They’re present in everything from the values we define for our identities to how we interact with clients to the principals of engaging with other creative work on the internet. How have ethics, particularly in the creative world, evolved since their philosophical conception? Why do we create these codes of ethics in the first place? When should we examine what dictates our conscience? And what really makes up a solid, moral value system, anyway? This month, 133 CreativeMornings chapters are exploring questions like these — and what their various and complex answers might be. The theme was chosen by our Madrid chapter and illustrated by the Madrid-based CESS (César Cid). Gear up to have your perceptions challenged at events wit...

Communities are built on common ground and sustained by human connection. It’s easy (and safe) to say that human connection is driven by communication, and that communication is achieved with language. Yet our CreativeMornings community shares many more languages than the 40+ we speak. There are so many languages of CreativeMornings: generosity, love, hugs, high-fives, passion, excitement, creativity — the list goes on. Really, language boils down to expression. And isn’t that what creativity is really about? January’s theme was chosen by our Pittsburgh chapter, illustrated by Ryan Hamrick, and presented in partnership with MailChimp. This month 130 cities in 55 countries will be exploring our common languages and how we express them — whether cooked, crafted, or coded; spoken, writte...

We hear it all the time: time flies! Time is an invisible force that we very often, sometimes desperately, want to control — slow down, re-route, capture in something tangible — but why is it that we feel that time flies? And why are we always surprised? What if we could what see time looked like? Maximilian Kiener, an Austrian designer, set out to visualize time to make sense of how we feel it. His site, Why Time Flies, invites visitors to visualize how our perceptions of time are directly proportionate to our age. Stunning and interactive, as you scroll down the site, you see the passage of time. We had the opportunity to speak with Max about the behind-the-scenes of this project (he went through 80 iterations in four months before he launched), how it’s been received wor...

Last month, the CreativeMornings community put in some work to help their neighbors and improve their communities. While we firmly believe in face-to-face connections, we also know that not having a website can present real challenges for the work you passionately pursue. Add on a lack of resources—whether time, know-how, or money—and the challenges become even tougher. But what if someone could help? So, with the generous support of Squarespace, we encouraged the global CreativeMornings community to ease the workload of a deserving person or project by designing a simple, one-page website for someone who needs it most. The results made our hearts burst. From a local musician in Cardiff to a grassroots community activation in upstate New York to refugee support in Denver and a new ne...

CreativeMornings is a global engine of generosity, where everyone is creative and anyone is welcome. But there are other things driving the members of our community. Like working for yourself and collaborating with clients. From big agencies to small shops to freelancers, we all know what it’s like to patiently wait on clients to communicate feedback or process an invoice. As rewarding as it can be to work for yourself, there are times when client interactions can be complicated and tough. Or chock-full of excitement and joy. And sometimes, when you’re trying to express yourself, words just don’t cut it. Sometimes all you need is the perfect animated gif. So, as FreshBooks helps us present our global theme of Time, they’re also helping CreativeMornings launch a GIF channel! This Dec...

Time — we measure it, we complain we don’t have enough of it, we treasure it with memories. It’s abstract yet we can very clearly see it and we can very intimately feel it. So often we’re asked: what do you make with your time? December’s theme was chosen by our Edmonton chapter, illustrated by Kelly Mellings, and presented in partnership with FreshBooks. In 130 cities around the world, the CreativeMornings community and speakers are tackling the messy, fleeting, nebulous beast that is time. But sometimes, talks and words take too much time to communicate those answers. There are times when all you need is the perfect animated gif. This month we’re excited to launch a CreativeMornings GIF channel, presented by FreshBooks, to help you share a GIFt with your friends & clients th...

CreativeMornings is in new corners of the globe! We’re thrilled to introduce you to the organizers of brand new chapters in Dallas, San Salvador, Guatemala City, and Seoul. Get to know them and be sure to give them a high-five at their next event! Meet Mariah Hay, Dallas, USA Which CreativeMornings chapter would you like to visit and why? I would love to visit CreativeMornings NYC because that is where all the magic started. What excites you? I love problem solving; most of all social problems surrounding healthcare and education. What have you failed at? My most spectacular successes first started with failures. To fail is to walk a path that has not been walked before, learn from the experience and do it right the next time. Who would be the ultimate CreativeMornin...

The CreativeMornings community is full of people and projects who are putting in the work—the good work, the hard work, the unpopular work—to improve their communities. Whether that work is done online, in collaboration, with partners, in solitude; with hands, love, sweat, or grit—we are celebrating the workers and the makers; the work and the creations. This month’s theme was chosen by our Detroit chapter, illustrated by Detroit Wood Type Co., and presented in partnership with Squarespace. Coming off the heels of Squarespace’s newly launched Cover Pages, we want you to ease the workload of a deserving person or project in your community by designing a website for someone who needs it most. Get involved! We can’t wait to hear about your work, your Cover Page, and your community...

Last month, to celebrate the theme of Empathy, CreativeMornings and Shutterstock (one of our global partners that makes it possible to do the things we do) surprised the community in 10 cities—Vancouver, Mexico City, Austin, San Francisco, New York City, Los Angeles, Montreal, São Paulo, Toronto, and Melbourne—with the opportunity to have a portrait taken by a local photographer. Now, we have the amazing opportunity to share a snapshot of the global CreativeMornings community through the lens of local creative talent. The full album of all portraits can be viewed on Flickr, but here’s a small selection: Did you have your portrait taken? Download it! Use it as your CreativeMornings profile photo! Put it on Twitter! Maybe we’ll feature you on Instagram! Just be awesome an...

If you ask someone to describe what ‘shock’ means to them, it’s likely you’ll hear words like violent, upsetting, instability. But CreativeMornings chapters are not ones to cozy up to negativity. Instead, they’re the ones flipping the idea of shock on its head — and improving their communities in the process. Because shocks to the system do us good. They wake us up, they change the course of history, and they disrupt the norm. Unexpected moments open our minds to new ideas. Uncomfortable pieces of art challenge our perceptions of what we think is right. This October, we’re celebrating Shock in 128 cities around the world. The theme was chosen by our Jeju chapter and illustrated by Yeji Yun, who also hails from South Korea. Get ready to be rocked out o...