Whilst I was away in London recently I was really chuffed to check into my email briefly and notice that Trade School, a project I had backed on Kickstarter, had reached it’s funding goal of $9000. I thought that was fantastic, and can’t wait to see another term happen.
I love the idea of Trade School, because it acts as a conduit for awesome people within their communities to come out of the woodwork and teach others how they do their ‘stuff.’ You can see a list of people and classes that took place at Trade School last time around by visiting their website; classes like How to throw an arts festival for 1-3 days or Scrabble strategy for beginners. Trade School seems to straddle well the divide between learning things that are either work-based, or fun-based. The photo below comes from a class hosted by Ellie Irons called Drawing for Pleasure. Trade School is the sort of thing I imagine working really well at Donkey Wheel House, in Melbourne. Perhaps Kinfolk Cafe will adopt the idea? (wink wink).
But the real reason I loved seeing that Trade School got funded was because I am really falling in love with the global platform that Kickstarter is becoming. It is becoming a great way to find excellent slow projects that people are working on. Sometimes, finding interesting people doing funky, out-there, awesome projects can be tough. Now, Kickstarter has 10 of them every week! I’ll be backing more projects in the future and intend on posting those projects I back on this blog. In the meantime, if you’re looking for people doing awesome projects, start your search on Kickstarter
The Squiggly Line 
I need to get out and network with smart people more. Freelance work can be liberating but isolating as well. Kickstarter sounds like the way to go!
@Will, I feel you on that one. I’m a freelance writer (I work in the service industry part time as well) and I don’t leverage the mobility I actually have.
Easy to get engrossed in what you love to do and forget the outside world I guess
Getting bright enthusiastic people in one room, like the pic above, can yield incredible results.
We need to get a thinktank together and start solving some of these major world problems (lack of water, child poverty etc).
Awesome post Steve. Love the photos, your insight and thanks for the linkages around future trends. Rock it out my friend. 🙂