David Parrish delivered a series of interactive workshops for creative businesses on marketing, pricing and leadership in New Zealand in July/August 2015.

The events were organised, sponsored and promoted by The Big Idea Trust, Arts Regional Trust, Creative Northland, the ART Venture programme, Creative New Zealand, Ministry of Awesome, XCHC Creative Exchange Christchurch and BNZ.

The talks, presentations, masterclasses and workshops were delivered in Auckland, Whangarei and Christchurch at venues including Q Theatre and Auckland University of Technology (AUT) in Auckland, North Tec in Whangarei and XCHC in Christchurch.

All the events were very well attended and feedback from participants was overwhelmingly positive.

‘Marketing – from Strategy to the Sale (without selling out)’
Marketing workshops focused on a strategic approach to marketing, emphasising the importance of using competitive advantage in combination with careful selection of customer segments, to devise a unique marketing formula. David’s approach is outlined in his books and in the article ‘Create Your Own Business Formula’. The marketing masterclasses also included using the 3Ms of Marketing and focusing on customer benefits.

‘Make your Creativity Pay – Properly!’
Talks and masterclasses on pricing examined various techniques for calculating all the costs involved in the production of creative products, services and projects, including direct costs, the cost of time, and overheads. Pricing workshops also considered value based pricing and understanding customers’ perspectives to understand ‘What are you selling – really’.

Leadership
The workshop on leadership for participants on the ART Venture programme was designed and facilitated by David. It examined aspects of organisational cultures and provided an opportunity for participants to consider their leadership styles.

David has academic and professional qualifications in marketing, leadership and management, underpinned by his own experience of starting up, managing, growing and leading creative enterprises.

His workshops for creative businesses have been successfully delivered world-wide, in countries as diverse as the UK, Taiwan, Spain, Zimbabwe, Chile, Vietnam, Norway, Lithuania and Brazil.

As a specialist trainer for the creative industries, David believes strongly in fully engaging participants in training workshops, using practical examples, case studies, groupwork and discussions. In this way, participants’ own experience is involved in the learning process, leading to practical action plans, not just academic learning.

Clients benefit from his international consultancy expertise and his experience overlaps effectively with his training work, so he is able to draw on examples and case studies from clients world-wide for the benefit of clients and training course participants.

David’s in house training courses, management workshops, seminars, lectures and presentations have helped hundreds of businesses and organisations over more than ten years.