‘Creative Connections’ is a gen Z-optimised event focused on networking and wellness
By Alma Fabiani
Published Jul 5, 2022 at 12:12 PM
Reading time: 3 minutes
In partnership with Selina
Whether you’ve lived in London your whole life, recently moved here or have never visited it for longer than a few days in a row, you most definitely know one thing already: big cities can get pretty lonely—with London specifically once being ranked the loneliest city to reside in. Unfortunately, this feeling is often even more noticeable for professionals who don’t have the day-to-day structure and routine other jobs come with. I’m talking about the freelancers, those who constantly travel, the artistic souls and many more. But what if I told you that someone who was once in your shoes has come up with the solution to all your problems?
Introducing Creative Connections, a mind-body health workshop, dinner and DJ performance all held (and perfectly curated) into one evening. From the mind of Sci-Translate founder and neuroscientist Dr Anna McLaughlin and happening at Selina’s Camden location in London on Wednesday 13 July, this special night is the first instalment of many more to come around the world.
Extra credit should also be given to the creative collective OCD studio, which not only designed the event’s amazing website but has also helped forge the Sci-translate brand and its marketing.
Created as an event for those seeking an opportunity to connect with a like-minded community and immerse themselves in the creative scene—while learning how to improve their health and wellbeing, Creative Connections lets attendees have full control over what the night will hold for them. Speaking to SCREENSHOT ahead of the highly-anticipated night, Dr McLaughlin revealed a bit more. “The main inspiration for this event was to give people an opportunity to connect and interact with other individuals in a setting that felt inspiring, creative and fun, while also being useful to their goals,” she said.
“I think that it’s easy to forget how crucial social interaction is for our mental and physical health,” Dr McLaughlin added, continuing, “Despite having access to millions of online communities and being more digitally connected than ever, many of us live a lonely, isolated existence day to day. But we all crave connection—with others and with a community of people who share our interests. Even before the pandemic, it felt like there weren’t many opportunities for this anymore outside of work and school, which is particularly hard on younger generations. Combining the two elements felt like the perfect opportunity to get people to learn about mind-body health while also encouraging real human interaction and a sense of community!”
Interested in an intimate and interactive experience? Get a ticket to the event’s interactive wellbeing workshop hosted by consultant clinical psychologist and certified yoga teacher, Dr Gemma Luke. Creatively combining psychotherapy and mind-body techniques to enhance one’s confidence, self-esteem and resilience, in Dr Luke’s workshop, you’ll learn how psychological difficulties can manifest physically and how to become more in tune with those too.
“Participants can expect to be encouraged to tap into their current mind-body awareness, and through careful integration of information and experiential exercises, explore how to enhance and optimise this awareness using methods that best suit them,” the expert shared.
Because the workshop is at 6:30 pm, you wouldn’t be wrong in thinking that you might get hungry afterwards. No stress, however, because next up is a vegan dinner held at Selina’s POWERPLANT restaurant which includes a two-course meal as well as a cocktail. And we’re not joking when we tell you to expect a personalised experience—as Dr McLaughlin explained, her aim through Creative Connections was to acknowledge that “each one of us has different goals, motivations and interests and these change over time” and in turn offer attendees “advice that is relevant and useful to their life circumstances in the workshop.”
The same approach will also be applied to the dinner experience, giving guests who might be attending the workshop alone the chance to connect with other people with similar interests or goals. “I understand how overwhelming it can feel to attend an event alone, so I wanted to give guests the option to get allocated to a dinner table with two to three other guests so they can chat about what they learnt in the workshop, their careers or their life in general,” Dr McLaughlin explained. “That way the event would not only be useful for people, but also feel more special and meaningful to them,” she added.
Last but not least, London-based DJ, producer, senior social media editor, digital nomad and yogi Kristy Harper will be waiting for you at the decks for an after-dinner set that spans disco, soul, world music and some more electronic beats. “The set is always guided by the energy of the room,” Harper revealed, “so the guests might have to bring a change of shoes, just in case!”
If you feel like you’ve heard of Harper previously, it’s probably because you have. In the winter of 2020, she released ‘My Body. My Future.’ on her own imprint called Sanctified Dreams. In the track, she sampled Samirah Raheem’s viral interview with Jesse Lee Peterson at the Los Angeles ‘Slut Walk’. It received recognition from BBC Radio 1 and reached 300,000 streams on Spotify and TikTok in the first three months.
Sold already? Grab your tickets for the workshop and curated dinner here before they’re gone. And I’ll see you on the dancefloor.
