Our last day of media visits was by far my favorite one despite having a think mustache of mucus and a chapped nose.
I started my day in a little french bakery directly around the corner from the hotel where I had the world’s best eclair and flirted with the french barista, you could say it was a perfect morning.
Our talk with Oliver Davies, the Head of Marketing and Development for the Fringe Festival, was at the French Institute of Scotland which was also conveniently near our hotel. Oliver seemed to be pretty young for such a huge role. The Fringe Festival involves a spectrum of over 32 thousand participants from volunteers to corporations so Oliver’s job strikes me as very chaotic, but he seemed to have a really calm energy. I was most impressed that the Fringe Society only takes a 4% cut from tickets because it shows a real commitment to the artists who make the festival happen. The festival is also very accessible for the disabled. After walking around Edinburgh I can say that it is a phenomenal achievement that 61% of shows are fully accessible.
Our next stop was the creative agency White Space. David Anderson was the first speaker at Whitespace, he’s a photographer and led the shoot for Shackleton Whiskey. He and the Whitespace’s head of creative, Chris Davey, presented the work they did for Shackleton and it was inspiring. They went to the middle of nowhere for their shoot and it seemed like an awesome adventure. They also talked very earnestly about their dislike for working with influencers. This was a refreshing new view on influencers. Chris reminded me of James in that he did not expect to be in this position when he was younger. I felt more of a connection to Chris’s story than I did with James’ because Chris started his journey through D&D, instant connection!