Creativity Coming To a City Near You: Story Chicago

Creatives who’ve been to STORY often tell me that one of their favorite parts of the whole event–hands down–is the chance to be surrounded by like-minded people who get them.

There are other people, as it turns out, who are doing something “impractical” with their lives.

There are other people who are holing themselves away in offices trying to finish that book or that song or that screenplay or that sculpture that refuses to leave them alone.

There are other people who are manning a day job, but are tackling heroic projects that blow their day job out of the water “on the side”.

Welcome to being a Christian creative. :) Seth Godin called this kind of grouping a “Tribe”. And STORY’s almost comes together automatically.

To take this plus to a new level though, STORY has begun sweeping into cities and setting up shop for a day just to do more of what we love – bringing creatives together.

These “creative meetups” start with lunch and some casual socializing. Casual meaning it’s informal, not that it lacks intensity. Because, as you can guess, when a lot of creatives are given free reign in a room together, the adrenaline of all the idea-sharing creates an electric sort of energy in about five seconds flat.

When all the schmoozing has trailed off (or when we interrupt it), Ben or I, or sometimes both of us, get to share a little bit about whatever STORY’s latest projects are. This adds a new layer of synergy because every venture involves collaboration with different groups of artists. That usually gets everyone ramped up with ideas with just enough time to  exchange names and numbers (or twitter handles!) afterward.

And, I swear, every time before we leave, an artist (or five) will come up to me and say a sentence that is music to my heart: “I can’t believe how many creatives there are in my city. I’m not as alone as I thought!”

**Believe me, this is such a good thing to be part of, I almost get jealous of myself that I get to go.**

Recently, STORY rolled into Charlotte and Nashville. Next up, in July, is Detroit, Chicago (details coming soon) and Cincinnati.

If you live near one of those areas, it is free to come join us, but you do have to RSVP to save your spot. (The party usually caps off around 100, so the early bird gets the sub sandwich.)

And if you don’t live near there, feel free to leave angry comments demanding we come to your city…but only if you promise to let all your creative friends in Ohio, Illinois and Michigan know about the shindigs we’re throwing for them too.

Right now, this very evening, I’m spreading the word about Cincy. Wanna help?