Talkaoke

    Talkaoke

    Talkaoke is a pop up talk show that has been gaining popularity in festivals, clubs, galleries, theatres, conferences and on the street. it consists of an illuminated round table with a host sitting in the middle on a swivel chair. Participants sit around the outside and are passed the microphone whenever they want to talk, […]

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    Podcasts

    Podcasts

    We have in house audio and video equipment and expertise to produce podcasts and empower others to create their own. Speak to us about your idea and we can help you come up with the best format. We also deliver podcast making workshop, which cover: idea development, hosting and interviewing techniques, production including audio editing, […]

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    Who Wants to Be...?

    Who Wants to Be…?

    Who Wants to Be…? is the ask-the audience game show, where the audience asks the questions, comes up with the answers, and sets the rules! Using two visualisation systems, some gameshow glitz and a visual voting system, a large audience can brainstorm, feedback, and generate the most incredible ideas together. In its simplest form each […]

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    Talkaoke Skills Lab

    Talkaoke Skills Lab

    Talkaoke Skills Lab is a structured creative development programme, where we share our 25 years of experience in creative facilitation, non-hierarchal spaces, emergent development, co-creation and use of technology. Talkaoke Skills Lab is open to artists, students, community leaders, young people and everyone interested in socially engaged creative practice. The sessions cover: facilitation, creative thinking, co-creation […]

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    One Night Grandstand

    One Night Grandstand

      One Night Grandstand: stadium for a night! One Night Grandstand infuses a regular kick-about with the excitement of a football stadium. Games have a live, amplified commentary, floodlighting and stadium style screens above the pitch, complete with sound effects, live motion graphics and action replays. Watch the One Night Grandstand promo video to see […]

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    Creative Facilitation Workshops

    Creative Facilitation Workshops

    Our creative facilitation taster workshop aims to give participants the confidence and creative communication skills useful in any situation. A typical workshop runs for about 1.5 hrs but can be flexible. Quite often a taster workshop will be followed by a regular public Talkaoke session, where workshop participants will get a chance of putting their […]

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    Start Thurrock: The People Speak Build Citizen Engagement with the Future of Arts and Culture in the Area

    Since the beginning of year, we have been making our way into the heart of communities across Thurrock to engage local citizens in shaping the direction of cultural activities in the area. From January to May 2024, we popped up in Thurrock to host several Talkaoke sessions and get familiar with local attitudes, aspirations and anxieties. Together we explored what a shared process of cultural decision-making can look like and presented locals with the results of our collective creative brainstorming.

    “It’s absolutely central to our work that Start Thurrock’s creative and cultural offer is shaped by residents. Working with The People Speak really helped us reach into communities and genuinely listen to what is important to local people and what creative projects they want for their area. Talkaoke is a really effective and inclusive way for creative ideas to be shared and expressed, giving Start Thurrock rich insights and understanding to act on” – Roxie Curry, Start Thurrock who commissioned the project.

    We kicked off our series of Talkaoke sessions at the Chadwell St Mary’s Village Hall. The event saw attendees from neighbouring towns including Chadwell St Mary, Grays, and Stanford-le-Hope. We heard from citizens, young and old and as with all our Talkaoke sessions, the topics were chosen by the participants and ranged from local history to what a future sculptural monument in Thurrock might look like. There to capture the essence of our conversations was our talented visualiser Christopher Gerhardt.

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    Talkaoke visits Knowle West for Futures Festival!

    In August and September 2023, we have been collaborating with Knowle West Media Centre in Bristol. We explored Knowle West’s past, present and future as part of Future Festival. We celebrated with an exhibition of archival footage and local voices. Together, we honoured the rich history of Knowle West and shared our hopes for the years ahead.

    Read a fragment of the blog post by Knowle West Media Centre, which you can find it in its entirety on their wesbite.

    The day before Knowle West Fest 2023, The People Speak rocked up to Knowle West Media Centre in their van full of props to train up some Knowle West residents to be Talkaoke hosts. They ran two workshops to build confidence in talk show skills – one with young people and one with adults.

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    End of life conversations with St Helena Hospice

    Between May and August 2023 we collaborated with St Helena Hospice in Colchester, Essex on a project that got people talking about one of the most difficult and sensitive subjects – end of life care. Turns out that many people found it easier to talk about the actual moment of death rather than preparation and planning for it.

    We spoke to communities reflecting the diversity of  Tendring and Colchester –  from Lion’s Walk shopping centre in Colchester, Dovecourt Firestation in Harwich, St James’ Church in Clacton to Sir Martin Frobisher’s Primary School in Jaywick and Rice and Spice Festival at First Site. Each conversation was visualised and you can see all of them on our Flickr page. Some of recurrent themes running through many conversations included concern about the NHS, generational divide and fear of losing connection with younger generation, local project that bring people together through gardening or charity work, end of life rituals in different cultures and pressures connected with fulfilling family’s expectations, children’s definition of a ghost and many more.

    St James Church, Clacton
    
    St Helena Hospice, Colchester
    
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    Europe – a new home for Talkaoke!

    We are delighted to announce our European partnership with ABBIT – Meeting Innovators based in Beerse, Belgium! This means that you can book our beautiful freshly designed Talkaoke pop up talk show table for your live event wherever you are in Europe. Whether you’re planning an opening party at a festival, networking session at your conference, a knowledge exchange or skill sharing event or something in between – we can help you make it creative, dynamic, interactive and engaging. Talkaoke is a format led by the participants and is all about listening, chatting and connecting. This is a great way of getting to know people and find out about latest ideas. The conversation can be funny, deep, surreal, topical or something in between.

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    We Make Podcasts

    Podcasts seem to be a very popular medium these days and quite rightly so! At The People Speak we always encourage people to use their voices to express their thoughts, listen and connect with others – even people outside of our typical social bubble. Besides, making your own podcast is a way of democratising the media and a more active way of participating and shaping the world around us. That was the reason behind starting Talkaoke in the first place. The voice in Mikey’s head said: “If you don’t like this talk show then make your own!” and that’s how it all started.


    If we had a penny for everytime someone said “have you thought about turning Talkaoke into a podcast?” we would quite confidently have a lifetime supply of falafel wraps. We just needed to make the first step and get Laura on the case. Talkaoke Shorts is an easily digestable audio slice of a longer conversation between participants of our regular live talkshow, and we have launched it this month! The first episode is a call back to the February Talkaoke at Tommy Flowers Community Pub where, for reasons only known to the universe, we we ended up talking about dreams. You can catch the first dreamy episode of Talkaoke Shorts podcast on our YouTube channel! Let us know what you think because, you know, we like to hear your thoughts.

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