Etsy Team Captains' Summit, London 2014

Matt, Etsy London Admin

Over the weekend I was super lucky to be invited down to Etsy's first Team Captains' Summit in London and it was not only a lot of fun, but incredibly inspiring and massively valuable! Since I've only just set up a new community team for Edinburgh in the last month, I didn't think I would be given such an awesome opportunity when I applied for a place. I was literally punching the air when I got the acceptance email!

Etsy invited down 30 Team Captains from across the UK to London to run a weekend of workshops, brainstorming and to chat about what things we'd like to improve on Etsy's website and new Sellers App. Being able to meet so many likeminded makers was really fantastic; everyone that attended was so driven and creative and had such varied backgrounds making our brainstorming sessions really exciting to take part in. 

Our little ice breaking activity was to share with everyone what we made and where in the UK we're from. Doesn't it look so great? We had everything from knitters to jewellery makers to vintage and supply sellers... it was awesome. I was the only illustrator which was quite an honour :D

We kicked off the event with an introduction to Etsy Teams and how they've evolved over the years. Believe it or not, these began with an epic email list and one person copying and pasting! These days there are thousands to join, but not just for selling. People have set up teams for people who love to blog and people who love comics and people who love to bake ... you can pretty much find a team for everything! Teams do many things as well as hang out and socialise online, like host events, craft parties, workshops and classes on how to improve your businesses, they're incredibly valuable and definitely worth looking into if you've never seen them before. 

Babette and Annabell of Ka-ching Collectief Team

We had some phenomenally inspiring talks from other team captains who shared with us their experiences in running community teams and events, such as how to grow membership, how it can be challenging and how it can be fantastic for building solid friendships and exciting new relationships. It's really wonderful to have such an honest account of how these things work and it's great to know how supportive other captains are and keen to help you out if you're stuck or getting overwhelmed! My two favourite workshops were held by Karli of the Brighton Team and Babette and Annabelle's presentation from the Ka-ching Collectief. Karli shared her experiences of how she took over the team rather than started from scratch, but went on to structure it with really inspiring and motivated people. With 5 of them running it, they've got a solid community who hold talks, presentations, parties, and all kinds of insanely inspiring events. Babette and Annabelle shared their experiences with holding Pop Up shops and shared what kind of challenges they came across whilst holding these events. These things all take a lot of drive, organisation and management, but I've honestly taken away that despite all these things it's definitely worth it. Nothing great in life comes easily after all!

Lyndsey of PhotoCraft

During the weekend we got an amazing team workshop on lifestyle photography form Lyndsey of PhotoCraft, who over the course of an hour taught us how important product photography is and shared some incredibly helpful tips and tricks on creating a small and manageable area at home to photograph your work. If any of you are struggling with product shots I 110% recommend you sign up and do a workshop with her! Not only are her images beautiful, but she is incredibly eloquent and great at putting complicated tricks across really simply (it's amazing how many teachers cannot do this!) 

I'm really pleased to share that she's running a free workshop webinar online on the 21st May for team members. Places are limited so make sure you sign up fast if you're interested!! 

Abby, Etsy Brooklyn Admin

Another thing that I learned was remarkably important to running an Etsy team and Etsy shop is being able to manage your time properly. I got chatting to Suzy who runs workshops and webinars online to help small businesses work out how to improve their running and take the next big step. 30 minutes of a casual conversation with her and I already have a plan on where to begin! She's set up a series of free webinars for team members giving some tips and tricks on time management, how to sell your work confidently and how to price your work. I have signed up to all three and am already planning to book up some more sessions with her! Having a trained outsider help you look at your work and guide you through some basic things your struggling with is seriously worth investing your time in. I'll be sure to share my experiences with you :D

With our Etsy Craft Party only a month away, we broke up into groups to work out what tasks needed to be done to make it a success. We're super excited to share we sold out our event and reached our goal of 25 attendees (HOORAY!!) As we have a little bit of room to spare we've managed to release a few more tickets for anyone who missed the deadline. (There is literally only 5 so you better nab one quick!) I now have a lovely big TO DO list at hand to share with my lovely team leaders Zyzanna and Fiona and we cannot wait to get stuck in and get things in motion!

We're looking for some fabulous makers to help us create Goodie Bags for the event and would love to hear from you if you'd like to be involved!

Goodie bags are a great way to reach a new audience and show them a taster of what you make and do. We'll also be featuring your shop and product on our blogs (and our team blog) plus your work shared online by the people who attend the event... Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram - your goodies will be everywhere :D Don't hesitate to drop me an email { vividplease@gmail.com } for more information and quantities to supply (you don't need to do 30 items to get involved!)

All in all, the weekend was really jam packed and full of information, which has made us all really motivated to experiment, reach out and try new things. Meeting up with the Etsy Admins was really lovely because it made me realise that they really are people who understand where you're coming from and genuinely want to help you build your business from a hobby into a living. I've never really seen that from any company before! Having the opportunity to discuss our experience with the site and app was great because it means that they have a true interest in developing and improving things as much as possible as we evolve. I'm looking forward to seeing how things adapt over the next few months and discovering how our information was translated into web friendly pages :)

Yaaay! Check out my awesome new Team Captains' badge! I wore this with pride all weekend and it's on my desk as to remind me of all the wonderful things that can be achieved when you put your mind to it. It's so lovely to receive a little reminder of my visit. I've been using the canvas bag in the second photo to take my pile of orders to the post office since I've been back and it makes me very honoured! It just goes to show how much a little gift can go a long way. I know fine well I'll be using them often and keeping them forever! ... This could be you if you get involved with our craft party!! *wink* heehee

And so the weekend ends with a couple of boxes of delicious cupcakes, a big pile of notes and ideas, a stack of photos and some great new friendships. I'm really looking forward to implementing some of the ideas shared and getting stuck into the upcoming webinars. It's been an absolutely phenomenal event and I cant wait to see how Edinburgh's Etsy Team grows from it! 

I'd like to thank all of the Etsy Team for your support and organisation, and to all of the remarkable ladies who shared their experiences, ideas and talents during the weekend. I hope I can catch up with you all soon!

Vicky xox