Beer and Napkins Kicks Off Creative with their New Year V Sessions

Artist and Designer John Digney will inspire with his creative journey

One of Beer and Napkin’s goals for the New Year is to nurture the creative soul of the community. Initially, the V Sessions or VUCA Sessions aimed to support a small group with connections and knowledge sharing around change. This has expanded to a larger audience and will serve a greater purpose of brewing creative inspiration.

Our initial Beer and Napkins V Session Creative Kickstart to 2023 will feature Artist and Designer John Digney. John will share some of his journey from Director of Industrial Design with American Greetings to his post-career passion for his Irish heritage, ancient stone craft, and design. His latest work is with the Dry Stone Wall Association of Ireland, www.DSWAI.ie. You can read more about some of his adventures here. https://iirish.us/2022/12/01/stone-mad-the-making-of-a-wall/

You can sign up for our Jan 3rd, 2023 Creative Kickstart on our Beer and Napkin’s Meetup Page https://www.meetup.com/beer-and-napkins-community-of-growth/events/290546244?utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=share-btn_savedevents_share_modal&utm_source=link

About our Speaker
John Digney is an Artist /Designer who received his BFA in Industrial Design from the Cleveland Institute of Art. He was raised in the Cleveland neighborhood of Westpark near Kamm’s Corner, and he and his wife, Kathleen, now reside in Greenville, SC.

About Beer and Napkins V Sessions
Beer and Napkins V Sessions are designed to build a community around knowledge sharing with the specific purpose of creatively nurturing resilience in the face of change.

Brewing Ideas for the Future

Experiencing collective in-person events has always been the catalyst of the Beer and Napkins Community. One of our last live events was in January 2020, presciently titled The VUCA Sessions: Navigating and Embracing Chaos; little did we know of the things we were to experience in the last few years. Of course, we pivoted and adapted to technology like many other communities. Our intimate VUCA group discussions help us thrive amidst such an isolating dynamic. This adaption and evolution of the use of emerging approaches to enhance our experiences will be ongoing. However, the spirit of camaraderie, the clinking of mugs, the tactile exercise of scribbling on a napkin will not be forgotten and permeates everything we do. AI is an exciting metaphor for using technology to support the creative spirit. Artificial Intelligence will continue to infuse in all we do. For example, a friend of mine, Dave Gray, introduced me to MidJourney AI, where AI-generated art is produced with descriptive words and phrases. As an artist, we can either adopt or reject creatively. I have adopted and used this to support my artistic endeavors (See AI art produced with sketching in pubs as some keywords). The same thought can be applied to Beer and Napkins, using technology to enhance the community experience. We are excited about the possibilities.

As we move onward, the Beer and Napkins community will continue to brew ideas for the Future, virtually or in person. We will leverage our third places, technology, and talent network to support idea development within our community and beyond.

Phil McCreight, Founder

Beer and Napkins Supports Furman University’s Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship

Scholarships available for their new GVL Starts Entrepreneurship Program

Beer and Napkins is excited to be supporting Furman University’s Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship GVL Starts. For a program overview, please visit  https://www.furman.edu/innovation-entrepreneurship/programs/gvl-starts/  or for more information, contact [email protected]

The Institute will give a 50% scholarship to the first 5 who apply (so it would only be $149). Just enter “50% Beer and Napkins Scholarship” in question 18/last question of the application. For application, visit https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/GVLSTARTS 

Living within our new dystopian reality means finding new ways not only to survive but to thrive within the chaos. Teddi Fishman, Educator, Innovator, and Institutional Change Consultant, talks about how improv has expanded her horizons and how *you* can use lessons from improv to help the odds to be ever in your favor. 

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/beer-napkins-episode-008-saying-yes-to-chaos-teddi/id1343224171?i=1000480907211