One of my earliest childhood memories is visiting the South African Museum in Cape Town and marvelling at the life-sized dinosaur models. Much like the Night at the Museum movies, I imagined myself having tea parties with those giant creatures once they were off duty from having their noble profiles admired by the adoring public. For a while, I was convinced my future career involved living as a dinosaur custodian in a blanket fort inside the dinosaur diorama.
Cultural spaces have always been a place for me where imagination can take flight by reimagining artefacts through creativity to tell stories that enhance and expand the original context of the objects.
Blending imagination with existing content can offer immense value to businesses today. Just as I reimagined dinosaurs having tea parties, companies can reimagine the content they've already created and find new ways to share it, making genuine connections with their audiences by enabling creativity and storytelling to build connected communities.
Waste Not, Want Not: The Power of Reuse
Growing up in a culture where nothing was wasted, as a young artist, I would reclaim scraps from construction sites, old taps, sinks, and bits of metal and wood and turn them into beautiful art. This ethos has shaped my approach to design and now shapes how I approach my client's content.
So much effort goes into creating experiences at galleries, events, museums, and other public spaces and once the event is over, much of that work is never seen again. Why let all that human effort and beautiful work go to waste? Sustainability isn't just about using eco-friendly materials; it's also about extending the life of our creations. How can we share the content businesses sit on—videos, stories, designs, installations or learning materials —with new audiences? How can we extend the reach of that content without starting from scratch?
Starting from Where You Are
The beauty of community building is that you don't have to reinvent the wheel. The potential to create something impactful is often present within your organisation. All it takes is a shift in perspective, a zero-waste mindset that asks: What assets do we already have? How can we reimagine, repurpose and upcycle them into something new?
This approach isn't just about saving money and increasing productivity, though that's certainly a benefit. It's about ensuring that effort is maximised, shared, and appreciated by as many people as possible while also being a further return on your investment.
Steps to Build a Community from Existing Resources
If you're ready to transform your content into a thriving community, here's how to get started:
Step 1: Gaining Business Awareness and Buy-in
First, it's essential to help your team understand the value of community building through content reuse. We'll highlight the time, money, and energy that's already been invested in your past efforts and show how refreshing and repurposing these assets can extend their reach in meaningful ways.
Step 2: Understanding Your Story
Every business has a unique story to tell. We'll work with you to uncover the heart of your narrative—what resonates with your audience and how you can continue to build on it. This story will serve as the foundation for everything that follows.
Step 3: Reusing Existing Resources
By auditing your existing resources—whether photos, videos, written content, or design work—we can identify valuable content that is ripe for reuse.
Step 4: Facilitating Community Engagement
Communities aren't built in isolation. To create something that lasts, engaging with the people who walk through your doors—literally and figuratively is crucial. By co-creating with your audience, you ensure that the community you build speaks their language and reflects their values.
Step 5: Creating a Shared Space
Together, we'll design a community space that links your content and your audience. Whether that space is physical, digital, or a hybrid, it will be tailored to encourage interaction, creativity, and collaboration.
Step 6: Enabling Continuous Refinement
A community is never static. We'll provide tools to gather feedback, measure engagement, and refine your approach so that your content and community continue to evolve together. By welcoming community contribution and engagement, continuously extending and growing content becomes possible.
Moving Forward Together
Communities fulfil our need for connection and allow us to build a better future. They are authentic physical, immersive, or online spaces where we communicate openly and nurture our creativity. Communities are where we can be seen and heard. They're a safe environment to express our true selves, find support, and grow together while uniting around shared goals and values.
Communities can be either planned or evolve organically from grassroots movements for social justice and a desire for change. When communities thrive, they build resilience and can change the world. Rituals and traditions develop that connect us. A shared vision for the future emerges—not forced upon us but arising from the collective aspirations and dreams of the community. I believe that by connecting beauty in all its myriad forms with creativity and playfulness, we can create constructive and informative spaces for people to grow, learn and experience connections based on real lived experiences shared with like-minded souls.
At its core, this is about more than maximising assets. It's about creating something sustainable—communities that grow, adapt, and thrive over time. By taking stock of what you already have and reimagining how it can be used, you can build connections that matter, grow creativity, and ensure that no effort goes to waste.
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