Guy Armitage
Guy founded Zealous to help organizations efficiently create opportunities for their communities with intuitive submissions management software. He is the author of “Everyone is Creative“, serves as chair of arebyte, and is a former trustee of Firstsite.
Articles
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Getting grilled by an AI (kinda)
I recently tried an experiment. Could I use AI to interview me about the creative industries to surface interesting insights . What emerged was really interesting (and a little uncomfortable).
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A Human-Centered Approach to Audience Data
Traditional audience surveys exclude busy families, young people, and disabled visitors. Here’s how cultural venues can capture every voice.
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Being Human in the age of Algorithms
What happens when curated content makes success look effortless? Join me for authentic stories about the messy reality behind achievement.
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How to price your Award using AI: Prompts for every program
Setting the right price for award submissions is a delicate balancing act. Charge too much, you limit applicants; charge too little, you risk overwhelming costs. Discover powerful AI prompts that create pricing strategies perfectly tailored to your awards program.
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Turning Disruption into Growth: A Zealous Roadmap for 2025
Each year I reflect on progress. This year I’m looking differently – at the creative industries today, our shared challenges & Zealous’s role in all of this.
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The Complete Award Management Guide: From Planning to Celebration
Whether you’re running competitions, grants, or awards, this guide covers the complete award management lifecycle from planning to execution.
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Invite Creativity back into your life this year
When did you last feel truly creative? 75% of us feel we’re not reaching our creative potential. This post explores how to reignite that spark in your life and work.
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The 5 Metrics To Drive Growth for your Awards & Competitions
Running a successful competition means knowing what’s working – and what isn’t. Learn the 5 key metrics that will help you understand your candidates’ journey and grow your program effectively.
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The Questionnaire Conundrum: Unraveling the Complexities of Audience Data
Capturing data is vital. It shapes our programming, informs our funders, and, ultimately, determines our impact. Yet, with increasingly stretched resources, it is a time-consuming and expensive endeavour for organisations. In this article, we’ll unpack the purpose behind audience questionnaires, explore their limitations & explore alternative solutions.
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Pricing your competition
How to price your awards and competitions is a fine art. Discover best practice when setting your entry price, alternative ways of making money and the impact the wrong price can have on your awards.
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Founder Update 2024
2023 was another crazy year. Our commitment to the creative industries is unwavering. Discover how we continue to support you in 2024 with a price lock, more features, a commitment to ethical AI and clearer blogging, insights & communications.
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Making A.I. work for the creative industries
A deep exploration into the opportunities and threats A.I. poses for the creative industries, written by someone whose straddled both worlds.
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Increase submissions to your awards through trust
If you are launching an award, it will be essential for you to build trust with anyone who might consider submitting to you. The longer your process and the bigger the submission fee, the more vital it will be to convince candidates you are legitimate.
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Should you take award entry payments first or last?
Should you take payments upfront when candidates submit your award? The following article breaks down best practices when taking entry fees.
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Founder Update 2023
Our mission to reduce the barriers to entry for creating opportunities for the creative sector has never felt so important. In 2023 we promise to do our part in building the creative world we wish to see tomorrow.
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Marketing your Award Effectively (even on shoestring budgets)
Without good marketing, no one will submit to your award/competition. Here are a few tips to increase exposure to your programme
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Choosing the best tools for managing submissions
Taking submissions can be a breeze or a nightmare; the deciding factor is your tools. Here are our top tips in picking the right ones for your needs.
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Maximising Engagement using Competitions
How to maximise engagement for your open call, create exposure for your brand, show support for your community & begin a meaningful dialogue.
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Writing the perfect guidelines for your competition
Writing good guidelines can make or break your competition. This article covers best practices to guarantee candidates apply with the right content for your needs.
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How to approach judges for competitions
Getting partners involved and securing high-level individuals to help you select winners is no easy task. But having someone recognisable on your panel is a big perk for candidates who want their work seen. Here are our top tips to appeal to judges you would like involved in your programme.
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Drawing up your schedule
Timing is everything – opening your submissions at the wrong time or for too long could negatively impact the number of candidates who apply. Find out more on what to watch out for when crafting the schedule of your programme.
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Planning the selection process for your competition
Seeing submissions reach into the hundreds then into thousands is a real buzz. But that euphoria can quickly turn to dread if your process to select successful candidates isn’t built to cope.
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Celebrating our 10th Anniversary!
It is humbling to see an idea I had ten years ago develop into a network of over 45,000 artists and arts organisations. And although we should use our anniversary to celebrate what we achieved, this feels only like the beginning! Here’s what to expect from our Anniversary year (and beyond).
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Establishing the perks for your competition
The only reason applicants will take the time to submit is that there’s something in it for them. Defining what’s in it for those selected, and understanding what you have available to you, could allow you to run a competition on a very tight budget, and still make a great success of it.
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Streamlining what you ask for from candidates
Asking candidates for the correct information when they submit is a fine art.
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Defining the purpose of your programme
Purpose is powerful. It allows you to inspire people to take part and measure your goals effectively once your program ends. Without a clearly articulated purpose, marketing your offering and getting candidates to submit will be an uphill struggle.
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6 Submissions Platforms for the Creative Industries
Choosing the right process whilst taking entries could save you hundreds of hours of admin. To save you a little time we’ve compiled a list of the best submission platforms serving the creative eco-system at this time.
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Founder Update 2021
Although we have been robbed of the fresh start we were promised at the start of 2021, we shouldn’t let that deter us from making the most of the year ahead. Here’s how Zealous plans to make the most of this year!
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Trends for Running Competitions in 2021
Much has changed in 2020. For that reason, we’ve compiled our top tips on things to take into consideration when planning & running a successful competition in 2021.
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Top sites to list your writing competition on
Boost submissions to your writing contests by listing them on these amazing sites.
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Creating opportunity in adversity
our months ago, the rules that governed society turned inside out. This left communities isolated, lead to freelancers losing their income and forced organisations to reinvent themselves. Cambridge City Council Supporting communities by commissioning talent With schools closed, parents working from home and the elderly under lockdown, families have either found themselves alone in isolation…
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Embracing Creativity as an Agent of Change
How long will it take before we return to normality? Is the world of yesterday really the world that we want for tomorrow? And in this period of change, how do we make sure we are able to cope with so much uncertainty, both as individuals and businesses?
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Creating purpose in isolation
This is our time to prove that arts organisations are there for them even in the most adverse of times. Here’s how running a competition can help support our communities now in isolation, give our team a shared purpose and ensure, that when our doors open once again, our audiences return to us and our…
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Building inclusivity into your call out
Inclusion is often mentioned, but difficult to get right across all of your processes. Here is a brief guide on what to watch out for when running a call out.
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Here’s to 2020
As a nation we may not agree with choices that were made in 2019 – but a new decade is upon us and there has been no better time to learn from the past and focus on building a future in a society we wish to live in. That’s exactly what we’re working on, and…
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11 Life Lessons If You’re A Creative
Being a creative can be tough. For all the time you spend doing what you love, you’ve got to put in the same number of hours trying to get others’ attention and making the money you need to sustain yourself. These lessons will help you along the way.
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6 Books To Read In 2020
The winter break is the perfect time to reflect on the past year and prepare for the challenges of 2020. It’s also a time of frantic Christmas gift buying, where the stresses of inspiration, finances and expectations collide; leaving us clueless on what to get people. To kill two birds with one stone, I’ve compiled…
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Valuing Your Work
We all know how much milk, coffee and sugar are worth, yet why does the creative industry struggle to value its goods, and why does it feel we’re working harder and making less? (Spoiler – It’s very much down to our ability to value ourselves).
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Writing Engaging Guidelines
Writing clear guidelines can make or break your competition. A lack of information could lead to the wrong content being submitted, too much, and candidates may skip it. Here are a few lessons we’ve learnt from hosting open calls.
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The Art of Engaging & Placemaking
This short guide highlights steps to better engage with your communities (team, stakeholders, clients, residents) through creative commissions.
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The best sites to list your art competition on
Getting your art competition seen by as many people as possible is always key to bringing in more submissions. Taking a little time to list it on external sites is always a great way to increase exposure. To save you time here are the top sites you can market your call on. (Updated Jan 6th…
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The State of Emerging Creativity
Nurturing emerging creators is pivotal in unlocking the creative sectors full potential. To shed light on the challenges faced by those early in their creative careers, we asked 1,800 individuals breaking into the industry how they felt about creating in the UK.
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Imagery to get your competition attention
In an increasingly fast-paced world, getting attention to your competition is difficult. Using the right imagery plays a huge part in making users notice you and eventually submit to your opportunity. This guide will take you through 6 tips that will help you get you the most exposure you can from the imagery you use.
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The Art of Changing Humanity
How can we rebalance society in a world where politics, core beliefs, and knowledge have become increasingly extreme.
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How to best schedule your open call
A short guide on how long you should keep submissions open for, how long you should give judges and when you should be making your selection.
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Mind the Gender Gap
It has been a little more than a hundred years since women were first given a voice in UK politics; yet the last couple of years have still demonstrated a real chasm in securing women’s equal footing within our society. So how is the UK doing? Presently, 74% of UK companies still pay higher rates…
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Global creativity, the UK and the arts
The creative industries account for 14.6% of the UK’s GVA. But in a complex political climate and a rapidly developing world; how can the UK retain its edge?
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7 tips to boost your open call
From making sure your imagery looks great to inviting judges to review your submissions. Here are our 7 top tips to help boost the number of submissions you get for your next opportunity.
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Emerge Awards Ceremony (2018)
We hosted our inaugural Emerge Awards in celebration of the UK’s best emerging creative talent at arts space, Ugly Duck! With cocktails, creative happenings and inspirational company aplenty, the Awards left us feeling excited and hugely optimistic for the future of the creative industries in the UK.
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We’re funded!
Zealous has always been a labour love, for myself and those that have worked alongside me in making our company what it is today. A simple idea to bring creative talent from all the creative industries together and help them find one another; morphed into something much bigger. A bridge between organisations seeking creative talent,…
