Mairéad!
It was so good to meet you last week!
We're incredibly excited to potentially meet with the founders of Bingham River House. The space that has been built there is truly extraordinary. It's the kind of place we'd love to have a home within as well. So many congratulations to you and the Trinder family!
Within this webpage, you'll find how we see the Write Club x Bingham partnership beginning and developing. Please let us know though if we can answer any more questions beyond what is included here.
O U R H I S T O R Y :
In 2018, we ran our first Retreat in Wiltshire, UK. In 2019, we launched our monthly Supper Club Sessions in London. When Covid struck in 2020 we pivoted our Write Club Sessions online - running digital programs to bring writers from all over the world together. Over the course of lockdown, more than 150 writers joined our bi-weekly remote writing sessions on Zoom.
M A S T E R C L A S S P R O G R A M :
Since January 2022, we've partnered with Soho House to run the writer's development program for Soho Works. Every month, we invite an award winning or industry known guest speaker to lead a four hour session from 6PM to 10PM with up to 25 participants in one of Soho's locations in London.
Gathered around a table where wine and prosecco is served to participants, we invite a guest speaker to talk about their careers, their origin stories, and what lessons they've learnt along the way.
At the end of the informal Q&A, the guest speaker sets a writing exercise that our participants respond to that evening - having a hour or so to write. After dinner is served, the last hour is dedicated to member's readings of the texts they've created over the course of the event.
It's a format that we think would work really well at Bingham River House as well, especially because of your beautiful dinning facilities and that so many of your social spaces can be made private and intimate.
T I M I N G S :
Here are the timings for the proposed event:
17:00 - Access to the room to set up music & glassware
17:45 - Participants begin arriving
18:00 - Event begins, 15 minutes mingling
18:15 - Event and participant introductions
18:30 - Guest speaker talk begins
19:20 - Exercise set
19:30 - Writing time
20:25 - Food delivered
20:30 - Dinner service (buffet / tear & share)
21:00 - Readings
21:50 - Event ends.
22:00 - Room cleared
F I L M :
At Soho, we created the video below as a means to illustrate the community we built throughout 2022.
At Bingham River House we'd do the same too, creating a video asset every year we partner with you.
We're aware of the marketing value of bringing high profile speakers into the spaces, but the most important commodity we create is strengthening the community within your membership, helping Bingham with member retention, brand loyalty and fostering collaboration between your most valuable assets; the people.
We asked Emma Clarke, Head of Digital Membership at Soho House to provide a reference about the work we do at Soho:
“We have been lucky enough to have Susanna and Matt host Write Club here at Soho Works for the past two years. The events they host here are truly beautiful - they’ve created an authentic community where participants collaborate and communicate with one another all the time - something that is priceless to me as Head of Digital Membership at Soho House.
In addition to membership retention, we’ve recorded the following data from the Write Club partnership:
- Oscar, Bafta, Emmy, Golden Globe and Olivier award winning guest speakers invited every month
- Over 250+ Soho members attending Write Club events over the last 24 months
- Participants retaining Soho membership in order to attend Write Club
- Monthly event sells out within 24 hours
- Write Club event capacity increased in 2023 as a result of popularity throughout 2022”
R E F E R E N C E :
– Emma Clarke, Head of Digital Membership at Soho House
F E E :
We charge £1500 per session and this includes the guest speaker fee, our facilitator time and all image licenses and usage for the video and photography generated.
We invoice a month in advance so that we can pay our guest speakers as soon as they request payment.
At the end of the year, we'll package together all the film assets, interview 2-3 of your members and create a film that documents our journey at Bingham River House. The creation of this video is included in our monthly fee
P H O T O G R A P H Y :
At every Write Club session we do, Matt records part of it on 8K video camera. The quality of footage is such that they are able to pull off screenshots to send as high res photos.
The day after every session, we send out these photos to all the participants who have attended, creating engagement online and building a library of images that can be used across social media and marketing.
Our event fee includes full license and image rights to these photos and the footage will be made available to your marketing team to use for whatever purpose they deem useful.
Included below are images from our November 2023 Soho session with Oscar winner and movement coach of the films, 'Elvis', Bohemia Rhapsody', 'The Crown' and 'Saltburn', Polly Bennett
Andrew Davies
BAFTA Award Winning Screenwriter
'War and Peace', 'House of Cards', 'Bridget Jones Diary'
Selina Lim
Emmy and Bafta Award Winning Screenwriter
'Sex Education', 'Hanna'
Daisy Goodwin
Author, Screenwriter and Show-runner
'ITV's Victoria', 'My Last Duchess'
Isis Davis
Actor and Writer
'Killing Eve', 'Fast Girls'
Jennifer Higgie
Author, Screenwriter and Arts Editor
'The Mirror and the Palette', Former Frieze Magazine Editor
Leon Mayne
Screenwriter and Producer
'End of the F*cking World, 'Brothers With No Game'
Jon Brittain
Olivier Winning Playwright & Screenwriter
'Rotterdam', 'The Crown'
Polly Bennett
Movement Director & Choreographer
'Elvis', 'Saltburn', 'Bohemian Rhapsody'
Jessica Clark
Multi Award Winning Actor
'Rotterdam', 'Versailles', 'Marie Antoinette'
Esther Freud
Author
'I Couldn't Love You More', 'Hideous Kinky', 'The Sea House'
Mike Figgis
Oscar Nominated Director and Screenwriter
'Leaving Las Vegas', 'Timecode', 'Internal Affairs'
Luke Jennings
Screenwriter and Show Creator
'Killing Eve'
Travis Alabanza
Author, Writer & Performer
'None of the Above', Burgerz', 'Overflow'
Anthony Anaxagorou
Poet, Author and Royal Society of Literature Fellow
'Heritage Aesthetics', 'The Blink That Killed The Eye'
Vinay Patel
Screenwriter & Playwright
'Murdered by My Father', 'Doctor Who'
Katherine Angel
Author
'Sex Will Be Good Again', 'Daddy Issues'
Emily Hayward-Whitlock
Screenwriters Agent and Head of Book to Film
at The Artists Partnership
Amelia Abraham
Author and Journalist
'Queer Intentions', 'We Can Do Better Than This'
Next month, we're joined by Laurie Nunn, creator of 'Sex Education', as our April guests speaker
P R E V I O U S G U E S T S P E A K E R S :
O T H E R W R I T E C L U B E V E N T S :
We're really excited about the potential of other events that Write Club could run for your members, especially during weekend hours.
We're incredibly keen to run an Agent's Day in the future where Write Club participants would have the opportunity to meet and talk with Literary Agents, pitching project outlines or simply getting advice. Run over the course of an afternoon, attendees would be able to enjoy all the benefits your beautiful space provide.
Our Commissioning Series would follow a similar structure, inviting commissioners from the BBC, Film 4, Amazon and Netflix to join a panel discussion before the opportunity for Write Club members to pitch ideas, all over drinks and food.
Every year, we run two writing retreats across the UK and Europe. Priority booking and member discounts will be offered to Bingham members. With the retreats that Samantha runs we'd love the opportunity to discuss how we might be able to add to her incredible array of possibilities she creates for so many people.
In addition, we're keen to find a new home for our Supper Club series where writers are able to come together for a three course meal and to have more time to write into the evening.
We can provide a chef for this series or work alongside your in-house team with the provision of a set menu.
“I sit on the Inclusivity Board at Soho House and the Committee at Soho Works.
I go to a lot of the events here and the Houses, and I don’t feel like I’ve got the sense of community from other workshops I’ve attended. We have a lot of people that come in and create space, which is great, but all of the connections I have in Soho are a result of the people I met at Write Club.
It feels like family rather than just a community”.
- Melissa Sinclair
"As a first-time visitor to Write Club, I was delighted to see how well organised it was and how likeminded many of the people I met there were. It was liberating being able to have the time to put some thoughts down on paper, and even more so going through the process of sharing them with the group. Write Club will certainly be a monthly staple for me and I'm already looking forward to the next one."
- Martin Hislop
"The Write Club team run fantastic sessions which I’d recommend to anyone with an interest in writing. Their guest speakers - often impressively big names! - talk about their careers and use their experience to offer a mix of advice and encouragement that usefully straddles the border between ‘inspiring’ and ‘realistic’. Plus, there are always ingenious exercises to get everyone in the room writing there and then, often in ways they might not have done so before - and it’s a treat to hear the results of these read aloud. I’ve really enjoyed getting involved with their sessions - and I can see that any organisation which has an interest in driving creativity could do well to book Write Club, too."
- Toby Smith
"I am never happier than when I am stringing words together into sentences, but writing is often a very isolating hobby done in solitude. So, I can’t tell you how thankful I am for the monthly Write Club London events at Soho. It makes my heart happy to spend an evening with fellow aspiring and accomplished writers.
It is a fantastic opportunity to share work that has never seen the light of day.
I am a Magazine Editor, but I suffer with imposter syndrome. In the Write Club bubble of creative souls, I am encouraged to read my work aloud. It’s such a safe space to share."
- Rebecca Archer
"A lot of us struggle with carving out space to be writers amongst the day jobs and other responsibilities, but we also struggle with accountability to our creative selves. When it feels like there is no out there waiting for your story, it can feel hard to keep going. It’s why groups like this are so important."
- Nasri Atallah
"Write Club is, in my opinion, the best event Soho Works puts on.
The quality of talent that runs through the event is exceptional. "
- Ady Lloyd
T E S T I M O N I A L S F R O M P A R T I C P A N T S :