Networking groups near Leicester, H5

Hear what one of the founding members, Ann Stanley from Anicca Digital, has to say about Leicester Digital Exchange and the impact it will have on Leicestershire's thriving digital economy.

Connect on social media #leicesterdigital

Thank you to Caron Lyon (@pcmcreative) for the interview!

We also have a blog and encourage the community to get engaged by commenting on or writing new posts for http://www.mindtheproduct.com

Finally, check out our annual conferences in San Francisco and London: http://mtpcon.com

There are many steps on your journey to greater social life. Here are the first steps for members of GSLU. After reading the rest of this introduction, you should read the 2021 book The Guide to Thumoslang. Many of our members put this new knowledge into practice as suggested by The GSLU Handbook.

When you spend more time in damage control mode and less time benefiting from your various relations, you waste a great deal of effort in your social life. Such a cost of opportunity keeps you from going at high speed towards your ideals, in creating your ideal self, and in actualizing what you truly want to become. This is likely due to a lack of social clarity, which is essential for internal conversations and vital for meaningful relationships.

Unintentionally created in 2017, accidentally discovered in 2018, and first taught in 2019, Thumoslang is the nomenclature for social clarity. It is used as a language for faster communication, be it in complex collaboration or difficult conversation. The first widespread use of social clarity has been predicted by Thumoslang pioneers to be just as important as the first widespread control of fire. All is explained by The Guide to Thumoslang, which is backed by The Dictionary of Thumoslang.

Again, the Thumoslang Network is an association of groups whose members use Thumoslang, the nomenclature for social clarity, as their basic strategy for greater social life. Part of the network is the Greater Social Life Union (GSLU). Its mission is long-lasting joy for its members through faster actualization of their personal ideals.

Your ideals are the same as your ideal self, which means what you truly want to become. "Everything else is secondary," said Steve Jobs. Our group activities involve you with the first practical steps in the further development of your ideals, in keeping others from interfering with your life, and in building a group of in-person friends who keep on encouraging you and nurturing your ideals. To be sure, if you lack social clarity in your internal conversations, face unwanted drama too often, are not sure of your social life or your path into the future, or have no friends and no groups available on a regular basis to help create your ideal self, this group is for you.

*** MEMBERSHIP BENEFITS ***

Our group activities bring you the following benefits:

Benefit 1 - Mastery of Relationships

As new GSLU members participate in the union's activities, they will quickly find themselves having noticeable enhancements in their social lives. The further they participate in GSLU activities, the faster they naturally acquire the mastery of relationships.

Benefit 2 - Best Friends for Your Ideals

Our group activities include practical steps in building a group of in-person friends who keep on encouraging you and nurturing your ideals.

Benefit 3 - Internal Dialogues More Effective

Thumoslang is a set of terminology whose use is intended to benefit one's clarity in social situations. Consequently, Thumoslang allows you to have clearer communication with yourself in your mind.

Benefit 4 - Meaningful Relationships Much Stronger

Our members use Thumoslang to mend or strengthen their existing relationships, build new relations, and achieve greater social life.

Benefit 5 - Faster Actualization of Your Ideals

The actualization of your ideals goes faster when it regularly involves your best group, which is the small group of in-person, second-mind friends who are the best for the nurturing of your ideals. Our activities help you speed up the actualization of your ideals by reducing social roadblocks and increasing social shortcuts in your life.

Shortform improv consists of short scenes usually constructed from a predetermined game, structure, or idea and driven by an audience suggestion. Many shortform exercises were first created by Viola Spolin, who called them theatre games, influenced by her training from recreational games expert Neva Boyd. The shortform improv comedy television series Whose Line Is It Anyway? has familiarised American and British viewers with shortform.

MISSION STATEMENT FOR THIS MEETUP

This group aims to build a community of Leicester-based people with a passion for improvised comedy.

HOW DO WE DO THIS?

For those who wish to take part, there is a weekly workshop where we can all meet up and develop our improv skills (useful for actors, public speakers, comedians, and anyone else who has a lot of face-to-face interactions in their job/life). For those who wish to watch only, we'll arrange a pre-show meetup to have drinks/pizza/etc before going to watch any improv gigs that come through Leicester - including our own resident group, The Same Faces, who perform monthly.

WHO ARE THE SAME FACES?

The Same Faces were founded by Tom Young (bottom right, and lead organiser for this group) in 2013, and features three other regular players: Allan Smith (top right), Mike Brown (top left), and Dave Gotheridge (bottom left). Every show features five improvisers, and so the team is filled out by either guest players from around the country, or able members of Tom's workshops. The team run monthly shows in both Leicester & Northampton, as well as Tom's weekly workshops in each town.

WHAT CAN I EXPECT IF I GO TO A SHOW?

Everything is made up on the spot, often based on initial suggestions from the audience. That leads to scenes such as these:

http://youtu.be/kBPQen2WMUY

THE FUNDAMENTAL RULES OF IMPROV

• Listen: easier said than done, and that's exactly the point

• Agreement: say yes and add something, don't reject ideas

• Team Work: have a group mind, think of others

• Don't Block: stealing jokes / not listening / changing topic

• Relationship: focus on connection between characters, not just subject of scene

• Initiation: who, what, when to set the scene

• Point of View, Opinion and Intention: have them, these help express and build your character

• Be in Character: maintain character throughout the scene

• Don't Ask Questions: too many questions can make your partner do all the work

• Make Active Choices: Do something; don't be talking heads

APPLYING IMPROV PRINCIPLES IN LIFE

Many people who have studied improv have noted that its guiding principles are useful, not just on stage, but in everyday life. For example, Stephen Colbert said, in a commencement address:

"You are about to start the greatest improvisation of all. With no script. No idea what's going to happen, often with people and places you have never seen before. And you are not in control. So say "yes." And if you're lucky, you'll find people who will say "yes" back."

Tina Fey in her book Bossypants lists several rules of improv that apply in the workplace. There has been much interest in bringing lessons from improv into the corporate world. In a New York Times article titled "Can Executives Learn to Ignore the Script?", Stanford professor and author, Patricia Ryan Madson notes, "executives and engineers and people in transition are looking for support in saying yes to their own voice. Often, the systems we put in place to keep us secure are keeping us from our more creative selves." Madson explores the application of thirteen "maxims of improvisational theatre" to real-life in the book Improv Wisdom: Don't Prepare, Just Show Up.

WHERE CAN I FIND OUT MORE?

The Same Faces:

• Facebook

• Twitter

• Instagram

• YouTube

• Northampton Shows/Workshops Info

Improv Around The UK:

• UK Improv Network

• UK Improv Co-Op Weekend Retreats

• Hoopla: Improvised Comedy Club, London

• The Nursery Theatre, London

• The Crunchy Frog Website (UK Improv News)

Please feel free to take a look at our webpage http://greenspirit.org.uk/localgroups/nottingham/

This group is affiliated to the national GreenSpirit network. GreenSpirit is an association of people from all over the UK who believe that human life has important ecological and spiritual dimensions. The network attracts people from many different faith traditions, as well as those of no fixed faith who are spiritual on a personal level, and it celebrates, among other things, the understanding that all existence is sacred and profoundly connected.

For more see http://www.greenspirit.org.uk or view the short video below:

http://youtu.be/CxkuRhVmj-0

You can also follow the national GreenSpirit network on facebook at https://www.facebook.com/GreenSpiritUK

A new regular Meetup, hosted by Capital One, at our UK head office site in the heart of the East Midlands. This is a sister event to https://www.meetup.com/London-Cyber-Capital-One/ that has been running from our London offices for more than a year.

These events will be free to attend, vendor, sales and product-free Meetups for cyber and infosec enthusiasts to listen to industry speakers and discuss ideas and learnings. Plus the opportunity to network and engage with the wider tech community.

Slack -> https://join.slack.com/t/phpminds/shared_invite/zt-4vmh6pdx-coqcJQm1n4mcTFFMYB1~cA

Twitter -> @PHPMinds