A reflection on Creative Bridges 2025

In this blogpost, co-Chair Mel Perry reflects on the recent Creative Bridges conference, which took place online on 13th and 14th September 2025. Keynote speeches from the conference will be shared online soon.

got the inspiration tingle.

a moment of self-realisation/knowledge during a writing exercise,

the written voice of others and the power of sharing ideas

These are some of the comments we received through the conference evaluation survey

I hope that you have seen the recording by Poet in Residence, Karrish Devan, of his conference poem which closed the event on Sunday. Catch it on our social media platforms- Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn. Our other Poet in Residence, Nazaret Ranea was not able to join us, but she submitted a pre-conference poem which was read by Co-chair Lucy Windridge-Floris at the opening. We hope to bring a video of Nazaret reading her poem.  

We live in troubling times, but for all the dark challenges we face in the world there is also light and laughter. I felt that the conference brought us light and laughter in abundance.  Both of our keynote speakers- Elizabeth Torres and Dawn Garisch– showed how their personal experiences and different parts of the world had brought them to amplifying marginalised voices, activism and social change in their respective communities in New York, Copenhagen and Cape Town. We will also be bringing you the films of Elizabeth and Dawn.

The richness of Creative Bridges comes from our membership, and others in the words and writing for wellbeing arena. Once again you did not disappoint and feedback in our post conference survey tells us how much you appreciated and were moved by sessions that incorporated such diverse matters as gender exploration, music, fiction writing and body sensing and movement.

We tried a new offering this year; to hold some short breathing spaces of a different kind, to briefly meet some new people and to experience a creative and reflective bridge between sessions.  These mini sessions were engaging and appreciated.

The team that planned and brought you the conference included those who reviewed submission abstracts, shared new ideas, scheduled the programme, coordinated and ran the technical support, delivered social media, ran the ticketing, oiled wheels in the background.

I would like to extend a specific thank you to the members who volunteered to chair sessions at the conference. On behalf of the Creative Bridges planning team, the presenters and conference participants, thank you for your smooth and professional chairing. It made such a difference to the presenters to have your calm, reassuring holding of the space; scanning the chat for comments and the room for raised hands, while ensuring that we could finish each event on time.

Through the evaluation survey we have received many helpful comments and suggestions that we can incorporate into a programme of future events which we look to bringing to you in 2026.

Thank you again for your continued participation and contribution

Mel Perry