Why I Created Dream Nation
Dream Nation is a social enterprise I created to help people with their personal development, or how I like to put it: to become Practical Dreamers. I created it from a place of both hope and frustration. I was frustrated by seeing so many of my peers waste their potential, but hopeful that with the right type of support we could change that.
Where We Started
The very first event was a conference inspired by TED Talks. I brought together my friends, mentors and people who inspired me to share the lessons they have learnt on their journey and the stories of how they got to where they are.
I also hosted the event on August 28th 2013, to pay homage to one of my inspirations: Martin Luther King Jr as this was also the 50t anniversary of his famous speech: I Have A Dream, which is where the event got its name.
A Success Story
The event was a success, although it took me some time to really see this. It was only months later when people who had attended or watched the event online kept telling me about the impact it had on them and the changes to their lives they made as a result.
Originally, I thought it would only be a one-off event, but it slowly started to dawn on me that it could be so much more.
Stepping Up Our Game.
In the following years, the DN team worked hard to see how far we could take the brand. We moved out of the nightclub where we started and to began selling out theatres. We step up the production value of our events and post-event media. We also progress from using my friends and mentors to attracting people outside our networks such as CEOs, Olympians and celebrities.
Got Into The Media Game
We realised that the best way to impact more lives was for us to evolve into more of a media platform. So we built a fantastic editorial team and begun interviewing and sharing the stories of people with outstanding accomplishments such as Ashley Everett, Beyonce's lead backing dancer.
Building A Unquie Brand
As we continued to refine the Dream Nation brand we realised we had something truly special. DN had the energy and youthfulness a motivational brand, editorial chops of a magazine, the impact of a social enterprise, the hype of an influencer, creative failure of an artist and the depth of a training firm. This allowed us to grow a community of a few thousand like-minded individuals from all over the UK.
The Dream Nation Gala
As we grew, I realised that one of the most valuable things we had was our community of like-minded individuals. We saw over and over again that something magical happens when you bring a few hundred amazing people to the same place at the same time. So we created our gala to both celebrate our community while also helping individuals to grow their networks.
Chapter 1: Our Creative Show Case
Creativity always has been woven into the fabrics of Dream Nation, so we decided to create an event where we brought it to the forefront. We've found that music, art and poetry can inspire and touch people in ways other mediums simply can't.
We also turned the live audio from our event into an album! (Below)
Online Education
As our business grew and expanded, we realised we needed to create more ways to help serve our community, even if they can't be with us in person. This is how the seeds of the online education side of our business were planted.
Partnerships
As we grew and matured as a company we began to create relationships and collaborations with some of the world's biggest brands to find new ways to serve our community of Practical Dreamers.
Rethinking The Brand & Our Future
Dream Nation grew into something I had never anticipated or honestly even planned for and after 5 years I realised that if I want it to have the biggest impact possible, I was going to need to restructure the organisation. Right now we are still going through that process, however, we will be back in 2019, and I couldn't be more excited show you what we've been working on.
What you can expect from our future:
- New Events
- Podcasts and Editorials
- Online Education
- In person coaching
- A.I. Driven Applications
Stay up to date with us by signing up to our mailing list via the Dream Nation website.
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