Process Designer, Facilitator, and Host For Creative Hire
design director | creative strategist | engagement specialist | convenor | foodist | process designer | storyteller | educator | association executive | board member | emcee and host | community activist | trained cook | lifelong learner | good conversationalist | ordained priest (ask me about that) | husband | dog lover
All things facilitation, community, creativity, and connections.
I design, curate, produce, and host gatherings, and meaningful dialogue-focused events for individuals, businesses, and interntational organizations such as the monthly breakfast lecture series CreativeMornings which builds connection, conversation, and capacity of the creative community.
I am also a lifelong food fanatic and cooking and cuisine is an important way that connects me to people, places, and culture.
Process Designer, Facilitator, and Host For Creative Hire
design director | creative strategist | engagement specialist | convenor | foodist | process designer | storyteller | educator | association executive | board member | emcee and host | community activist | trained cook | lifelong learner | good conversationalist | ordained priest (ask me about that) | husband | dog lover
All things facilitation, community, creativity, and connections.
I design, curate, produce, and host gatherings, and meaningful dialogue-focused events for individuals, businesses, and interntational organizations such as the monthly breakfast lecture series CreativeMornings which builds connection, conversation, and capacity of the creative community.
I am also a lifelong food fanatic and cooking and cuisine is an important way that connects me to people, places, and culture.
Two offers:
1) Like so many who have been generous with me in my life/career, I want to “send the elevator back down" by providing limited one-on-one access to like-minded creative people in my network (and beyond). I derive reward and meaning when I get to enjoy radical open-mindedness and thoughtful discourse with folks seeking new perspectives and paths forward. I am particularly keen to help the creative community in Vancouver connect and increase its capacity, but I tend to get inundated by requests to connect, so my hope is that this platform will help me serve others while maintaining what's little of my time and sanity. ;-)
2) Become the go-to for creative, memorable, meaningful facilitation.
I love shift disturbers and community changemakers. My tribe tends to be creative professionals, community organizers, and curiosity junkies seeking ways to increase their effectiveness and impact. I really enjoy connecting with humble, driven, high performers keen to do the work required to shift norms, disturb patterns of mediocrity, and make positive change in their lives, careers, and communities.
What I am currently working on
Industry trends, insights, observations & opinions
My current role & responsibilities
My day-to-day
My salary, rates, income & benefits
My education, training & qualifications
My biggest challenges, successes, failures & lessons learned
What success means to me
How I got to where I am today
What I enjoy most/least about my career
What it is like working for my company & why I chose to work there
What it is like to live and work in my city
Recommendations for anyone entering my career or industry
Recommended books, articles, blogs, conferences, tools, apps, etc.
Whose content do I consume regularly
Daily practices, habits, and strategies
Issues I care most about right now and why
My values, beliefs, philosophies and/or political views
My love story
⇨ I have been a director at an interdisciplinary design and architecture firm with three offices and over 100 employees.
⇨ I founded and managed a successful brand strategy and communication design consultancy for 20 years.
⇨ I founded, produce, and host the Vancouver chapter of CreativeMornings, a popular monthly free breakfast lecture series on creativity.
⇨ I have process designed and facilitated numerous workshops and retreats for leaders, companies, and organizations of various kinds.
⇨ I have been a design and communications instructor and mentor for many years.
⇨ I am obsessed with the intersection of culture and cuisine, and the only thing I enjoy more than eating is cooking for others.
Perhaps the most valuable information about myself I could so people can assess whether we'll work well together are my core values. After all, these strong beliefs are what form my unique identity and guide my decisions and behaviour. After much reflection and personal work, I have distilled my core values down to four words that spell the acronym RISK: RELATIONSHIPS, INTEGRITY, SERVICE, and KNOWLEDGE.
⇨ I chose the word RELATIONSHIPS to represent the value of being connected to others, of belonging to a community where I feel seen and accepted, flaws and all. The value of relationships motivated me to surround myself with those I know I can trust and count on to be there for me. I suppose another word for this might be loyalty.
⇨ The value INTEGRITY is based on my belief that a life well lived is guided by truth, honesty, and honour. For me that often involves demonstrating a strength of character to do the right thing, even—or especially—when it comes at a cost. As a result, I can be a fairly forthright, even blunt, person at times.
⇨ I adore being in SERVICE and actively seek out opportunities to share my talents, creativity, resources, and energy with people and organizations in ways that benefit others, causes, or society without asking for or expecting anything in return. I'm kind of a keener that way.
⇨ For me KNOWLEDGE is the intersection of curiosity and intelligence. I am in awe of the world and as a result feel compelled to constantly pursue new experiences, new approaches, and new learnings that allow me to be more aware, more empathetic, and more effective. Being a lifelong learning has served me well as a creative professional.
The acronym RISK works to express something about who I am too as I don't tend to avoid risk and often invite others to lean into the discomfort and seeking new perspectives, trying new approaches, and taking personal and professional risks. Kinda works, hey?
I'd be more interested in what others say about working with me, so I suggest a quick search for my LinkedIn profile which includes some recommendations. But I will say this: I bet working with me can at times be energizing and enlightening, while at times I am pretty sure my approach can feel challenging and emotional. My process and style can be fun and engaging, with lots of ideas and opportunities presenting themselves, but also I tend to challenge those I am serving with hard questions and sometimes uncomfortable honesty. If you can't handle a good laugh and being pushed to face difficult realists, then we might not work well together.
⇨ My favourite quote is “There is no truth. There is only perception.” (Gustave Flaubert)
⇨ I love being wrong (when it leads to learning and correction)
⇨ I collect probing, often uncomfortable questions (can you handle being vulnerable?)
⇨ I have been called a “limbic energy machine” (i.e. I give and feed on energy)
⇨ I have studied the culinary arts and love cooking for others (more than eating even)
⇨ I have a coulrophobia-level dislike of clowns (I don’t that’s useful info, but anyway)
⇨ I am an ordained Dudeist Priest and can perform marriage ceremonies (Seriously, Google it)
I adore hosting conversation, whether in circle, around a meal, or online. In fact, my goal is for someone to one day call me a skilled deipnosophist (Google it).
I believe the world does not need more events, it needs BETTER events, rooted in meaning, purpose, and impact. I've been producing engaging community events that are designed to create connections, conversations, and capacity for decades. Join me!
If you haven't experienced CreativeMornings/Vancouver yet, you are missing a magical community experience. Let me know and I can make sure you get a ticket as my guest. http://www.creativemornings.com/cities/van
Over the past five years I have produces and hosted dozens of popular events, some in-house at HCMA, many in venues around the city. These have been insightful speakers, presentations, workshops, screenings, performances, workshops, and much more.
One of my favourite things is to design engaging and effective gatherings, whether they are meetings, workshops, retreats, or whatever. I am really good at this, but I bet if you and I collaborated we could create something special.
I've been figuring out ways to find order in the complexity of the creative process for over 30 years, so it's likely the challenge you are facing is something I've worked through years ago. Let's chat.
Maybe you're struggling with a pitch or a talk you have to give in front of an audience. Storytelling is a sort of passion hobby of mine and I bet I can help you understand how to construct an effective narrative that captures your audience's attention and delivers your message! Let's scheme together1
I have spent more than two decades helping organizations and their leadership identify the power of identity design, storytelling, and messaging. There are lots of examples of projects I helped lead on my design consultancy's website, and you can hire me and my team to help you with your brand and identity design. See my brand audit offer.
As part of HCMA's TILT Curiosity Labs, I managed an artist in residence program which was an amazing way to connect various perspectives and forms of craft and making with a team of designers yearning for new ways to create. Plus we helped support the arts and culture sector which was terrific.
Over the years I've written numerous opinion pieces for various publications, but many of the design, marketing, and strategy related ones can be found on Industrial Brand's website: https://www.industrialbrand.com/author/mark-busse
I sometimes get asked to go on podcasts and such and talk about the various things that I'm passionate about. Here is an example of a conversation about designing for community you might enjoy (or maybe not). ;-) https://pricetags.ca/podcast/mark-busse-on-the-underlying-confidence-that-we-can-design-for-community/
I love studying the culinary arts and love cooking for others even more than eating, but I hate being called a "foodie". If you were a serious piano player, would you want to be called a "pianoee"? Of course not. This is why the food and media collective I co-founded is called www.foodists.ca. Check it out.
The notes, insights, and ideas I get from calls with Mark can be best described as abundant.
Here are just a few things we chatted about during our conversation:
> good books - bury my heart
> good leadership qual...
My meeting with Mark was amazing - more than I'd hoped for. He's a fun, happy person, with a tremendous amount of experience and insight.
I found Mark to be very genuine and open - super easy to talk to and connect wi...
Walk and talks with Mark are full of all kinds of surprises:
History, stories, case studies, anecdotes, introductions, coffees, flowing conversations, action, connection, and more.
I booked Mark for this walk and t...
Holy cow guys. From beginning to end this has been not only a delight but so deeply useful to both me and my business's internal compass.
Long story short. Mark is helping me and my team come up with the foundation of ...
Mark was energetic and super open to my ideas for a Diversity Festival I am producing. He was encouraging and offered great advice. I was invited to pitch my event at a future Creative Mornings event to gain more exposure....
Mark is a wealth of knowledge and connections. If he can't help you with something, he knows the person that can. He is well connected in this city and very generous with his time and insights.
A spirited conversationalist with a pension for enthused appreciation and sharing. A joy to be in the company of this man.