Advertising creative director Floyd Hayes recently started a book-reading night in SoHo that collected funds for adult literacy. With his next event coming, we wanted to understand his motivations and his frustration with too many ‘meet-ups’ with not enough reasons.
Since we last mentioned Fully Book, how have things gone?
The first Fully Booked went well. The aim was to raise $100 and also snare some media coverage for the Literacy Assistance Center in New York, we ended up raising $168. We also had mentions on a few well-trafficked blogs too. Hardly the Bill and Melinda Foundation but it proved the model worked!
The secondary aim was to get people I liked together, tell some stories, drink and be merry. I received overwhelmingly positive feedback from attendees so that part worked too! I definitely drunk and got merry, so that box was ticked :)
My ultimate aim is to have a Fully Booked night occur in different cities around the globe on a quarterly basis. So far, I have interest in Toronto and Newcastle in the UK.
I’d also love to have it run in the top 10 US cities, get some known authors involved and start raising some decent money and interest.
However, it’s a slow process as I have to fit it in round my day job and all the other “stuff” I’m involved in.
What’s driving this idea? We see a lot of literary evenings appearing around the globe. Why did you start a night?
A few trains of thought came together.
I was getting a little tired of all the “talking shops” this industry seems to breed. Don’t get me wrong, I talk enough to fill a blimp with hot air and I have plenty of respect for groups like LikeMind but I felt there was a lack of real point to some of these groups. I wanted to get like-minded people together and focus it on a cause.
An article in The Week got me thinking about adult literacy – or the shocking lack of it in the States – something I found surprising as well as depressing. I conducted some research and the LAC came to my attention as a good group working hard to effect change in this area.
Finally, I’ve always loved telling and listening to stories. Back in Primary School the teacher used to ask me to tell the class stories which I’d make up on the spot and I’ve been making them up ever since.
These thoughts came together to create Fully Booked. I held the first one in a pub – as that’s where you always here the best stories and also had the right “democratic” vibe to it – I don’t want this to be some elitist literacy society or anything!
What inspires you to do such a thing?
It’s pleasing to do something outside of the commercial sphere which encompasses nearly all my waking hours. Plus, I was getting bored of myself ranting against talking shops and knew I had to just do something myself.
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