PauseTalk Next Week

One of the interesting things that has happened since my return to Asia is the return of PauseTalk.

As I wrote in detail in this post, when I left Tokyo back in 2015 I also decided to put an end to my PauseTalk series (with Vol. 85). I wasn’t really interested in handing it over to someone else to continue, and during the close to seven years I was based in Montreal, I never had the urge to resurrect it there. But following my move to Shanghai in 2022, I then got to do my first proper visit to Tokyo since leaving (not counting a very short business trip I did in 2019), and along with that visit back in May of last year came the idea of organizing a session as a way of gathering people during my visit — with the bonus that it was held on my birthday.

Following that Vol. 86 (yes, I kept the numbering), I then organized a session in Tokyo during another visit in October (Vol. 87), and both those sessions started giving me the bug to potentially start organizing sessions here in Shanghai as well.

At our December edition of PechaKucha Night here in Shanghai (Vol. 34), I did a presentation about PauseTalk, and ended it with the question of whether there might be interest in doing them here. Following that, a few people did come up to me to express interest, and that resulted in a session taking place in March (Vol. 88 — an auspicious number here in China, so great way to kick things off).

Well, that was fun, and so I’m looking at doing them on a bi-monthly basis now (alternating months with our PechaKucha Nights), and the next one (Vol. 89) is set for Wednesday of next week (April 24). The venue for the previous one was The Mill (a VFX studio), and for this one I’m very happy to be doing it at the Bananafish Books location in the Gubei area, which just so happens to be in my neighborhood — which brings things back to how PauseTalk was born at a neighborhood cafe, Cafe Pause, back when I lived in Tokyo. When I first visited the shop I noticed that they had a room in the back for workshops with a large table, which I thought would be a great setting for a future PauseTalk session.

For those new to PauseTalk, I invite you to take a look at the posts on the PauseTalk website, but in short, it’s a moderated talk (with me as moderator) about various topics that relate to being a creative in the city — I go with the flow, and try to steer the discussion based on who is attending. We kick things off at 19:30, and it usually lasts 1-2 hours. There’s no entry fee, and you’re free to bring drinks — since talking and drinking is indeed a good combination.

So if you’re in town and interested in chatting and connecting with other creatives — and when I talk about “creative,” it’s meant more as a mindset than necessarily your job title — come on down this coming Wednesday and let’s talk.