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Spirited Away - what next for 2gether
I have organised dozens of events and meet ups of one kind or another over the past few years with a focus on emerging technologies, education and social innovation so 2gether08 felt like something like the culmination of many years of work. Often people ask me what my goals are, in terms of outcomes for events, and generally I respond perhaps ambivalently that I am sanguine about what happens, that I trust people to come together and do good things without me directing them towards any particular goals. This has always felt consistent with the style of our events and I have always felt somewhat vindicated when I hear months and even years later that people who met at my events have gone on to collaborate on business ventures and new projects etc.
However I feel rather different about 2gether, in fact I feel way different. I feel an urge to harness and build upon the creative volunteering that underpinned it, the pragmauptopism - to use Charlie Leadbeater’s phrase - that was the hallmark of those two days and evening inside the walled gardens at Rochelle. Feedback suggests that others field the same. You want more similar events - and for sure theyn will follow and soon, watch this space - but it is clear that keeping the community together and allowing it to grow and diversify is something we need to think hard about. My instincts are to do this is a way that is participative in keeping with the 2gether vibe. George Por and David Wilcox have already submitted ideas about how this could be achieved and have suggested I look at some of the emerging open franchise models that being experimented with. I will. I want to explore how we can share the brand with others , share the various social tools that we used at the event so that others can pick up on and experiment them with them and share their learning and do all this is a way that doesn’t compromise the values, ethos and vibe that the brand has already generated. How can we cede control and gain influence? Thoughts?
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Steve - you’re dead right. 2gether08 was amazing for me because of the mix of people that were there and the delight in discovering that they were somehow connected with people that I already know, knew in the past, am working with & hope to work with in the future.
I met some great new people with who are already talking to me about how we can work together at MOO and help people share their ideas, images and thoughts on printed products. (Don’t forget to use your MOO discounts everyone!)
I also met some great new people who can help me with a few projects I do outside of work, such as on the Kew Society - connecting the work of Kew Gardens more with the local community in Kew and certainly harnessing the enthusiasm & skills of local traders & keeping up the momentum following our Greener Kew & Plastic Bag Free campaign.
But, as you rightly say the important part is keeping the community together. It might be really nice for people to actually see collaborative projects that are coming out of 2gether08 (that’s if people are willing to share them in public). Wiki’s are usually pretty good for that as potentially everyone can contribute.
It would also be nice to have some sort of calendar of events, so we can all see projects around the country that we are attending - in the hope that they might be interesting to others too. Something like Upcoming or even eventbrite would be good for this.
Only yesterday I was lunch with people having similar discussions, and we found that some larger brands who may not have traditonally thought about social media are now adding it to their budget and want to seriously get invovled with engaging the people who “consume” their products & services.
Thanks for putting together such a fantastic event and I look forward to the continued success of 2gether.
I’m in complete agreement that this network needs to have some sustained contact to incubate projects and articulate new opportunities.
I wonder if it may be possible to have half day workshops on particular projects, drawn from a list of proposals generated by the community, and then voted on collectively? I know I would have been happy to get together over a weekend with the Dance United folk and a few of the other pitches at the conclusion of 2gether08 to assist where I can.
I’m also interested in the idea of putting together creative problem solving sessions… EG: a business says I really need a tech/social/action-oriented solution for Problem X… there is no easy solution in the manner possible through posing such a question to a twitter list, so you bring a bunch of people together and apply a few theories of thinking and then allocate tasks based on skills… and in a half day of consolidated effort, you have a new product or a solution to a pesky problem. If we all share in the benefits of this kind of collective exploration and problem solving it can become a very powerful initiative.
I’m willing to do what I can to help set these initiatives up - either as pressure-cooker-style competitions, public events, monthly mid-week early evening brainstorming or even Saturday afternoon workshops. Let me know if anyone is interested!
Cheers,
Joanne Jacobs
Steve - thanks for the mention. My open franchise idea was sparked by your thoughts at the end of 2gether08 about kind-of giving the brand away.
2gether08, the event, was made possible partly by the convening power of the Channel 4 brand. Then through the creative volunteering, as you put it, of all concerned, the community built the possibility of a 2gether-something brand.
Early on we had an underlying model http://snurl.com/2×97w of how things might develop: the convening place of 2gether08 enables those with problems and project ideas to work with technology enablers and supporters to develop ways forward.
Now 2gether08 is over, we don’t have the physical place. One-stop online community places, or even linked distributed places, aren’t enough to realise the potential as Lloyd Davis blogged http://snurl.com/2×9ar
I think we need a framework through which those with ideas; the enablers; the suppporters; and the convenors can again use the spirit of 2gether to combine.
Under an open franchise they could use the 2gether-something brand to offer an event, a service … or ask for helpers, supporters, collaborators.
The first question is what are the light-touch rules for doing that, embodying the generous spirit of 2gether that you are promoting. Are there examples of open franchises we could look at? Can we co-create the open-franchise model … so it has some community backing?
Open franchise was just for starters. Make sense? Any other ideas?
David Wilcox
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