A fire, one question, and a room full of people who do not usually get asked.
Draft case study. Written from the launch event proposal
(`context/colab_worcs_drive/CoLab Worcs Launch event proposal.md`) and the website content
draft. Facts marked `[ ]` need Al.
The situation
Worcester has a carrier bag full of people doing good work in isolation. The friends of parks groups, the community gardeners, the youth workers, the bike mechanics. Most of them know their own patch well and each other hardly at all.
We could have started with a presentation about ourselves. Instead we started with a fire and a question, and let the room do the talking.
The approach
This was a gathering, not a conference. No PowerPoint, no lanyards, no clipboards. People came together around a fire to share stories and food and to imagine what a more connected Worcester could look like.
The hook we put in front of them: if we could build a city that truly belongs to everyone, what would it look like?
Around that question we set out a few things to do, all of them low floor and high ceiling:
- The fire starter. Learning to light the fire, which is a skill and an invitation at the same time.
- The purpose finder. A physical version of our question card deck, to help someone work out what they actually care about.
- Cardboard City. A making corner with cardboard, tape and pens. Build the thing you want to see in Worcester.
- A Forest Therapy taster. Fifteen slow minutes in nature with a practitioner.
- The un-networking. Conversation with the job titles banned. Who are you when you are not working?
[CONFIRM WHICH OF THESE ACTUALLY RAN, AND WHAT WE DROPPED.]
What happened
[LOCATION AND DATE. The fire circle, the food, how many people came, and who they were. What people built at Cardboard City. What was said around the fire that stayed with you.]
Outcomes and learning
[WHAT CAME OUT OF IT: the people who met, the ideas that stuck, anything still running. What we would do differently next time, and how it set up the work that followed.]
Voices
- [QUOTE: Someone who came to the launch, on what they took away]
- [QUOTE: Al or Katie, CoLab Worcs, on the first spark]