This event format that I’m calling Project Spaces is a response to my experience and what I hear echoed throughout the “innovation” sector: that we have lots of opportunities to come together and people are excited to share and collaborate, but nothing ever “happens.” Project Spaces is a format that includes a longer-term process instead of just one day and requires commitment, excitement and purpose in order to succeed. If you are an organization or group that wants to catalyze and support community-generated projects or you are someone that wants to get involved, I hope this is a format you can take and run with.
Since co-authoring Social by Social last year, David Wilcox and I have had the opportunity to collaborate and facilitate various events for community and local government groups. Most recently, we facilitated at the Transformed By You event put on by Medway and Kent County Councils as a jointly-supported event to look for new ways to do things with the community. Creating documentation for the event to share with those organizing and helping out on the day was the last push I needed to finally write up the process and approach for others to use, remix, and share.
The documentation explores Project Spaces conceptually as well as provides examples of how to hold a Project Spaces event. And I want to share it with you, get your ideas, and start a long-term process of collaboratively improving and refining this model.