Taking Ideas Into Action, Shine 09 London Event

I’ve just spent two fantastic days at the Shine 09 event:Taking Social Ideas Into Action. Described as an UnConference, it brought together social entrepreneurs with organisations including Ashoka, Lovells, Futurebuilders, UnLtd and The School for Social Entrepreneurs. The two days were a terrific mix of structured and unstructured events, where we could all learn from each other. The balance was just right, dynamic yet also relaxed. It was also very affordable, a big point these days! And really important in ensuring inclusion of a wide range of people. There were two venues, both exceptional spaces: the Kings Place and The Hub Kings Cross.

One of the first people I bumped into was David Wilcox, (who co-ran a brilliant Social Collaboration game on the second day.) We’d recently talked about the work I do with heritage, museums and libraries. David invited me to be a Shine Social Reporter for the next hour or so. I’m more used to interviewing on camcorder, but didn’t need my arm twisting when David lent me his small flip (video) camera. It seems like everyone at Shine 09 had a great story to share. I had great fun capturing a few of them and it also proved an interesting way of networking. They can be viewed at Social Reporting at Shine together with loads of background, outcomes, and thought pieces on the whole event. I’m even more fired up now to continue encouraging the people I work with in the cultural sector to use social media tools to share ideas and stories.