SI Camp Meet-Up, Saturday 6 June, Wellington – Off to A Great Start!

[Justine Munro]

NZ’s first SI Camp Meet-Up took place yesterday on the top floor of Deloitte House in Wellington. Inspired by the stunning views, over 80 web developers and commentators, designers and creatives, business gurus, investors, public servants and frontline community workers came together to generate ideas for “innovating through recession”.

In this first meet-up, our focus was both on bringing together a new community and encouraging networks, and on stimulating ideas for web tools for social change.

The scene was set with an overview by Peter Conway, CTU Secretary, and a series of personas drawn by Origin Design from real-world examples, together emphasising jobs, skills-training and community support as critical, and highlighting particular needs for young people, refugees, and older people.

Led by the fabulous Alexandra and Brian of Origin Design, we then began the “Scottish dance” where each table generated lots of ideas, picked their top two, and then half of the table moved on, allowing discussions to begin again with a newly constituted group. After a number of rounds, each table presented their final top idea, wildcard ideas were added from the floor, and votes were made by Post-It. At the end, we encouraged people to hang out beside the ideas they loved – allowing groups to come together who would be keen to be part of taking an idea forward.

Three top ideas emerged:

• “10,000 Micro Exporters” – Leveraging the overseas market knowledge of Kiwis returning home and migrants to create new niche opportunities for micro-exporting (and importing)
• “Community Gardens” - Hyper-local communities, based around community gardens, connecting and sharing food, skills and assistance assisted by a web tool
• “Alternative Energy” – An idea for the development of a community grid

Of the other 11, some strong themes emerged, particularly a focus on communities helping themselves. Also popular were:

• “SJS Mainstream” – A web-based matching service for micro-contracts and casual work, based on the Student Job Search model
• “Kiva.org for NZ” – Bringing together micro-credit and mentoring to help small-scale NZ entrepreneurs

After this hard work, we then made the most of the fabulous venue (thank you Deloitte), the plentiful wine (thank you Matua) and the hugely varied, energetic and creative company – and a great time was had by all.

Many thanks once again to everyone whose enthusiasm and support made this such a great start, and in particular:
• Our seed funders – Kordia and the British Council
• Our supporters – Deloitte, Origin, Idealog, Matua, Ideas Shop, Catalyst, ASB, Ymedia

Here are the fantastic photos taken by Pamela Minnett, and Justine’s opening presentation SI_Camp_Meet_Up_02.pdf.

If you're keen to be part of advancing any of the SI Camp ideas, do start up a group on this site and let us know what you're planning - many of us will have ideas and expertise to share.

If you’d like to add your feedback, please comment on this blog, and, if you came, please take five minutes to fill in the feedback form here so that we can make the next event even better.

[Rumi Shivaz]

Another great concept that's worth following up is "Buying a Virtual Star" idea from Bice Awan. I think Lawrence Millar and the game developer guy who was next to me (sorry can't remember the name) would be two valuable resources to support Bice's idea.

[Kris Lane]

I agree with Zef, maybe the next event can have some further discussion once the big picture plans were presented – the "scottish dance" was useful to circulate and then discuss the ideas etc.

I think it would also be good to note the sites ie donatenz, freecycle, myblock that were mentioned – often it seems that the base frameworks are there but they are not yet know or showing above the line.

[Nathalie Hofsteede]

Thanks Justine - and congratulations on a fantastic first event. Your inspiring energy for this whole movement was evident by the buzz in the room. The one underlying issue that we appeared to discuss at all our "dance sessions" was a need to find ways to connect online SI initiatives with those that are presently "offline".

Given that the first session focused on recession fueled innovation - with the key consideration being a troubled labour market, I think it is important to define all the ideas that result by whether the objective is to:
a) improve economic or labour market conditions generally by activating an already online demographic
or
b) provide a tool/ system to assist those affected by the consequences of poor economic conditions

It seems that the ideas that resulted were a mix of those that will act to provide general stimulus or those that are an attempt to provide for the needs of a marginalised area of our society.

I believe we can draw some conclusions about the areas of society that become further marginalised by redundancies, loss of income and loss of security. Based on my experience - the most vulnerable people in a recession have pre-existing situational factors which mean their access to online tools and resources is compromised. Often this group will have:
- little or no appreciation for existing tools available online
- little or no basic computer literacy
- limited regular access to a computer/ internet
We build resilience in times of need through our networks, and increasingly our networks exist online (for those that can function with a computer). The overwhelming question that I was left with was how can we leverage web based technologies to benefit those who are "disconnected" and offline - for a demographic that has always worked with their hands and therefore has never had to manage IT in their worklife, people who have always sold their unwanted goods to a friend rather than on TradeMe, for people who have cut their phone lines because they have just lost their job.

I am keen to explore initiatives that assist this group to either find the skills to come online or help them find others that can act as their online advocates if the skill gap is to great to immediately impact their current needs.

It sounds pretty naff in light of the great ideas that came up at the session - but what about using transitional gaps in people's employment to educate them on computers, internet and the realm of possibilities beyond the start button :) Keen to hear from anyone else that is interested in progressing something so low level as that!

[Zef Fugaz]

Great event - well worth staying inside on a rare sunny day! I would have liked time to discuss the ideas immediately after they were presented to get people's first impressions and some critical analysis (this might have changed the voting outcomes?) - but all good ideas anyway. Looking forward to the next event.

[Bice Awan]

Hi Justine,
A good afternoon. The only small change I would suggest is speedy introductions at the tables. As we all focussed on strenghtening connections in our communities, it is good to model that in action
I agree with Rumi that "My first Client' did not get the hearing it deserved. Let me just say that as the C.E. of Skyight an NGO that established the organisation as a Social Enterprise - that is balancing making money with our social mission - had I not accessed the first client we would not be where we are now - supporting 6,000 clients around New Zealand and with agencies in Australian and a programme in Denmark. So it is a concept that has legs.

I look forward to seeing the otucome of the other Camps. Making great ideas even greater is a wonderful challenge and know that in your hands - anything is possible.

[Rumi Shivaz]

Hi Justine, thanks very much for organizing this great event. I saw you speaking at Webstock at Paramount and really admire the energy and enthusiasm you are putting for this project.

Apart from the key ideas listed on your post, there were few valuable ideas that got discussed and would be a shame to see them fade away. I will try and write a post on the idea called "My First Client" from Jarrod Coburn, CEO of NZ Resilience Trust. It didn't get many votes because it was hard to understand the "Need" and "Value" unless you were involved in the conversation.

Keep up the good work. I had to rush off so didn't get a chance to introduce myself. I will try and attend the Auckland event.

[Social Innovation Camp]

There's also a great blog post from Idealog - http://idealog.co.nz/blog/peter-griffin/no-recession-when-it-comes-to-socially-minded-ideas