Facilitating Local Conversations

Open Space Events in Lambeth

London Creative Labs is pleased to be facilitating a series of Open Space events in Lambeth, London, sponsored by Lambeth First, the Local Strategic Partnership, and hosted by various community organisations.

The events aim to get to the conversations that need to happen and to identify practical ways to move forward right away. Come and join us for a session of Open Space!

Some of the issues we could discuss include:

• how to improve the lives of local people and keep key services going?
• how can third sector organisations survive and thrive in the face of the cuts?
• how to make best use of what we have (equipment, places and people)?

What is Open Space? 
One of the most effective processes for organisations and communities to identify critical issues, voice their passions and concerns, learn from each other, and, when appropriate, take collective responsibility for finding solutions.

Open space starts with a blank canvas. As participants, we all set the agenda on the day.

This is an invitation to residents, communities, local businesses and services to come together and help shape the future of Lambeth. If you think you’re not invited you definitely need to be here!

To book, contact Lambeth First or telephone 020 7926 1708

More info on how to participate and full list of the upcoming events

The first Social Startup Lab!

On Tuesday the 15th of June, London Creative Labs held the first of its Social Startup Labs in Vauxhall, South London.

At Social Startup Labs, 50 participants (social entrepreneurs from across London) learned by doing how communities can work together to create and grow social businesses that provide or enable employment opportunities for all (including the disadvantaged) and make their neighbourhoods better places to live, work and play!

Overview video. Actual lab footage available later!

At the end of the day, five social ventures successfully emerged with clear actions to be taken within a week of the Lab.

The Event in three sentences.

The morning was about building the bigger picture of needs, assets and opportunities of a bunch of people in a room.

The afternoon was about taking action that was informed by the bigger picture from the morning.

The power of community was used to encourage and provide lift-off for individual initiatives, working them from idea to social startup, social project or to bring fresh teams around existing social project or startups.

Photos by Pip Dudrah

For unedited feedback, output and to get involved: read the full Lab Report!

The next Social Startup Labs will be take place on the 23rd of July. Info and tickets here.

How London Creative Labs is pioneering the Big Society!

Download a one page summary or the full report on the principles and policies related to our first offering, the Social Startup Labs

http://londoncreativelabs.com/download/9ReasonsToEngageWithLCL.pdf

Ingrid Munro tells the Jamii Bora story of mentoring people out of poverty

Ingrid Munro & the Jamii Bora story of mentoring people out of poverty from Mamading Ceesay on Vimeo.

Announcing Social Startup Labs Episode 1: What Election?

Will the General Election of May 2010 change anything that really matters? We don't know, London Creative Labs is not a political party and it doesn't have a manifesto. If it did have a manifesto, it would not contain policies, instead it would contain questions because unlike politicians we don't have an answer for everything! Those questions would be as follows:

• How can we create more jobs and other forms of work in London, especially Lambeth?

• How can businesses providing the work become sustainable in terms of profit, people and planet?

• How can we create and/or transform industries, markets and sectors through disruptive social innovation & business model innovation?

• How can we best harness the full potential of everyone to not only design and deliver the new products, services and enterprises that result but also to ensure sustained productivity growth?

• How can the third sector become radically more effective in bringing about real change and lose its dependency on donations and grants?

• How can we transform social issues into business opportunities and unhappy benefit recipients into happy productive citizens?

• How can we unleash the true power of collaboration in our workplaces, communties and homes to achieve truly great things together?

If you find one or more of the above questions, more intriguing, exciting, challenging or compelling than anything you've seen in a political manifesto, London Creative Labs would like to extend an invitation to you!

We don't want your vote, we want your mind and your body! Come join us at the Social Startup Labs, a transformative carnival of collaboration where we together will discover, share, invent and celebrate the answers to these questions and more!

WARNING: If you aren't open to exploring new ways of working, playing, thinking and living, this is not for you! We are also definitely not ideologically sound!

The first Social Startup Labs is on June the 15th in Vauxhall, South London. If you want to join us there please sign up.