Thought Menu Newsletter #003
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 Thought Menu will be appearing monthly this summer at the #bigpicturedays events at Limewharf Annex (5mins from west end of victoria park) for Thought Menus 6,7,8,9,10 & 11!
The Big Picture Days are a series of 6 one-day workshops. Creators include Vinay Gupta, Thomas Ermacora (of Limewharf, Clear Village, Love the Earth and many other projects). The intention is to bring all our collective heads together to create the kind of environment for genuinely breakthrough thinking: the kind of space and time that people need to dig down to the heart of the matter at hand and draw up some truth.
The first Big Picture Day is on âSwarm Coopsâ on June 1st at Limewharf Annex. The Schedule can be found below. You can book a ticket on the eventbrite here :: http://bigpicturedays.eventbrite.co.uk/
The Big Picture Days are community-oriented, bottom-up events. Thomas and Vinay have some ideas and theyâre looking to The Thought Menu for more, and beyond that to the wider community. If youâve got a topic youâd like to speak about or one that could make sense in a community workshop please get in touch. If you have an idea for a programme of speakers and a day of activities, better still! Weâre eager to find new topics and great ideas for a community to come together on. Weâre collecting ideas in a Google Doc: make a new slide or two, explain your idea, and donât forget to put contact information on the page so we can reach you!
:: PROVISIONAL SCHEDULE FOR SWARM COOPS JUNE 1st ::
11AM :: INTRODUCTION & THOUGHT MENU #6 :: SWARM COOPS
Thomas Ermacora & Vinay Gupta introduce Big Picture Days
Lloyd Davis :: Tuttle Club, #riotcleanup & #wewillgather, public service hack days, #hackthebarbican
Zaid Hassan :: Zaid is of Reos Partners, a high stakes stakeholder partnership consultancy) on why planning is killing us, and how prototyping will save us
Alberto Cottica :: on Edgeryders, the Living on the Edge unconference series, and bottom-up policy making
TBA :: Weâre looking for one additional speaker on Crisis Camps / Crisis Mapping / H4D2 and other Humanitarian Hackathons â please get in touch with @leashless or @thoughtmenu if thatâs you!
12NOON :: SESSION PITCHES
Weâll take half an hour to figure out together what we want to do in the next two sessions, and what concrete deliverables we can make in the workshop period. Expect a grid with a number of work spaces & a lot of post-it notes as we try and schedule whatâs going on. Please, please if you are thinking about coming, fill in your page on the Attendeeâs Deck so we can all get a sense of common interests and themes!
Eat, drink, maybe take a walk in the park, flesh out some ideas, and get ready.
Engineering effective code reuse / project continuation at hackathons
Managing intellectual property / licensing issues including patent or invention rights
Documenting unconferences
Creative use of back / side channels
Scheduling sessions / talks when there are too many great things to fit in
Creating genuine participation
These are just some seed ideas â see the editable presentation above for more, and add your own ideas!
Four to six break out groups, some led by the speakers from the morning, to deep dive on specific areas of interest. Last 15 minutes will be for session reporting to the whole group.
Another set of breakout groups, heading towards some conclusions we hope! Last 15 minutes will be for session reporting to the whole group.
Possibly coffee, probably beer (thereâs a nice pub just outside!)
A two hour block to sit down in teams or on your own to deliver something concrete from the workshop. Things you might consider: doing a deep dive on a particular question and writing a blog post on what you have learned together, editing your pictures and notes from the day then uploading them, documenting the sessions you were part of from your notes, writing a specification for some software that expresses an important idea, or writing to people on projects you are involved in with insights you had today. Do some of the things youâd like to do later now while everybody is still here!
If you need a break to think about things, the park is just around the corner - take a stroll, walk with friends, but do please try and write up something before the end of the day.
Plenary session. A chance to discuss the day with the group as a whole, and talk about next steps, subsequent projects, and canvas for support for any projects that have come out of our day.
7:00PM :: EVENING PROGRAMME
We are investigating options. They include retiring to The Victory, the aforementioned nice pub, doing a Classic Album listening session in the main space, taking the whole show to the park for a late evening dinner picnic, etc. The answer may well be âall of the above depending on your moodâ but Iâll have updates on our options later this week.
âSwarm Coopsâ are groups that come together for mutual learning and problem solving. Examples include free schools, unconferences, hackathons, hack days, bar camps and stakeholder workshops. There will be talks from practitioners, plenty of time to learn, teach, think and brainstorm together, and time to produce some tangible output to share with everybody. Weâre going to evolve the medium forward to create better events. Weâll also use what we learn in the next five Big Picture Days.
#BIGPICTUREDAYS is the hashtag for the event. Edit/View our planning presentation.
 :: THE NEXT THOUGHT MENUS? ::
We will be facilitating talks at the Limewharf #bigpicturedays every month all summer long until october. If you have spotted a theme for future events & would like to give a talk or know anyone that could get in touch! we will be sending regular e-mails now as each event takes shape each month.
We still have plans for a storymenu event this summer: 10mins of storytelling - fictional or real - with no notes from each speaker. We have been talking the format through and discussing venus etc. stay tuned for updates on this. we are quite excited!
:: WE HAVE AN NEW WEBSITE! ::
Well, we have moved from our confusing wordpress intallation to tumblr: head on over to www.thoughtmenu.com and give us a follow? We will be posting videos from our past events other related content Kelly Angoods talk on the Pop-Up Pinhole Camera Project is already online! We have some audio experiments in mind now susannah is on board. As always look out for more!
:: GENERAL THOUGHT MENU INFO ::
Feedback - We would welcome any feedback (constructive or criticism) you might have for us, you can do so either by replying directly to this newsletter OR by emailing us directly - [email protected]
What else should we do? - We are always looking to expand our collective, if you would like help out or be involved please get in touch!!
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