Festivals of Ideas
Festivals of Ideas are productive innovation events which bring together the right people in the right way to address compelling social challenges and grow innovation. Our next Festival of Ideas will be in Derby, looking at personalising social care.
Festivals unite third sector innovators with commissioners and investors for one day in collaborative innovation. They develop new relationships, an accessible dataset of local innovation and a clear list of action points for their development and growth. Festivals can also be an invaluable strategic intervention, helping local areas and regions to learn to ‘take the temperature of innovation’ in a specific area and develop responses that improve the environment for innovation.
Festivals of Ideas combine networking opportunities, ideas workshops and ‘open space’ sessions in which people self-organise around compelling work. However, a Festival is more than just an event. It is preceded by the research and intelligence-gathering needed to ensure the event brings together the right people in the right way and is followed by support to drive action.
Each Festival of Ideas is run in conjunction with a public sector partner around an issue that they are actively engaged in solving but to which they do not have all the answers. They provide a rare opportunity for commissioners and others to come together around public problems and fledgling solutions to seek to make a difference together.
Read about past Festivals of Ideas
Cambridge: Beyond Worklessness
Birmingham: Innovation for Personalisation
Sunderland: Adult Social Care – Personalisation and Providers
Manchester: Better Mental Health
Leeds: Responses to young people’s challenging behaviour
London: Innovation to support excluded young people
London: Innovation to support independent living
Download a leaflet about the Festivals of Ideas process here
and view a sample invitation here.