Towards A Tendring Playbook: the lowdown on what to expect

As someone who’s favourite phrase is ‘What if…?’, and whose default position is to collaborate, I LOVE open space events. They’re brilliant for bringing together people with stuff – passion, ambitions, dreams – in common to talk about things they’d like to make happen, and how they could do that.

I’m really excited that we’re finally getting to do this open space in Clacton. There’s such a buzz across Tendring at the moment – there’s a multitude of brilliant artists and other creative freelancers making and doing brilliant work right across the district; new cultural spaces, collectives and companies have been springing up in recent years; we’re seeing more cultural activity in our schools and libraries, and a new 3 year Creative Tendring programme is just getting off the ground. At a time when there’s not much to be cheerful about, it feels like we are ‘having a bit of a moment’.

That’s not to say things aren’t tough. The cost of living means people have less money to spend on the things we make and do. Funding is harder to secure than it’s ever been. We need more affordable creative work, R&D and performance spaces. Freelancers can feel isolated and under-valued. Organisational overheads are going up. I won’t go on; this is stuff we all know.

But taken together, this is exactly why the time is right for us to jointly create what we’re calling ‘a Tendring Playbook’. Think of it as a route map (or the makings of one at least) for how we can work together more effectively so that more people engage with what we do.

Change has to start somewhere, and open space events are a great place to (as Phelim from Devoted & Disgruntled says) “engage with the stuff… I only knew how to complain about before”. So I hope you’ll join us for an afternoon of creative ‘what ifs’, collective plotting and decision making.

So, how’s it going to work? Read on for the low down…

Open Space is people power in action

It’s called an ‘open space’ event, because the agenda at it won’t be set in advance by the hub team, the Council or anyone else. It will be set by those of you who come along.

My experience is that often the best ideas emerge when very different kinds of people come together. So that’s what this event aims to do: bring together people from across the sector – from artists to curators, producers to marketers, volunteers to CEOs – to explore what we can do together so that more people get to engage with brilliant creative and cultural experienced.

So what’s going to happen?

After a couple of cracking ‘provocations’ from Creative Tendring’s Kayleigh Boyle and local cultural champion Marc De’ath, we’ll get down to business.

Open Space ‘technology’ is simple. It’s people.

We’ll start in a circle, a circle of people who’ve come along because they care about Tendring. In our opening circle, there’ll be a chance for anyone with a burning issue, big question or great idea to timetable a conversation about it. Your topic will get timetabled and the agenda will come together, in real time. Then, over the rest of the afternoon people will join the conversations that ‘speak to them’ the loudest.

At any point, there might be 2, 5, 10 or even more breakout conversations going on at the same time, with people in each one working hard on the topic at hand. You might dip in and out of conversations as you want, you might sit through one or two from start to finish. The choice is yours. The responsibility is yours. It’s people power in action.

Then, at the end of the event, everyone comes together again in a final circle, to share their reflections, learning and actions they want to commit to. We end as we finish, sharing what’s important to us all.

More than just a talking shop, the aim is to get things and people moving

‘Open Space’ isn’t about any one person or organisation taking control or promising to solve everything; it’s way of bringing together people who want to address a complex issue, by focusing on what matters to them, making connections, and doing what they think must be done. It’s about a culture of shared responsibility through which ordinary people can accomplish extraordinary things.

At ‘open space’ events all of the thinking, ideas and actions get documented. Because the aim is for this event to feel like a beginning of something bigger rather than an end in itself, we’ll produce an open space report from it that captures all of this and will act as a potential blueprint for whatever participants want to do next – individually or collectively.

I’m hoping for some ‘atomic collisions’ that will propel the sector forward

I love the ‘atomic collisions’ that occur when you bring together people with different ‘norms’ and starting points to explore and invent new ideas and alternative realities that wouldn’t otherwise see the light of day. In my experience, after an ‘open space’, everyone involved leaves a little bit changed – and re-charged – by the experience.

I’m no scientist, but I like to think of open space conversations causing ‘atomic collisions’. By this I mean that everyone WILL go home feeling a little bit different as a result , with new insights, some potential new collaborators, a spring in their step and some clear action points to keep them busy and connected in the weeks and months that follow.

But who knows?! I certainly don’t. That’s the whole point, the beauty of open space, and what makes it so exciting! Friends and colleagues know that the phrase I most overuse is ‘that’s a good idea’. Small wonder I can’t wait to get started! I hope the same is true for you as you read this.

To find out more about our open space event, and book your place, HEAD HERE.

(Huge thanks to Arts Council England and Tendring District Council for helping make this event possible.)