Transformed by You Events

Summary Feedback

Background

This paper provides feedback on the two recent ‘Transformed by You’ events. The
events aimed (in a single day), to bring together local innovators, community
representatives, micro businesses, organisations, students and others to develop
prototypes for online services. We used facilitated workshops to generate innovative
and creative ideas among informal groups, although our approach was slightly
different at both events in order to enable us to compare the models.

The events were trialled as an alternative way of working compared to traditional

forms of community engagement. It was felt that the benefits could include
• Positive engagement with partners ( Medway Council & University of Kent)
• Ability to test out a new way of engaging with a range of hard to reach groups
and community members to co-create innovative solutions
• Opportunity to develop community-generated ideas/prototypes for online
services that could be incorporated into business activities
• Awareness and publicity of partners as supporters of community and
innovative working and of Kent as an ‘Innovative County.’

This approach to group working and innovation has been used at an international
and national level, often in the technology/social innovation spheres, but has not
been used by local authorities in this way before. Previous national events have led
to development of numerous co-created online services. It is interesting that three of
the ideas from both events were similar, both in regard of the issue and the solution,
possibly indicating an area for further development.

Benefits

The events proved successful from both a participant and partner perspective. Main
benefits:-

Helping people develop ideas

• Dynamic and innovative way to share and develop ideas

• A good platform to enable ‘communities’ to come up with their own solutions
• Interesting and varied prototypes emerged that could be used internally

Involving the public in the event

• Very productive way for participants to work closely with the Council and
others
• Provided opportunities to work with individuals that partners would not
normally be exposed to (micros businesses, developers, entrepreneurs etc)
• Positive, cost effective and easily adaptable engagement model
• Inspirational – has acted as a catalyst for further work and engagement
• Strong involvement1 of the participants prior to the event in generating and
voting on ideas to be tackled on the day

1
http://transformedbyyou.uservoice.com/forums/40939-general
Using online techniques to develop and promote innovation

• Raised profile of partners as ‘innovative & creative ‘organisations

• Encouraged external interaction (via Twitter/Ning2 etc) on and after the event
• Extremely positive feedback online after the event through Twitter
• Large amount of on-line material produced and freely available

Issues

Organising the event

• The amount of resource needed to support a productive event was not

insignificant
• Preplanning is essential – despite the relaxed nature of the events a lot of
‘behind the scenes’ work was required
• Get a good venue- need a lot of space to encourage creativity and networking

Engaging participants

• Make sure you get the right message across, use social media effectively and
get enthusiasts onboard early
• Vital to be clear about expectations and what will happen with ideas after the
event
• Get on-line discussion platforms up and running before the event and
maintain them afterwards .They are also useful to continue the conversations
and update participants on what is happening

Developing ideas

• Getting others to take the ideas forward (if viable) needs a lot of work &
resources as well as access to potential funding. Momentum must be
maintained and interest nurtured if a lot of the more practical benefits are to
be realised.
• When working with students getting the right group and scheduling
appropriately within their timetable is key.

Next steps

The findings from both events have now been analysed and reviewed. It is
anticipated that the original social network3 will be shortly collapsed although
individual conversations may well continue. Specifically:-

a. Joint discussion with Sidekick Studios about the potential to take their
community innovations forward has been initiated
b. Internally the opportunities that QR codes, the ‘Call of Duty‘ game, the
Learning Bus and the Magnifeye smart phone application will be collectively
reviewed. The ideas on volunteering and graduate recruitment and a ‘What’s
On’ portal will be passed to the relevant teams.
c. Returning to some of the more active participants to look at opportunities for
further joint working
d. Using the engagement with other officers as a catalyst for revitalising the
development of the ‘Innovation Forum’
2
http://transformedbyyou.ning
3
http://transformedbyyou.ning.com/
 e. Reviewing the potential for anther event – particularly with a wider range of
KCC staff, the public and students
f. Collating the findings and disseminating them as widely as possible in order
to promote the style of event for local engagement

Information about both events can be found at http://transformedbyyou.blogspot.com