Curating a Community: Enabling Connections and Collaboration
At the beginning of the year we were asked if we wanted to support the inaugural TEDxWinchester by becoming a partner. The event was to be called ‘Moment of Change’, organised and curated by a team we know and trust, and hosted at the brand new University of Winchester auditorium. TED is a non-profit organization devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading and so there was a natural fit with Workshop’s ambition, beyond providing an exceptional place to work, to connect and be a home to curious minds. For all these reasons we decided to go ahead and were looking forward to being a part of the event until COVID-19 came along and ruined everything. Fortunately for everyone, the team behind TEDxWinchester were determined to turn a negative into a positive and developed a plan to hold the event online in September.
As I write this TEDxWinchester is in full flow downstairs. Jan and her team have done an incredible job of getting the show on against all the odds and in Hopin have found a platform that has helped to make this occasion anything but another energy sapping remote marathon. Not only were the speakers, each in their way, sources of inspiration, the warm up and intro acts have also been surprising and stimulating. The chat room has delivered a stream of positive engagement and shown evidence of new networks forged and resolutions formed. Jan and Simon have proved that you can hold a complex socially distanced event and they should be immensely proud of this. When the full live event does finally come around, next year with a bit of luck, they'll be seasoned pros.
Workshop and TEDxWinchester
When their previous studio arrangements fell through we were happy to step in and offer space at Workshop from which to do the live broadcast. Given the number of Workshoppers and friends of Workshop already involved in volunteering or as delegates it has felt like a natural partnership and we're really happy to be involved.
One of the challenges we are facing at the moment is how we can continue to maintain and enrich the community aspect of Workshop membership. Holding the usual face to face events like Soup & Sarnie and Ignite, that our members and friends enjoyed attending so much, is not really possible at the moment. In fact simply having new members join the community stimulates conversation and changes the dynamic in a positive way. There is still a need to find imaginative ways to welcome our new and returning members to Workshop, to enable collaboration and creativity in a safe environment, which may mean doing things in smaller groups or at staggered times to enable distancing. As TEDxWinchester demonstrated, there are always alternative ways to do things if you have determination and the right mindset.
The fundamental premise of sharing ideas and connecting curious, like-minded people is what we're all about and we look forward to exploring new ways of engaging with our members and also to continuing the relationship with Jan and her team and seeing the next edition of TEDxWinchester realised in 2021.