I’m a big fan of Incredible Edible Todmorden and so it was great to hear Paul Clarke from IET at the recent CityCampMCR event.  Paul talked about the idea of a ‘Pop-up Farm’, something that came out of their ‘plotting shed’ – a space for coming together and developing new ideas.  The notion of using our understanding of farming to build a community hub was an idea that made a lot of sense to me.  My heart would like me to be working away on a farm in the country yet my mind keeps me in the city.  Could the ‘Pop-up Farm’ bring the two together?

I started developing the Chorlton ‘Pop-up Farm’ at CityCampMCR and now the seeds have been firmly planted in Chorlton.  I raised the idea at a recent Transition Chorlton meeting. Just as I had hoped the ideas and possibilities were really exciting. I’ve already made contact with a host school and applied for a ‘You Decide’ bid for £750. Everyone I’ve talked to seems to be really positive about the idea. Our schools are at the heart of our communities, yet there seems to be obstacles to the communities utilising the space and resources they offer.  The ‘Pop-up Farm’ could have the potential to unlock this.

The project will start as a simple food-growing project within a school but will hopefully lead somewhere more exciting.  The access to the pupils, parents, curriculum and space would open up huge avenues for community groups and social enterprises.  With this comes lots of knowledge, expertise and innovations that the schools could have at their disposal as learning resources. The ‘Pop-up Farm’ will hopefully go from food projects to ones that focus on recycling, technology or a local currency.

If anyone would like more information about the Chorlton ‘Pop-up Farm’ or would like to get involved please get in touch at rowe.m.s [at] gmail.com

Matthew Rowe

Thanks to all who made it to CityCampMCR! It was an exciting two days of information, inspiration, discussion and collaboration that we think will lead to some practical steps to make Greater Manchester that little bit more resourceful and resilient.

On Friday morning, Neil McInroy (Centre for Local Economic Strategies) told us about cities that ‘go boing’ and Paul Clark (Incredible Edible Todmorden) encouraged us to think of our cities differently – as potential orchards and farms. Our participants then got an insight into some of the fantastic projects that are going on in Manchester: RECLAIM reminded us of the young person’s perspective, Madlab showed us how to bring people together, and Farida Vis talked to a packed room about two of our passions, open data and food, in her presentation about allotments and open data.

With these great examples in mind, the open space sessions on Friday and Saturday focused on new and existing projects and how they could be developed. The first outcomes of these discussions will be up on the website soon. Citycamp wasn’t just about the development of ideas. From feedback gathered over both days, it seems that people really enjoyed the opportunity to make new connections. Meetings were set, business cards exchanged and, we hope, real productive connections were made, focused on concrete project ideas. The mix of interests and backgrounds created useful points of exchange, and a fertile ground for new approaches. As ever with openspace events, Citycamp Manchester allowed people the chance to discuss, listen and learn from each other that many felt was both useful and worthwhile. Finally, CityCampMCR gave a real insight into all the skills and resources of the city, showcasing some of the energy and activity that goes on. Something that we feel is very important in these gloomy times!

CityCampMCR 2011 might be over, but this is just the beginning of the CityCampMCR journey. We want Citycamp Mcr to become a useful space to bring together the diverse communities of Manchester, and to help them develop, innovate and ultimately create practical responses to the challenges that we face. Our second day openspace discussion has given us plenty of food for thought as to how we can further develop Citycamp Mcr and keep the buzz going, but we’d still welcome your ideas. We’re also keen to find more people who want to get involved with the organisation of future events and meet-ups. Contact us on info@citycampmcr.org

In the meantime, we’re planning a series of monthly CityCampMCR meetings starting in January 2012 to bring people together around projects and develop new ones. Watch this space.

We’re very happy to announce the programme for CityCamp Manchester! We think there’s a great mix of talks and workshops scheduled – but, more importantly, plenty of space to develop discussions around the changes that you want to see in Greater Manchester, and how to make them happen.

We look forward to seeing you in October! Please sign up here.

Day one (14th October)

Day two (15th October)

Update: the final, more detailed programme is here.

* What is an ‘Open Space’ or ‘unconference’? Open Space sessions are completely participatory, free-form and directed by event participants. If you have an idea that you want to discuss, you can host an Open Space session, advertise it to all participants, and invite people to join your discussion. We will do our best to help you facilitate these sessions, but we leave each group to decide what is important for the group. As you can see, the majority of CityCampMCR is given over to Open Space sessions – in order to give as much opportunity for all participants to discuss and develop ideas and initiatives that are personally relevant and important.

It’s always difficult to get a free weekend in Manchester. Although we scheduled CityCamp Manchester early, it became apparent that we were going to clash with some other excellent Manchester-based events. These include Barcamp, in MediaCity, as well as Hackademia and the Software Freedom Day run by Manchester Free Software Group.

We’ve therefore taken the decision to change the dates of CityCamp Manchester, and it will now take place on 14th – 15th October, at Friends’ Meeting House in central Manchester. This means that CityCampMCR will now be able to link with Manchester Food and Drink Festival. As we saw from the launch event, many people are interested in developing projects around food at CityCampMCR.

Manchester Food and Drink Festival is a wonderful showcase of the fine food and drink that make Manchester a vibrant city and a great place to live. CityCampMCR will showcase innovative thinking and help people take practical action to build resilient food systems so we can continue to eat and drink well in Manchester into the future.

Of course, CityCampMCR is not only about food: there are a wide range of topics and projects that have already been suggested, or are yet to be suggested, and which we want to encourage. If you have ideas for what you would like to focus on at CityCampMCR, please let us know, or add a comment below.

We have some great speakers who have agreed to talk at CityCampMCR on 14th/15th October. Inspiring initiatives and workshops include funding models, cooperatives, social media surgeries, and alternative economies (e.g., LETS) – and we’ll also have a talk from Paul Clarke on the great work done by Incredible Edible Todmorden. We’re still in the process of finalising the programme, and making as many opportunities to participate and learn as possible.

Please sign up for CityCamp Manchester on Eventbrite! You can also sign up for Barcamp, Hackademia, and Free Software Day at the above links. Also, keep checking the Manchester Food and Drink Festival’s website for more info about the other great events that are happening.

We realise that re-scheduling an event may be awkward for people’s diaries, and we apologise for any inconvenience. However, we’re sure that these new dates will mean that our event will be bigger, better and more productive than if we’d kept to our original schedule.

See you in October!

What is CityCampMCR?

CityCamp Manchester aims to share ideas, explore challenges, join-up resources and develop solutions which build a more sustainable future for Greater Manchester. CityCamp Manchester is a broad-based initiative to bring together people from across Greater Manchester who want to make a positive contribution to their part of the Greater Manchester region. It aims to develop a network which supports people in identifying and solving problems, enabling people to take practical, meaningful action in their communities. Through working together, we aim to develop projects that will make a meaningful, positive and lasting difference to Greater Manchester.

CityCampMCR is delighted to be partnering with Reclaim, a multi-award winning leadership and mentoring project based in Manchester, to support young people taking practical action in their communities.

Reclaim works with groups of young people from disadvantaged backgrounds to find a voice and engage with their community, the city council, politicians, the police, and the media. To do this young people work together to develop manifestos to outline what they would like to do to make their lives and their community better. So far, 8 groups have produced a manifesto for their area, about their concerns, in their words.

A group of young people will be at CityCampMCR representing the Reclaim project to present issues drawn from the eight manifestos. CityCampMCR will provide these young people with a space to meet people, learn and share, and develop the relationships across the many networks in Manchester to develop a viable project and take practical action in their communities.

We hope to see you at CityCampMCR to share, inform, inspire, collaborate with and listen to these young people that are taking practical action in their communities.

To find more about Reclaim visit their website: http://www.reclaimproject.org.uk

To view the manifestos go to: http://www.reclaimproject.org.uk/?page_id=7

Building on from our successful launch event, we’re holding an open meeting to get more people around the table in planning, organising and staging the two-day CityCampMCR event in September.*

The open meeting will be held on Tuesday 12^th July 2011, between 6.00 – 8.00pm, in Manchester Town Hall, committee room 1.

The purpose of the open meeting is to widen the team developing CityCampMCR. We’ll give an overview of what we’ve been doing so far, but we’re hoping to get input into how you think the September event should be organised, and how we can sustain activity before and after the September event. This will be a participative event where all will be invited to shape and develop CityCampMCR.

If you’d like to take part in planning, organising, fundraising for, and curating CityCampMCR, then this meeting is for you!  Or if you think you would be good at joining the dots between CityCampMCR and particular groups and initiatives in Greater Manchester then please come along.

This is a meeting for people who want to roll their sleeves up and take practical action to make Greater Manchester more resourceful and resilient. We look forward to seeing you there.

* The September event takes place on 16th-17th September – another date for your diaries!

Our ‘Research to the Real World’ event was enthusiastically received by all those in attendance – thanks to all who came and made it such a dynamic and interesting day. The outcome of the event was to get delegates to pitch to the camera ideas for how they could use prize money of £300 to help bring a research idea to life within a community setting as part of CityCampMCR in September 2011.

A number of pitches were created on the day – which you can see on our youtube channel: http:// www.youtube.com/citycampmcr

The videos with the most ‘Likes’ will win £300 to help to put their research idea into reality during CityCampMCR in September 2011. Please vote by pressing the ‘like’ button under the video you think should win!

There’s Still Time!!
Postgraduate Researchers are invited to submit a video pitch to enter the competition – the closing date for the competition is 1st August 2011.  So if you are a PGR and have an idea of how you could use £300 in order to help to bring a research idea into the community – get recording your pitches now!

The pitches need to be no longer than 2 minutes and you need to say what your idea is and how you would use the money. Have a look at the videos online to get an idea about the breadth of ideas we have received so far. You can submit videos to: info@citycampmcr.org.

If you have any problems sending video files by email, please contact us at the same address, and we will work out a way for you to send them.

In the meantime, get voting!

So, our launch event on Tuesday was a success. Lots of people came out, who are passionate about making Greater Manchester a better place, and who were curious about how CityCampMCR might help facilitate that process.

The evening kicked off with an introduction to CityCamp by James Duggan. James pointed out that there have been several CityCamps around the world (and UK) – and how CityCamp Manchester is both building on that energy, and building an initiative that is specifically appropriate to Greater Manchester. James then passed over to Ed Mayo, secretary general of Co-operatives UK, who talked about an individualist “dog-eat-dog world”, and the need for turning this idea around into an open and honest process of mutual cooperation – giving examples of how this has worked in local communities. (This included The Star Inn in Salford – appropriate to Ed’s comment on “the power of alcohol” in bringing people together to share ideas and to make a difference in their community.) Ocia Koranteng then talked passionately about individuals and groups she has worked with, including a blind pensioner who has personally taken action to significantly improve her life, but who might not have been expected to do so. If these people can do it, Ocia said, then so can the people in this room. Inspirational stuff.

(Ed Mayo speaking – by @foodiesarah)

This led into the main aim of the evening, which was to identify issues (and their potential solutions) in Greater Manchester. Cormac Lawler explained that, in preparation for a two-day event in September, CityCamp Manchester is about collectively defining an agenda for making Greater Manchester a better, more sustainable, place to live. This was done on the night by means of post-it notes (see pic below), as well as through the twitter hashtag, #ccmcr, which captured and projected related tweets. It was great to see the ideas wall(s) being used as genuinely productive spaces, and in such a positive spirit. People milled around the post-it wall and had conversations about their respective ideas, sharing perspectives and sparking new ideas and connections.

(Ideas wall – by @foodiesarah)

There are so many great ideas – from food to community cohesion to energy efficiency to sexuality. The full transcript of the ideas wall is on our wiki – please take the time to read them here. To give a taste…

“Lots of foodie groups exist in GM – allotments, coops, food boxes, community groups – let’s do more work together.”

“Large and small scale green roof projects to improve resilience against climate change impacts of higher summer temperatures and altered rainfall. They look great, reduce pollution, and increase biodiversity too!”

“The city as a gym – central visible handy changing facilities – but no equipment. Cycle, run, parkour around the city. All you need to create is the means to change and realise how much fun playing about in MCR can be.”

“I want to see more elderly people out of their homes meeting each other + the community – sharing experiences and wealth of memories. Particularly the mobility impaired.”

“Open wi-fi citywide.”

“More pedestrianised zones in the city centre.”

There are more ideas on the ‘Your ideas’ page on this site. The next step, now, is to identify which of the full list of ideas we want to work on (the above selection is simply a taster). Themes so far seem to include: Food, Energy, Young people/Older people/Disabled people, Sustainability, Planning & Use of (empty) spaces, Cycling, Transport, Community Cohesion, Education & skills, Alternative currency, Networking, Technology, Creativity, and Politics and engagement. (Phew!) With your help, we want to put together a list of projects we can get stuck into – please continue to add new ideas, and comment on or support existing ideas.

Thanks again to all for coming and contributing – even the barmen got involved (see pic below)! We’re very much looking forward to building on the energy at the launch – let’s keep talking and working to make these amazing things happen….

(The view from behind the bar – by @JPHubbard)

Thanks also to InsideTheM60 for their write-up here, @foodiesarah from The Guardian for her report here, and particularly to People’s Voice Media for filming on the night, and their write-up here. (We’ll post links to the video when it’s done.) Thanks all!

Calling all Postgraduate researchers! CityCampMCR’s next event is for researchers who feel they can make a difference to communities in Greater Manchester or the North West region. Prizes of £300 will be awarded to a selection of the best research pitches, which you’ll be creating during the day event, on 28th June. See the poster below and sign up at: http://researchtotherealworld.eventbrite.com

Research to the Real World (click image to expand)

Celebrate the launch of CityCamp Manchester, and help us shape the future!

At 6.30pm on 14th June, the brilliant Ed Mayo and Ocia Koranteng will launch CityCamp in Manchester and explain how you can get involved.

Ed Mayo is Secretary General of Co-operatives UK, a movement which is transforming the country and was founded here in Greater Manchester. Ocia Koranteng is a passionate speaker and facilitator who has worked with excluded communities and grassroots activists in Salford and Manchester.

CityCamp needs your passions and ideas so that we can create opportunities and make things better. We’re asking: “How can we make Greater Manchester more resourceful and resilient?” Whether you’re interested in food, transport, recycling, open data, new technologies, community development and regeneration, or all or none of these things – your voice is welcome.

The launch, at NoHo bar in the Northern Quarter will be an opportunity to find out about the event in September and network and mingle with a great group of people from around Greater Manchester.

If you can’t attend, you can still contribute via this website – add your ideas here! Please feel free to share this with your friends and colleagues – on twitter, facebook, Linkedin, and of course, by word of mouth.

Register here: http://citycamplaunch.eventbrite.com or RSVP to let us know that you’re coming, and we’ll look forward to a fantastic evening!

Follow us on Twitter @CityCampMcr and use the hashtag: #ccmcr