CAMPFIRE CONVERSATIONS

lewes | HAY ON WYE | MANCHESTER | SHEFFIELD | TODMORDEN | BATH | EDINBURGH | CHESHAM | LONDON | WINCHCOMBE | HARTLEPOOL | WHITBY |

NOTTINGHAM | AXBRIDGE | MALVERN HILLS | COLWALL | FROME | ASHBURTON

CONCEPT : The Campfire Conversation is an adaptable format which focusses on discussion at a local level, tapping into the Campfire Convention social network as its hub.

The concept for Campfire Conversations was first trialled when Paul Darnborough successfully dovetailed a discussion session into his regular club night in Manchester in late 2015 and then repeated the experience in Todmorden last May. Since then we have also staged Campfire Conversations as ‘bolt-on’ events at festivals in Lancashire, Hartlepool and Whitby and are looking to fill the diary for summer 2017 as soon as possible.

The gathering works best as a small, intimate afternoon or evening, preferably with an outdoor element (maybe have a fire too), which can be in a pub or arts centre, a garden or a field, a park, a tea shop or an allotment, a church or community hall, or somewhere else we haven't yet thought of. Ideal size can range from 10-100 people and would usually involve discussion, debate, thinkshop, exhibition, ideas exchange and an entertainment element (live acoustic music or DJs?) and a food / drink element, or communal cooking.

The format is open-agenda and can involve global issues or local concerns, across a side spectrum of interests from politics to the arts, ecology and well-being to how we can work together co-operatively.

There is a strong sense that people want to talk and discuss today's rapid global changes more than ever and Campfire has potential to evolve into a platform that fulfils that need whilst looking at ways to structure long-term thinking and collective action in the face of the prevailing swing to the right, the rapidly changing nature of work, fake news and looking at ways to utilise the rise of algorithms and artificial intelligence for collective benefit.

LOGISTICS : The Conversation events are moveable and adaptable feasts which should be up to Campfire members to organise and programme, each with a unique flavour of its own. What is evolving at the moment is a framework with some guidelines that have been built by members experiences so far.  Members have suggested putting together Campfire Beacons (organisational teams, by region) to feed ideas and new directions into the Campfire collective and to encourage follow up to the regional meetings.

The local Campfire organiser offers to :

• Find a venue (the concept can work in a wide variety of venues (see p2), ideally with outdoor and indoor contingency space and a small campfire if possible) 

• Put together a concept (if the event will feature more than just Conversation)• Promote locally and invite key local movers and shakers, activists, like-minds, friends,

(flyering if appropriate, word of mouth)• Underwrite any costs associated with venue, sound, lighting etc where appropriate• Agree concept with me if more than a 3 hour discussion, take revenue £ (suggested £3 if

discussion, more if not) • Cover minimal expenses (i.e. travel)

Campfire offers :

• Campfire official event status and publicity (official Facebook event listing, Campfire site, Twitter etc)

• Artwork templates• Collaboration on format and shape of the day / evening• Pete Lawrence as speaker (or other Campfire team member / guest as available)

FORMAT 1 :

7.00-11.00pm EVENING SESSION EXAMPLE

20 minutes : Pete Lawrence (or Campfire team member) introductory talk or interview Campfire - what is it and what can we achieve as a community via our network and events.

10 minutes Questions

20 Minutes Local issues - what is happening locally? What are the issues? What would we like to do about these issues?Breakaway ‘thinkshops’ if appropriate

5 minutes : Present those ideas. Which is most popular?

30 minutes Local initiatives. Who are current movers and shakers. We ask them to speak (10 mins x 3)

General discussion. What action points? What role can Campfire play?

After discussions social : Drinks / music / chat

OUR VALUES : We are collectively working towards a framework for real and radical evolutionary change. A framework is not easily formulated or agreed but if you'd like to contribute to discussion around a framework for making these changes, meaningful, then here is our starter for ten, based on members input and feedback :

For discussion:

• 1 A shift from materialism to empathy. Working for ‘the good of all’. A move away from trademarking, copyrights, intellectual property to 'creative commons’ and ‘open source'.

• 2 An overhaul of the political system, away from party politics - true grass roots democracy, maximising engagement (including digitally).

• 3 Re-imagining a future with more compassion and equality, a place where all can flourish, create and experience beauty.

• 4 Collaborative online platforms for ideas development, mutual support mechanisms and initiatives which reward their own members through measured input.

• 5 Localised communities working within a global interconnected framework.• 6 Universal Basic Income : an automated, robotised workforce creates leisure-time for the

planet’s workforce.• 7 A shift in energy use to renewables.• 8 Peace building through conflict resolution.• 9 An end to the mainstream media stranglehold - self-sufficient networked communities that

develop good practice with news formulation and dissemination.• 10 Joining the dots whilst respecting the differences. A 'no nation' state aiming for

global governance (imagine the UN like a smart social network). • 11 Having fun in the process!

ENO : Brian Eno is discussing with us the launching of a new initiative for creative ideas through Campfire Projects which we will officially announce in April and will form a part of ongoing Campfire discussions.

We plan to offer an award for the best new ideas across the broad spectrum of social innovation, to be promoted during this season's Campfire Conversations and in the run up to our August event, Campfire Convention 002.UK. The initiative will be run through the hub of our Projects (currently being re-vamped and due for re-lanuch) to focus and collate the ideas.

Here is Eno's rallying call :

Everybody knows we’re at a turning point. The old order has become unstable and is breaking down around us. That process is conspicuous, but what is not so obvious is that new shoots are starting to emerge too. The future is being born, but nobody’s paying much attention to it. Disaster sells newspapers, but hope generally doesn’t. The end of an old order is the beginning of a new one. How it turns out depends on us, and what we dare to hope for.

Nicholas Albery was a man who peddled hope. He founded and ran an organisation called THE INSTITUTE FOR SOCIAL INVENTIONS but unfortunately died in a car accident in 2001. Every year he published one or two or even three books in which he collected together any good social ideas he’d picked up...and the books were bursting with them. For me, it was the best read available. The ideas ranged from the microcosmic - how to prevent slugs eating your strawberries, for example - to the cosmic - how solve global warming by moving the Earth into a slightly different orbit.

Nick’s death left a great hole: ever since then I’ve been wanting to see an organisation that would do the same job - act as a place for the sharing of new social ideas. There isn’t any money in a lot of these ideas, so they don’t get aggressively promoted and are often ignored by the media. I want to see those ideas coming out into the open to be tried and tested and improved.

Is that something we could do at Campfire?

Albery's books are a delight to dip into, with their compendium of creative ideas for transforming the world we live in. 'Creative Speculations' Social Innovation Awards 1997 highlights show how ahead of the curve the ideas of times were, such as the eerily prophetic 'speaking circles', 'automatic copyright for inventions', a 'school for social entrepreneurs' 'basic income for local service' and 'transforming a bad school through pupil empowerment' .

This is certainly something we could do very well at Campfire, a potentially fertile environment which has already spawned fledgling creative Projects such as Urban Renewal through Street Art, Volunteering With Refugees, The Campfire Storytelling Circle, The Happiness Project, Vegan and Vegetarian Resources, The Thinking Environment, Gardening From Scratch, A Diverse World, An Inclusive Life, Infrastructure as a Shared Resource and Self-Build Passive Eco Home. Check the Projects pages out now and if you'd like to join as a collaborator for any of these send the owner an email from the front page button on each Project.

POLITICS : THE MOVE AWAY FROM POLITICAL PARTIES TO INDEPENDENTS?

The new politics is about being much more unconventional than even Corbyn's Labour, which can perhaps best be seen as a process to set change in motion.

Peter Macfadyen's 'Flatpack democracy' model in Frome has led to entirely independent town council that has booted out Tory, Labour, Lib Dems and all. Time to take it to the next level?

Our Campfire Conversations can identify, invite and bring together local movers and shakers, original thinkers and activists, look at the issues in each area and ways we can help facilitate action and new initiatives.

We need a way that people can start to govern themselves via more direct forms of democracy and we have the technology to support this. We can construct a community-led constitutional convention (that could be as simple as outlining our ways of working) that sets out its stall as a truly modern co-operative, which can also become a hub for a network of independent operators to challenge conventional politics in their local constituencies. It's not for Campfire to determine how we elect our representatives, how we ensure that they are accountable to us, and how local members can be truly involved in a wide range of political debates, but we can certainly act as a conduit for brining people together and starting dialogues and ideas. 

If you would like to organise a Campfire Conversation in your village, town or city, get in touch and and we can look at possible dates

Check the Project on our site which includes many reviews of Conversation events

Contact : pete.lawrence@campfireconvention.com

More info http://campfireconvention.com