Tech for Good summer walk & talk
Thursday 15th June 2023 and Outdoor Office Day in the Netherlands, it was time to take Tech for Good South West out into the outdoors!
We pitched the walk as a creative thinking meeting - a walkshop - led by Garry Pratt, author of The Creativity Factor, Using the Power of the Outdoors to spark successful Innovation, and Al Kennedy, Leadership Coach in Nature, the co-founders of Outside Business.
We encouraged anyone with an interest in any aspect of tech for good and driving social impact across the region to join us over a 5k circular walk near Bath to help focus thoughts on how we might bring together people, companies and organisations as a regional membership group to address tech for good.
A team of 15 set out across Solsbury Hill and through the Charlcombe Valley on the outskirts of Bath. It was an extremely hot day, so plenty of rest stops for shade and pausing to share insights and reflections.
There was a general consensus that this feels the right moment in time to start professionalising a Tech for Good South West network, to the point that it can sustain itself to continue to ignite energy into a regional tech for good agenda and joining up tech for good conversations and initiatives. We recognised we can serve people really well, just by being a really strong signpost.
We surfaced many questions but started to also see where there is potential and hope. We identified a gurgling, burning desire to join things up, but at the same time the need to bring clarity to what system we are operating in - what it is, and what it isn’t.
What membership needs:
A really clear view of the value of the membership. If it isn’t a business benefit, why is being part of the community important - i.e. to sustain what it is delivering, continuously
A supportive structure and framework
Common goals we are working towards. With so many disparate voices and organisations, what framework can everyone keep referring back to? (e.g. UN Sustainable Development Goals)
Measuring our impact
Consider how to get a broader audience engaged?
I loved the analogy we discussed from being on our walk, out in nature, of the soil nurturing the flowers and plants. How we might use this to think about Tech for Good South West - as the nurturing soil to enable other initiatives, ideas, networks to be nurtured and thrive.
But before any acceleration can occur, we have to have rhythm. We don’t need to try and do everything, and we agreed the challenge will always be there is so much to do, prioritisation is absolutely fundamental. There is no value in being constantly “on” and knowing when to slow down, to regroup, to rethink, to pause and reflect. Where do we need to let go? How can we have a cadence and rhythm to our work?
Walks will definitely become a regular feature for Tech for Good South West - this is our fourth walk, but one which was more heavily facilitated, and therefore gave space for individual conversations, but also the benefit of hive mind and coming together to brainstorm a challenges.
This walk was a collaboration of Outside Business, Tech for Good South-West and The Bath 5k Map
Al Kennedy, Tomorrow Consultancy
Garry Pratt, The Creativity Factor
Annie Legge, Tech for Good South West and The Bath 5k Map
