In partnership with Dreamstake we have been running monthly events at Club Workspace in Clerkenwell since last August. BIG BANG NIGHTS are networking events using films to trigger open discussions or crowdversations, an open platform to enable collective, constructive and meaningful discussions. In the case of BIG BANG NIGHTS the overall theme is culture, creativity and innovation for social change. For each night we launch a topic based on the issue that the film is touching. Our role as curators and facilitators is making sure that the content is exciting and challenging enough for people to join us in.
The crowdversations start from the issues on the film and then we move swiftly to new territories depending on the contribution of each individual with questions and opinions recorded live on camera shot by any person next to the speaker in the crowd. It is not a Q&A as we know it or a panel discussion. It is a many to many conversation.
The event finishes with drinks where people have the chance to interact at another level but already in tune with others as we promote active participation during the discussions. It works because it is niche and small, worthwhile chit chats that can lead to new personal and business relationships. We are also experiementing with new ways of integrating online media with the offline experience as a full circle before and after the event.
We have launched a LinkedIn group open to anyone interested in the big theme. You can join here www.culturalsocialresponsibility.org We also encourage for the events the participation via twitter using the hashtag bigbangnight to enable a level of interaction with anyone willing to put forward any question or remark before the event.
On Monday the 19th we celebrated the first series of BIG BANG NIGHTS with a tester of our flagship programme of co-creativity in action, the Balloon Orchestra Workshop and had a crowdversation on creativity and collaboration with the participants after their amazing performance.The winning team was the Fab Five with their piece tidal waves. Check out our audio channel on soundcloud. It was the best way to say thanks to all who has supported us during 2011 and celebrate the new year with excitement!
Read this blog post about it written by our unconditional fan Ben Goldsmith from Workspace Group.
