Last weekend we kicked off the first of a series of Local by Social regional events. We packed our bags and headed over to Coventry to spend two days with local govvies, techies and (most importantly of all) Coventry residents, all looking to bring some fresh thinking to the local community.
The event was divided up into two days. Day one brought together examples of how people are using the web to bring people together and make a difference in their part of the Midlands, as well as inventing some of our own right there on the day! On day two, a group of us from day one got together and went to visits the residents of Coventry to make their best ideas a reality (more of that later).
Martin Reeves, Chief Executive of Coventry Council, set the tone for the day:
“We’ve got to adapt and change the ways we talk to each other and come together… We will not be missing the social media boat.”
Martin Reeves, Chief Executive of Coventry Council
Martin talked with great enthusiasm and pride about Coventry and the way his council is trying out new ways of doing things as well as his determination for Coventry to set an example for other councils. He mentioned the good work that already takes place within Coventry council: the now nearly 16,000 fans on their Facebook page; the recent CovJam event run in partnership with IBM, and; councillors experimenting with different social media platforms to engage with residents.
Ingrid Koehler, Improvement Strategist from the LGID, explained how all communication channels can be both inclusive and exclusive – and that with 18 – 22 year olds now having 92 per cent take up of social media, it’s important that local government is ready for a mainstream shift in the way people communicate.
You can browse her full presentation below:
Dominic from FutureGov rounded up the preliminaries giving his view on the bigger picture – how an open and transparent approach will build trust and better relationships between councils and residents, creating meaningful engagement that will help improve the delivery of public services and support communities to achieve their aspirations.
You can have a peep at the full length version of the presentation, which he presented at the Solace conference last month, below:
It was then time for some learning and sharing with lightening local talks, where each speaker presented how they’ve used the web to bring people together around a community:
- First up, the Soho Foundation – which runs hyperlocal site Soho Times. The site works by asking the community to Do – where people share and celebrate stories and inspire the community, Dream – how residents might be able to make the neighbourhood even better and Pledge – where residents are asked for ways in which they could organise themselves to take action to benefit there community, it’s a great model that helped residents recognise what they can offer and how they can make a difference to their community:
- Nick Booth (aka @Podnosh) said he realised very early on that social media ‘had a strange power’. Nick talked about his social media surgeries, the simplicity of teaching people to use the tools, making them uniquely useful for each person. Nick explained that as simple as it sounds, when people are shown that these new tools are useful, they’ll use them. The surgey also helps trainees to run their own local social media surgeries in their own areas, which has led to training across the country. That in short, “it’s pure big society”.
- Mike Rawkins and Nicky Getgood came next from Talk About Local, supporting local citizens to set up websites tailor made for and looked after by the local community. They noted that sites usually find a purpose around a single issue, for example the Kington blackboard was set up when the local community noticeboard was taken down, but from there it built momentum and expanded into a wider used local platform. A Coventry resident rounded the session up nicely, by commenting:
“The Council often tell us what we need, rather than ask us what we want. These websites seem to be an opportunity to tell them what we want before they approach us.”
- We heard from a Coventry councillor who shared her own experiences with social media and how she was finding incorporating it into her job. Councillor Lynette Kelly shared her story on the challenges of getting all councillors up to speed. She explained that many councillors are often advised to step away from social media (her own blog was taken down during the elections) and that many stay clear altogether “just in case”. That said, Lynette did say that more and more councillors were getting themselves online and that many residents expected to be able to connect with local representatives on social media platforms, particularly Facebook.
- Dan Slee wrapped things up by sharing with us how Flickr can help councils and residents show off their area, and create connections. Some Councils have even used Flickr to pick up photos from the local area, taken by residents. Walsall connected with people from the Walsall Flickr group to come along and take some pictures of the town hall – another way to connect people to their local buildings and their local authority. Dan spoke about how people want to share their work, and how a photo can capture why and what people love about their local area. It’s a great way to reinstate local pride – as well as being free and easy to add into any site – our audience seemed pretty sold by the end!
After a quick bite to eat, participants were asked to scribble down local issues in the area they think could be helped by social media. Over one hundred post were collected, and somehow we managed to cluster them into themes such as crime, inter generational relationships, housing, environment, and many, many more. The room then broke up to work on ideas armed with one facilitator, one flip chart and lots of pens.
It was during this time we were able to pull Alan to one side, a 76 year old member of Coventry New Deal for Communities who has spent a lifetime being active in the Coventry Community. We had a quick chat about what he makes of the web and what he hoped would come out of the event:
“The telephone used to be the main thing, but now every one’s on their mobiles, and now [with the web] it’s just the next step up….I can certainly see how technology saves time, and time being money, it’s the way forward… We’re forerunners of some of it, we’ve shown it in the past – we wont be sent to Coventry will we? We’ll be sending Coventry out instead.”
Listen to Alan’s full interview below. It’s well worth the few minutes and demonstrates the energy the Coventry residents brought to the event as well as proving that the older people are open to exploring the benefits of the web:
We all came back together to share our work with some quick fire presentations. It was fantastic to see that residents had contributed their own love and experiences of the local area, as we talked about reputation, the area’s young people, relationships between different people in the community and communication between local authorities and residents.
To finish the day off our judging panel decided on three ideas to being forward for the second half of Local by Social Midlands:
1. How can the web improve relationships between young and old in Coventry
2. Could a site exist where police and residents could communicate more effectively?
3. Could we bring together a platform for local residents to use as a hub for their local area?
These ideas were brought forward and built at Local by Social Saturday. Want to know what happened? Well check back here very soon!
In the mean time – you can browse all tweets, photos and comments below in the #LbySmids live blog – enjoy!
Blog post by Lauren Ivory from FutureGov
