On the day – emergence – and the creation of something beautiful – Bristol Institute for Learning and Teaching Blog

“Regenerative designers assemble! An inspiring day of conversation, collaboration and exchange of ideas at Sparks Bristol for the Regenerative Design Education Anti-Conference.” – Matthew Jones, Dean & Head of School of Architecture & Environment, UWE Bristol^[1]

And so, on the 26^th June, after months of thinking, planning, debating, delaying, revising and agonising we assembled the most wonderful and diverse group of people.

There is no single way to describe the day itself, and I, of all people, am probably the least well equipped to describe what happened as everyone’s experience was different. Instead I will share snippets of what people said and provide links to their own reflections so you can see how different people enjoyed the day. What I can do I tell you what we hoped would happen.

The day was split loosely into three parts: gather, share and collaborate.

During the gathering stage we wanted to enable people to make connection, we were aware that we were gathering a diverse group of people, most of whom had not met in person, so we created spaces (timetabled and physical) to create connection. The physical space included a “gallery of the future” which featured artwork by the artist James McKay^[2], a Games Café where people could gather to play some regenerative games^[3]people had offered to share and the opportunity to further explore both the “department of imagination” and the “department store with a difference” which are parts of the sparks offering, where the event was located.

The timetabled space included a number of opportunities for meeting others, as is standard for a conference, but rather than have some big keynote presentation we gave the first significant proportion of our day to a facilitated gathering led by Cíaran Malik and Carla-Leanne Washbourne. It was split into three 15 minute portions, a grounding/calming introduction, where we welcomed everyone, and gave people time to reflect and look forward, to frame the day ahead. We then ramped up the energy with an active/energising activity where people moved around the room grouping themselves in different ways, from favourite colours to defining who they teach. The idea was to help people connect with a variety of different people gathered in the room.

[Photo courtesy of Gavin Knowles, University of Bath]

As we brought our gathering time to a close we gathered around the schedule for the day. We had discussed allowing the schedule to emerge for months, but none of us really knew exactly how it would work. But armed with a roll of masking tape and some post it notes Cíaran Malik stuck the schedule on the wall, which people could then add to offering their own workshops, ideas, thoughts as the day progressed. It worked brilliantly. During the day empty slots became full, different workshops emerged. People tried things they never tried before.

By the end of the day the schedule looked like this:

[Photo courtesy of Max Campbell, Engineers Without Borders UK]

It had been filled up with creative and courageous ideas. What happened next? Well over the course of the next 4-5 hours people had conversations, played with Lego, drew huge diagrams, planned hackathons^[4]explored repair workshops^[5] discussed grief^[6]. People sat together and talked. They stood together and talked. And if it ever became too much we gave people permission to take time out, either visiting other parts of Sparks or sitting quietly in our library, which was a designated quiet space.

As I mentioned before I don’t think I could begin to describe what happened in those hours, but this is what others said:

“This anti-conference was an example of the holistic, playful and collaborative spirit needed for innovation to meet the complex challenge of designing for a regenerative future.” – Hannah Lyons-Tsai, Becoming Regenerative^[7]

“It was fantastic. Real. Nourishing. Deep. Honest.” – Juliette Morgan, Gensler^[8]

“So I attended my first “anti-conference.” My review?

It was epic. Nourishing. Cup filling kinda day ☕️”– Brogan MacDonald, Head of Sustainability, Ramboll^[9]

“I think the anti-conference format was fantastic. Huge credit to James Norman and colleagues because it opened up a very different space that invited questions and collective exploration and experimentation. An important counter-point to the ever expanding industry of broadcast conferences (probably a whole different conversation)!” – Jaime Blakeley-Glover , Most Sustainable Workplace Index and Orientate^[10]

“It was a rich day – and a good reminder that staying agile, embracing uncertainty, and working collaboratively are essential for keeping momentum in the deep, often tricky work of tackling complex climate challenges.” – Beth Wolff, Naked Innovations^[11]

And then, as the dust settled, and the conversations eventually came to an end. After much sharing and collaborating, we regathered to reflect on our day and then head out to the pub or onwards to our next destination, or homewards to restore after a very full day.

My own experience was like being the parent at the most wonderful children’s birthday party, where a mix of activities planned and emergent occur, bringing joy, delight and wonder. But much like at a child’s birthday party, my role had not been to participate but to enable. Whilst I had looked in on many of the conversations I had not participated in any of them, instead constantly moving to the next thing, and using the moments of calm to capture the moments to share after the event. I always knew this would be my role, but as I left, having packed away the 8 flipcharts, with pads and pens, and books, and Lego, I felt overwhelmed by emotion. A huge flood. I was exhausted, jubilant, but above all else relieved that it had happened, that it had gone better than I had hoped or imagined, but also recognising that it was done, and it would not happen again, at least not like this. So jumping on a topic discussed during the day, a moment to grieve the end of something wonderful.

So what is next for the regenerative design anti-conference? Well as we said at the back of the zine:-

“There are three options:

1. Some of you may decide that you would like to organise a follow on event. We would love that and see this as us giving you permission (not that you need to ask). Go for it! If you do let us know and we will try and support it. 🙂

2. We may decide, after a fairly long break, to organise a follow up event.

3. This may be a one time thing.

All outcomes are possible and we feel a peace about all of them.”

To help us track what happens next please use the #RegenAntiConference.

And so the anti-conference has come to it’s end, at least for now, but what does this mean for education, well that is the topic of our final post.

Thank you to the University of Bristol Engineering Education Research Group for sponsoring this event.

^[1] https://www.linkedin.com/posts/activity-7344109311406534658-4_78?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop&rcm=ACoAAAtF-rIBaTmt5Fv3dkJvqblNNV7rk486AO0

^[2] https://www.robhopkins.net/2019/01/07/james-mckay-the-man-who-draws-the-future/

^[3] https://www.linkedin.com/posts/jes%C3%BAs-mart%C3%ADn-gonz%C3%A1lez-302094209_education-regenanticonference-boardgame-activity-7343381334553243649-hvSD?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop&rcm=ACoAAAtF-rIBaTmt5Fv3dkJvqblNNV7rk486AO0

^[4] https://www.linkedin.com/posts/alexandra-groszek-3711b422_regenerativedesignanticonference-regenerativedesign-ugcPost-7345522671973011456-vUkJ?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop&rcm=ACoAAAtF-rIBaTmt5Fv3dkJvqblNNV7rk486AO0

^[5] https://www.linkedin.com/posts/zoe-robinson1_regenanticonference-activity-7344328588231385088-ztIh?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop&rcm=ACoAAAtF-rIBaTmt5Fv3dkJvqblNNV7rk486AO0

^[6] https://www.linkedin.com/posts/emilybazalgette_i-so-enjoyed-holding-a-spontaneous-grief-activity-7344322625701134336-WcRE?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop&rcm=ACoAAAtF-rIBaTmt5Fv3dkJvqblNNV7rk486AO0