Sarah Crawley from ISE sent me this - I'll try and pick out the things that caught my eye

http://popse.files.wordpress.com/2011/09/popse.pdf

Popse was held over several days in May in Clerkenwell in a defunct retail outlet. (We could do the same in Brum?)

It brought together a wide range of people from the social enterprise sector.

I liked the definition "more than profit" rather than not-for profit as a way to introduce the sector.

Popse  generated new ideas by mixing up people, organisations and expertise - a bit like Hack Days in format.

The mantra was "if we're all heads down in survival modes the future will be something we experience, not shape".

Interesting discussions on the Office for Civil Society and The Big Society Bank.

Popse felt successful social entrepreneurs have a network mindset not an organisational one.

I liked the 2 scenarios of "heaven" and "hell" which was applied to the future of "Mutuals". These were two contrasting stories looking back from 2016 on what took place, nice technique - see Open Public Services White Paper.

Popse talks about assets - land use in particular - a new approach to public land and the tensions which will grow between public opinion on new build particularly relating to the environment.

There is a lot here too about cultural and organisational issues - the need to move from a target driven approach to one which is connected to local needs (mention of Portsmouth City Council and Owen Buckwell and an approach to encourage employees to use their imagination and initiative). References to Seddon's work on "targets" and how they can be misused.

I really liked the idea to create "narratives" around local issues - focussing on key aspects to mobilise local people.

But Popse also warns against the "strong local community" as a force for "good" per se - this could also mean busy bodies, curtain twitchers in their terms - stronger doesn't necessarily mean better.

Paul, Nina, Jez and I  produced this report on Wolverhampton in 2011 based on a focus group approach with creatives and stakeholders (Supported through the EU Interreg 1VC, Creative Metropoles project).

We then worked out how the needs expressed could be incorporated into Wolverhampton's economic strategy. Light House are working on this now.