our past events
TUEsday 28th November 2023
Planet Local Summit
The summit in September brought many people from around the world to Bristol. This workshop gave some thoughts and impressions of the event and dig further into some questions and tensions that surfaced during ‘Planet Local’.
- Can you have a global movement for localism? What might that look like?
- What are the tensions between levels – local, regional, national, and international?
- Could there be synergies between these levels?
- What are the issues around supporting indigenous livelihoods and knowledge?
- How do these link to decolonization agendas?
Of particular interest from the institute’s point of view, we will consider some of the issues that overlap with our ‘Small is Disruptive’ conference earlier this year………..leading towards our follow-on events planned for next year.
Tuesday 14th November 2023
Exploring Collaborative Business Model Innovation as a Transformative Process
For business to play its role in delivering a rapid transition to a more equitable and sustainable economic system, it must go beyond ‘doing no harm’, and generate meaningful societal value at the core of the business model. Ed applies systems thinking methods to understand how collaboration is reorienting business model design towards sustainability in the energy transition.
Tuesday 31st October 2023
The AI Landscape
This was an open discussion workshop to get a measure of what artificial intelligence (AI) might look like as it unfolds and what it means for systems thinking, sustainability and social justice.
AI has been much in the news recently with fears of apocalypse at one end and dismissal as a non-event at the other. The core issue is that AI is set to be pervasive. It will reach into every aspect of life in which humans produce data, seek data and use it for creative purposes – ethical and otherwise.
Can we apply the rich array of systems thinking methodologies to:
- Appreciate the impacts and responses this technology might produce for sustainability and social justice?
- Explore the way that AI might enhance our work?
- Get some idea of the reliability of AI’s output and what problems and issue will appear as knock-on effects?
Thursday 18th August 2023
The Creativity Webinar
This will use a specially written Guided Relaxation to enhance creative thinking and include the neuroscience background and a chance for Q&A at the end of the session. The focus is on how a combination of large neural networks is active during creative ideation and the function of daydreaming in developing interventions into complex systemic problems.
SMALL IS A POSITIVE DISRUPTION
Friday 16th June 2023
9.00 am – 5.00 pm
Arnos Manor Hotel, Bristol, BS4 3HQ
This was an inspiring day learning about the work of Schumacher and many others and gaining ideas for what this means to us today. How do these ideas translate to our situation of inequality, ecological and resource crises?
The day was a mix of presentations and group discussion & networking opportunities
Sessions included:
- ‘Small is…..’ multiple ideas of smallness from a mixed panel to start the discussion
- Small is Disruptive – Schumacher as an early Systems Thinker
- Good Work thoughts for change in the 21st Century
Thursday 27th April 2023
Katie Dick and Richard Erskine launched their Community Climate Action Toolkit. There was a demonstration of the toolkit and workshops looking how it could be implemented within the community.
Friday 21st October 2022
Our launch of the new book New Economy New Systems was a great success. We had interesting discussions and some great presentations from the authors, all capped off with some amazing food!