As you may now know, between 23rd and 30th January 2017, Workforce Scotland will be hosting and supporting the Fire Starter Festival, a week-long festival of collaborative learning events, illuminating creative, disruptive and innovative ways in which we can all transform ourselves, our organisations and the wider system.
We are now just over two months away from the launch of Fire Starter Festival and events are constantly being added to our EventBrite page. Look out for a newsletter in early December to formally launch the festival programme!
Over the last few months, we’ve been out and about, speaking to lots of different individuals, groups and organisations who have expressed an interest in hosting an event during the Fire Starter Festival.
If you are still on the fence about hosting your own event, maybe we can convince you to join in…
Why host an event?
The Fire Starter Festival provides a unique opportunity to share the stories of these fires of change, as well as deepening our knowledge and skills that underpin transformation. It allows people from all aspects of public service to share innovative and creative ways that we are all making a difference to Scotland.
There are hundreds of examples of creative and innovative work happening all across Scotland, and we hope that you will join our festival and host your own event to share work that you and your colleagues are doing. Workforce Scotland have scheduled a few events that we will host during the Fire Starter Festival, but we are really keen for others to catch the sparks and create their own small fires of change.
You may have an event already programmed for January 2017 which could be ‘badged’ as part of the Festival, or you may want to host a bespoke event on a theme, topic or area of work you feel aligns to our ethos.
Benefits of Hosting a Fire Starter Festival Event
You may have an event already programmed for January 2017 which could be ‘badged’ as part of the Festival, or you may want to host a bespoke event on a theme, topic or area of work you feel aligns to our ethos. Either way, there are many benefits to projects, programmes and organisations who host events through the Fire Starter Festival, including opportunities to:
- showcase your work
- extend networks and develop ideas with new partners
- participate in a national platform evidencing innovation and creativity in public service
- collaborate and use public resources more effectively and efficiently
- help shape the future of public services.
Core Principles and Ethos of Fire Starter Festival
The Fire Starter Festival has been designed to celebrate the various creative, innovative, even dangerous ways in which we are all contributing to the transformation of our Public Services. Events hosted during the festival will be:
- free to attend – there is no charge for participation in Fire Starter events.
- accessible and open – events must be open to participants, no matter their organisation or background.
- self-organised – events must be organised by those hosting them and their partners. Unfortunately the Fire Starter team has limited capacity and cannot support or resource events.
We also think that events hosted during the Fire Starter Festival should fit comfortably within our aims and ethos. Fire Starter events should:
- celebrate and share creative, innovative and dangerous ways in which you and your partners are transforming public services
- give participants opportunities to hear about and get involved in areas of work which they may not have been exposed to before
- be hosted in creative, different and engaging ways, making best use of your talents, skills and interests, both in and out of work.
- make use of different spaces, venues and locations across Scotland, both indoor and outdoor.
If you would like some help thinking through how you and your organisation could get involved please email Karen.Lawson@gov.scot or Kirsty.Merriman@gov.scot. We are really happy to meet individuals or teams to talk through ideas and the festival in general in more detail.
We will share all Fire Starter events in the Festival Programme, which will be circulated widely around public and third sector networks in Scotland. If you would like your event to become part of this programme, please add your details to this questionnaire.