Transformed by You

1
1. Background 4

2. Developing 6
an open
innovation event

3. Learning lessons 16
from the events

4. Prototypes
19
developed at the
events

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Introduction
“Do you have ideas on how you can improve
your local area using the web or other
technologies?

Do you want to get together with others to

see how you can turn these ideas into
prototypes of new online services in just a
day?

Where you can showcase these to

organisations looking for new ways of
meeting challenges?”

Transformed by You is a new way of bringing

people together from different sectors with
shared needs and interests to tackle local
challenges.

This guide below helps you understand the

background into why we developed this
approach, a guide on how you can develop an
open innovation event and learning lessons
from our own events.

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 1. Background
Public sector organisations face growing
pressures to deliver bigger and better services
with far less money. For organisations, whether
they’re local authorities, universities or innovation
centres - the changes needed to make this
happen do not necessarily require more funding,
but tapping into creative ways of thinking and
delivering our services.

Digital technologies are effective at doing just

this. More people are talking and sharing ideas
online in ways that weren’t possible before.
Technology also provides opportunities for
individuals, businesses and other groups to
create innovative models to meet these new
demands.

This model can:

o Empower people to identify issues with

your council and develop their solutions
together

o Test out a new way of engaging with

new groups to co-create innovative
solutions

o Help develop community-generated

ideas for digital services that can be
incorporated into council activities

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Get people together to develop
innovations

+ =

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 2. Developing an open
innovation event
You may want to organise a Transformed by You
event if you are keen to better connect
communities and individuals, especially finding
ways of joining up people with the skills and time
– the innovators and social entrepreneurs – with
the people with the influence and resource to
make innovation happen. Here are a few steps
that can help you develop such an event:

1. Develop a model that works for you

2. Identify the challenges with your

users

3. Invite people to take part

4. Empower people to develop

prototypes

5. Build your events team

6. Facilitate the sessions

7. Provide resources for the

participants

8. Schedule the day

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1. Develop a model that works for you

o Bring local innovators together for a

day to develop prototypes of online tools
that tackle local challenges.

o Explore different ways of organising

these types of events that could work for
you.

o Whatever type of activity you choose, try

and find a balance between activities you
want to coordinate and those you want
people to self organise.

2. Identify the challenges with

your users

o Identify challenges that your council

need to tackle and seed these to your
service users.

o Enable your service users to pick a

challenge and get into a group to come
up with ideas to tackle it.

o Invite your participants to tell you what

challenges they want to consider and
potentially resolve on the day by online
voting.

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o Put forward the top 10 on the day of the
event and enable everyone to choose
which challenge they want to work on.

3. Invite people to take part

o Reach out to local entrepreneurs,

innovators, geeks and community
organisers and others whose
experiences, expertise and enthusiasm
would really benefit your event.

o Ask the above people to suggest others

they think would also benefit the event

o Go out and meet these groups in the

spaces where they meet and tap into
their goodwill

o Identify local people or groups that may

have been involved in similar types of
activities

o Identify the right people to champion

your event itself out of these groups

o Identify local groups in the web,

creative, design, marketing field on event
listings (i.e. Eventbrite, Meetup, etc)

o Identify local people or groups who

have been involved in national innovation
programmes (i.e. Big Green Challenge,

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 Mental Health Launchpad, UNLtd,
Crucible, etc)

o Select people who have already been

involved in your council’s innovative
work

o Bring in creative people – especially

young talent - to make the day exciting
and productive

o Email invitees about a month in advance

of your event with information pack,
agenda, description of the approach and
some starter challenges

o Create a TwitterList so people can

check out who else is coming to the
workshop and start connecting with
people before the event via a link on your
webpage or event management website
(like Eventbrite)

4. Empower people to develop

prototypes

o You may be surprised that these can

be created in such a short space of
time, but Enabled by Design, Good Gym
and MyCouncilTax were all developed in
similar workshops. Don’t expect the ideas
to be developed into fully fledged
services.

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o Encourage the participants to show you
how their proposed service would work
and what it would look like, whether that’s
through a presentation, screenshots or
other techniques they want to use to
showcase it.

o So you don't need to worry about

having your ideas stolen and so you
can take your prototypes forward as a
group if you chose to do so, enable your
users to license their ideas under
Creative Commons 3.0.

Develop prototypes in a day?

Time Well Spent

Everybody wins

5. Build your events team

o Make sure there is a lead organiser

from your council or if you’re hosting it
with other partners, as we did, make sure

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 they have assigned a lead organiser on
behalf of their organisation and someone
from the venue as a lead.

o Assign a couple of facilitators to the

day to make sure people can self
organise and still have developed
prototypes by the end of the day.

o Attract people from your organisation

to be mentors or “critical friends” to the
participants in their groups, taking notes
or live blogging the sessions, as well as
providing advice on any issues they may
be able to help with, such as how would
their prototype work in the council and
how could it be taken forward

6. Facilitate the sessions

o While organised activities are

structured in time, by definition self-
organised actions are moments which
last as long as the people want them to.
Those “moments” are the best way for
individuals to contribute in the way that
suits them.

o Bottom-up activities are very popular

but they’re also very new to people, so
invite facilitators to make it as
comfortable as possible for people to
come up with ideas in groups and
develop them into prototypes.

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o Invite “critical friends” to drop in and
out of groups and provide advice to your
participants on how the ideas could work
in a public service environment. Invite
helpers too who can provide general
support on the day.

7. Provide resources for the

participants

o Provide a venue which can enable

people to meet and network and which
has breakout spaces where people can
get into groups and develop their ideas.
Make sure it also has wifi internet
connection.

o Provide basic resources like post its,

pens and flipcharts so people can jot
ideas down.

o Make sure you provide refreshments

and lunch whether you pay for catering or
make it yourself!

o Invite participants to bring their laptops

if you want to use them to develop
prototypes on the day, but don’t assume
they everyone needs to have one.

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8. Schedule the day

o Create a welcome area at the venue,

which can include a space for
organisations sponsoring or facilitating
the event, a refreshments area so
attendees can relax, browse information
and talk informally, a contact
form/business card jar, and perhaps more
innovative offerings also e.g. a
blogging/video area.

o Allow half an hour for people to arrive

and have refreshments. Meet & greet
everyone on arrival.

o Introduce the day and reassure people

on what the day will entail and that this is
new for everyone (including your staff)
and get people together into the spirit of
the day with something a bit fun and

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 humbling.

o Introduce the facilitators and the

challenges you’ve set the participants
and where the breakout rooms are.
Announce hashtag for people to tweet or
yammer to.

o Instil confidence by seeding

facilitators to lead discussions
throughout the day that captivate people,
rather than putting anyone on the spot, as
well as capturing the value gained by the
conversations the event enables

o Nominate each facilitator and helper to

a particular challenge. Invite the
participants to select a group and go with
the facilitator to a breakout space.

o Give people the chance to network, eat

and relax over lunch

o Enable people in the afternoon to carry

on developing their prototypes and focus
them to complete on time

o Invite each group to showcase and

“walk through” their prototypes and the
rest of the audience providing feedback

o Get your critical friends and helpers to

take notes, liveblog or video each
showcase and turn the notes into an
overview of the innovation that people

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 can take away and even take forward
together.

o Conclude by telling people how your

council will take the conversations and
prototypes forward and asking the
audience how they would like to do that
too

o Video short voxpops asking participants

a question relating to the event. This can
then be used to give people a flavour of
the event

How does it work?

Get people with different skills together… …to brainstorm ideas based on local challenges

…develop prototypes on your ideas …that you can showcase at the end of the day

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3. Lessons Learnt
We used facilitated workshops to generate
innovative and creative ideas among informal
groups, although our approach was slightly
different at both events in order to enable us to
compare the models.

Benefits

The events proved successful from both a

participant and partner perspective. Main
benefits included:

1. Helping people develop ideas

o Dynamic and innovative way to share and

develop ideas
o A good platform to enable ‘communities’
to come up with their own solutions
o Interesting and varied prototypes
emerged that could be used internally

2. Involving the public in the event

o Very productive way for participants to

work closely with the Council and others
o Provided opportunities to work with
individuals that partners would not
normally be exposed to (micros
businesses, developers, entrepreneurs
etc)
o Positive, cost effective and easily
adaptable engagement model

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 o Inspirational – has acted as a catalyst for
further work and engagement
o Strong involvement1 of the participants
prior to the event in generating and voting
on ideas to be tackled on the day

3. Using online techniques to develop

and promote innovation

o Raised profile of partners as ‘innovative &

creative ‘organisations
o Encouraged external interaction (via
Twitter/Ning2 etc) on and after the event
o Extremely positive feedback online after
the event through Twitter
o Large amount of on-line material
produced and freely available

Image by www.wordle.net

Issues

1. Organising the event

1
http://transformedbyyou.uservoice.com/forums/40939-general
2
http://transformedbyyou.ning

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o The amount of resource needed to
support a productive event was not
insignificant
o Preplanning is essential – despite the
relaxed nature of the events a lot of
‘behind the scenes’ work was required
o Need a lot of space to encourage
creativity and networking

2. Engaging participants

o Make sure you get the right message

across, use social media effectively and
get enthusiasts onboard early
o Vital to be clear about expectations and
what will happen with ideas after the
event
o Get on-line discussion platforms up and
running before the event and maintain
them afterwards. They are also useful to
continue the conversations and update
participants on what is happening

3. Developing ideas

o Getting others to take the ideas forward

(if viable) needs a lot of work & resources
as well as access to potential funding.
Momentum must be maintained and
interest nurtured if a lot of the more
practical benefits are to be realised.
o When working with students getting the
right group and scheduling appropriately
within their timetable is key.

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 4. Prototypes developed at
Transformed by You

Call of Duty Magnifeye

o Report an issue on your
smart phone and do
something about it

o Rate urgency of issues

o Pinpoint anti social and
pro-social ‘hot spots’
o Receive points based on
your level of contribution
o Get rewards for the
number of points get

Bin Master
o Develop a fridge magnet
using GPS to get real time
information on recycling

o Magnet flashes red for

new updates and green
when it is collection day
o Shows progress chart to
track how much you’ve
recycled compared to
their neighbours

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 Destination Opportunity
o Put entertainers on buses
to connect older people on
community activities

o Passengers vote on topics

and book slots on journey
o Involve other partners to
provide advice services
o Use for intergenerational
activities with children

On the move
o Use your mobile to take a
photo of a:

o Bus stop and it will take you

to the timetable online
o Apprenticeships posters
and it will take you to the
online application
o Library book and it will
renew it for you

o Uses the next generation of

barcoding (QR codes)

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 Time Well Spent
o An online tool offering a points
based rewards system for
volunteering

o Look for volunteers and

volunteering opportunities
o Invite a friend and claim rewards
from sponsors
o Points calculated by multiplying
the volunteer’s star rating by the
time spent on the opportunity
o Points are exchanged for rewards

Grad Link Kent

o Connects job seekers and
employers to provide support
for unemployed graduates

o Upload your portfolio to

advertise to employers
o Match your skills to relevant jobs
o Employers match their jobs with
jobseekers with relevant skills

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 Let’s Get Digi
o Use Bluetooth chip
wristband to sign up and
volunteer for festivals

o An online tool driven by

music festivals promoting
positive activities to
teenagers
o Volunteer in exchange for
free gig tickets

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