The Centre for Creative Collaboration recently opened in London. Here Brian Condon explains the project:
Collaborative and emergent
We had the first event in the space on 5th February 2010 and it was a meeting of Tuttle as part of Social Media Week, together with people from various Universities; including those who are founder partners of this project. Graeme Davies from the University of London spoke – and you can see the video on this site.
Lots of people brought donations for the Centre; mugs, cushions, flowers, food, coffee . . . because Lloyd asked them to and because they want to help and be part of it. At the event, people gave feedback on what they thought of the space, the ideas we have for collaborations, suggested projects, offered help; practical help, with making and doing to make the building more homely and useful. Many people suggested events we could host and people we should talk to. It was amazing.
And lots of people asked questions. Questions that were framed as “What is your policy on…”; “Do you have a process for…”; and, “How will you deal with …” – to these questions I didn’t have well-formed answers. And no, we don’t have policy . . .yet. And we may not have policy in future. But the yet is very important. And we do have a process.
And so, on the eve of the next Tuttle meeting, I thought it might be helpful to give you more ‘food for thought’ about this project and how we got to this point.
Why are we doing this?
Thias Martin, Neil Gregory and I got a bee in our collective bonnet about collaboration when we did projects for Graeme Davies a while ago. We did a serious, substantive piece of work in 2008 looking at the barrriers to collaboration especially in London. We offered meetings with all London’s Universities (there are 43 of them) and did over 60 meetings covering 25 Universities. We surveyed nearly 1,000 businesses across South East England. We talked to Innovation Centres and Incubators in London. We tracked ALL the spinouts of all the Universities in the London Region (LDA), the South East (SEEDA) and the East of England (EEDA) and found out how they did and where they went. We mapped R&D intensive and ventured-backed businesses across the LDA, SEEDA and EEDA regions. If you’d like to have access to the report on this work – please contact me.
We believe, on the basis of our experience and the work we have done, that collaboration in the Creative Industries writ large can deliver massive benefits to all of us and that we need to find a way to realise these benefits without them being captive to any one player and that the benefits need to be shared.
We identified the need for a neutral place where people from many different backgrounds – Universities, large corporates, SMEs, freelancers could work together on new things in the belief that real innovation happens ‘at the edge’ and ‘in the gaps’. And that’s what this project is about and why we are doing it.
Do we have a Gateway Policy?
No. But we may in future. If you don’t know what a ‘Gateway Policy’ is – don’t worry, it’s not important and even if we’ve got one it can change to accommodate your idea; if both we and you think it’ll fly.
How will we deal with … [insert some really challenging or difficult issue]?
We’re sure we can work it out. What do you think?
What are you actually going to do?
We’re going to support and manage collaborative projects in areas that are important and potentially valuable. We’re going to put together collaborations between Universities, companies and frleelancers and see what works and what doesn’t. We’re going to have fun. We’re going to learn and report back to our sponsors and funders. We will disseminate and communicate the results of the work as widely as possible nationally and internationally.
But it’s not a free ride
We have the space funded for 2 years. We have little other resource. We need to find a sustainble financial model so that we can develop the idea, do new cool stuff and continue the work. We’re also conscious that the funding we have through the Universities who are partners, from HEFCE and from the LDA is public money and we are all aware of the difficult economic circumstances facing us; and we will make the best possible use of the resources we have.
As far as Governance is concerned, the Centre has been approved by the Board of Trustees of the University of London and we meet Graeme Davies each month to report progress and make any policy decisions needed. Day-to-day management of the Centre is the responsibility of the Operations and Management Board (‘OMB’) which is Chaired by Mike Metelits who is Director of Business Development at Goldsmiths. I am a member of that Board (with other University representatives and my colleagues Neil and Thias). Again, the formation and operation of the OMB is under Ordinances of the University which specify what it can do. The composition of the OMB may change over time as new partners emerge or new projects come on board. However, everyone involved confirms that we will be running this as ‘lightly’ and openly as possible.
I’m telling you all this stuff because I want everyone to be clear about what the process and ‘rules of engagement’ look like now and how they might evolve. We also have an obligation to document, report and disseminate what we learn in undertaking this project. We need to study what works and what doesn’t, we need to learn from the people who collaborate. The projects and activities which use the building will need to agree to this. Actually, I don’t think any of the people we have spoken to so far will have a problem with this; quite the reverse!
You need to be aware also, that there may be things we’d like to do but which just don’t fit with what we have to do to deliver on our promises.
Collaborative and emergent
For this project to work, it cannot start with a deterministic, top down view of how it will operate. If you want that, there are plenty of Digital Media Centres, Science Parks, Innovation Centres and Incubators with very clear rules that will make you feel secure yet unloved. We are genuinely trying to do somethig different in a world where there is no such thing as ‘business as usual’. We are following the principles of Action Research and Open Innovation. We will learn by doing, evaluate and reflect, and iterate. We are going to make mistakes. We may fail. So this is fun, and it’s also big scary grown-up stuff and we are very serious about doing our best to make it work. It must be collaborative and it will be emergent and we’ll need the help and goodwill of many people to make it work.
[From Centre for Creative Collaboration – University of London ]