TTBrixton: Economy and Business Working Group Meeting – Thursday 5 June 2008

Where: The Melanin Partnership at Piano House

When: 6:30pm

Present:

  • Sue Bell
  • Mamading Ceesay
  • Duncan Law
  • Hannah Lewis
  • Josh Ryan-Collins
  • John Walker

Apologies:

  • Jody Boehnert
  • Robert Geddis
  • Balbir Singh
  • Saskia Walzel

ACTION POINTS FROM LAST MEETING (21 May)

Sue:

  • Has not yet got through to Lambeth First

Jody:

  • Flyers are ready to be distributed
  • Outreach to media, creative sector etc – to be done
  • Food – see below

Mamading

  • Blog on Urban75 – has account set up, will start blog and link to TTB site

Duncan

  • Missed deadline for business networks mailout from Corporate Regen department – but they will do a mailout for us next week
  • Not yet contacted Steve Reed re intro from Lambeth – will ask him and Lib Peck
  • Outreach: LVAC, Lambeth College – contacted but not heard back yet
  • Contacted Julie from Growing Communities re local food workshop – she is not available, contacted grower but not heard back yet
  • Contacted Nigel Topping re Lessons from Totnes workshop – not heard back yet
  • Asked Molly Scott Cato to run local currency workshop – agreed

Josh

  • Outreach: was awaiting flyers, Hannah will ask Jody to email these to all
  • Liz from NEF agreed to run Our Sustainable Neighbourhood workshop

John

  • Food – see below

LOCAL ECONOMY DAY

1. PROGRAMME

The programme http://transitiontowns.org/Brixton/LocalEconomyDay remains as agreed at last meeting. Workshops for the afternoon are:

  • Molly Scott Cato on local currencies (or possibly carbon currencies as we now have another facilitator for local currencies…)
  • Becky Booth from Wales Institute for Community Currencies (contacted by Josh) has also offered to run a local currencies workshop – either she and Molly could co-facilitate (they may know each other?) or Becky could focus on local currencies and Molly on carbon-based currencies? Josh to liaise with both.
  • Liz Cox – Our Sustainable Neighbourhood.
  • Local food – a number of possible facilitators, either from Growing Communities, Edible Estates (Carol Wright runs project at Brookwood House in Elephant and Castle), Abundance Project (Robert Beale), Ian Larkin (Larkin Foods), Sustain, London Food Links, or Duncan himself! Mamading / Duncan to confirm.
  • Lessons from Totnes – not yet confirmed from Nigel Topping.

One person from the Economy and Business Group will partner with each workshop facilitator to help direct the focus onto local Brixton issues. People who agreed to do this were: Duncan – local food workshop Mamading – Our Sustainable Neighbourhood Josh / John – local currency workshop/s (Josh with Becky, John with Molly, or both in one)

The plenary session (following workshops) will include a speaker from each workshop (either the facilitator or partner) presenting what was discussed.

“Kit list” requirements include:

  • Powerpoint projector – already sorted
  • Flipchart holders – Town Hall has 2, Mamading has 2-3 to bring
  • Flipchart pads, pens, name badge stickers – Duncan to bring

2. FOOD

John has produced an agreement for participating food outlets to sign. As of meeting, only Honest Foods was confirmed to participate – Franco Manca’s pizza also expressed interest. John and Hannah will go on a recruiting mission in Brixton on Saturday. [We have since added Rosie’s, the Lounge, and the Ritzy cafe to the list. Others have expressed interest, tbc – Hannah.]

Jody will produce a map of participating cafes and design the paper currency for the day.

3. EVENING EVENT

Programme for the evening was outlined as follows:

6.00 Welcome, networking – wants and offers board / speed networking

6.30 Intros – a local businessperson followed by TTB

6.45 Plugging the Leaks

7.30 Small groups or plenary: What we can do to help the local economy be more resilient into the future

9.00 (or earlier if appropriate) Close

Duncan, Mamading and Josh will finalise this. Some thought needs to be given to the wants and offers board – should it be categorised more specifically e.g. waste / excess capacity / underused assets / resources / problems / goals / needs etc.

Possible names mentioned to introduce the evening included:

  • Leon – Honest Foods / Mango Landin
  • Someone from Corporate Regen
  • Stuart Horton
  • Dil Green
  • Solitaire Townsend – Futerra [Jody has also since suggested Ed Gillespie]
  • Mitchell – Mo-Shon
  • Stuart Hopton-Jones – Dex
  • Someone from Morley’s

Each phase of the evening will be punctuated by local economics success stories (told by members of this group) from different places – highlighting both business and social benefits of localised economics. Duncan to email ideas for these. Some “stories” could also be printed / written out as posters on wall, or we could take inspiring quotes from Transition Town Handbook / Primer / Sustainable Communities Act etc (also good during the day event) – Duncan and Hannah to collaborate on this.

Refreshments for the evening need to be booked from Town Hall caterers.

ACTION POINTS

Sue

  • Continue trying Lambeth First?

Jody

  • Outreach to media and creative sector, local press, LCC, Josef Davies-Coates – United Diversity
  • Map and paper currency for lunch

Mamading

  • Blog on Urban75
  • Confirm local food workshop facilitator (liaise with Duncan)
  • Finalise evening event programme and speaker from business community (with Duncan, Josh)

Robert

  • Outreach: education, flyering?

Duncan

  • Mailout to business networks through Corporate Regen
  • Ask Steve Reed / Lib Peck to introduce day
  • Confirm local food workshop facilitator (liaise with Mamading)
  • Lessons from Totnes workshop? Confirm with Nigel Topping
  • Book Town Hall catering for evening event
  • Finalise evening event programme and speaker from business community (with Mamading, Josh)
  • Quotes for wall (with Hannah)

Hannah

  • Recruit food outlets for lunch (with John)
  • Quotes for wall (with Duncan)

Josh

  • Outreach: public sector, Social Enterprise London, Lambeth Credit Union, Lambeth Building Society, flyering
  • Liaise with Becky and Molly re local currency / carbon currency workshop/s
  • Finalise evening event programme and speaker from business community (with Mamading, Duncan)

John

  • Recruit food outlets for lunch (with Hannah)

NEXT MEETING

Tuesday 17 June, 6.30pm, The Melanin Partnership at Piano House, 9 Brighton Terrace.

Have a look at (and edit / add to) the Agenda: http://transitiontowns.org/Brixton/EconomyAndBusinessMeeting20080617