« 2012 Imperative Teach-In (Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 2009) | Main | DOORS OF PERCEPTION PORTFOLIO »

June 30, 2009

Four Days Halifax (week of sustainability events, Halifax Nova Scotia, 2009)

halifaxNS+dog.jpg

Doors of Perception helped to organize Four Days Halifax - a time-compressed mini-festival whose aim was to help the city get its hands muddy in a green economy

Our starting point in Four Days was that many elements of a resilient Halifax already exist in embryonic form - but not all of them are visible in their own backyard. The most important preparation work was to identify these local assets: people, mainly, but also projects and places.

Peter Wuensch and Rachel Derrah from Breakhouse, a Halifax a design firm that's headed strongly into social innovation, and Joanne Macrae and Sera Thompson from The Hub Halifax, duly rounded up some inspiring people and projects.

halifax_poster2.png

We told Peter and Rachel to think of Doors of Perception as a "Hubble Telescope turned backwards" - the idea being that it often takes an outsider to help grassroots people and groups, who are the acorns of a sustainable future, become better known or visible in their own backyard.

Our next step, and the value-creating element of the week, was to figure out what practical steps might help these projects improve and multiply.

First off, we kick-started five "social innovation charrette" teams from Nova Scotia College of Art + Design (NSCAD).

Next, we did a Dragon's Lair event in which social enterprise start-ups pitched their case for investment to local entrepreneurs; the pitchers included a car-share start-up, and a chef with a roof-top herb garden.

The next evening, a local team staged a mini TEDx conference.

This was followed by a Four Days workshop for politicians, officials and business people.

Friday night there was?a Pecha Kucha in which, inter alia, the design student teams reported back.

The final event was a street party where we exchanged stories about who we'd met and what steps needed to be taken next.

halifax.4Days-kneeling-in-street.jpg

Posted by Kristi at June 30, 2009 09:13 AM

Comments

Post a comment




Remember Me?

(you may use HTML tags for style)