THE UNUSUAL SUSPECTS FESTIVAL: London 2017

Unlikely connectionsfor social change

14-16 June, 2017

The Unusual Suspects Festival is a unique set of collaborative events, hosted by different organisations from a variety of sectors, across different venues in a city. It brings together people who would not usually meet, despite sharing an enthusiasm for creating real social change through collaboration. The design of the Unusual Suspects Festival facilitates serendipity between organisations and people, who would otherwise remain unconnected. It not only inspires, but also catalyses breakthrough thinking and action.

The origin of the Unusual Suspects Festival

We are in a climate of continuous crisis in our political and economic system. Although there is a consensus on the need to innovate and collaborate- many still don’t where to start or how to make the right connections. The Festival model facilitates collaboration between these people, many of whom are already doing social innovationbut don’t identify as ‘innovators’, together witha community of social innovators, practitioners and experts. Each community is able to gain insight from each other, whether it’s the latest methods and tools for innovation, or examples of best practice that helps them increase their capacity to make lasting social change.

The Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, UK Branch, first supported and collaborated withSIX (the Social Innovation Exchange) and Collaborate, to curate the first Unusual Suspects Festival in London, during which 25 organisations hosted 28 events, and more than attendance of 1000 people.

Following this success, we brought the Festival to Glasgow in October 2015 with the support of Nesta, Big Lottery Fund Scotland and the Joseph Rowntree Foundation. Another 35 organisations hosted 20 unique events over 3 days and more than 600 people attended.

Last year, we took the festival to two cities in Northern Ireland, where over 40 local and international organisations participated in 19 events during three days.

What makes this Unusual Suspect Festival model different?

  • Collaborative in approach as well as content –The events that make up the festival are co-hosted by unlikely partnerships of organisations that we introduce to each other, which means that every session at the festival is unique in style and content.
  • Connecting Unusual suspects – The Festival links groups who don’t usually connect with each other – from service designers to voluntary organisations, businesses to local planners, and actors to academics. By collaborating with different partners, the Festival creates a unique space to share learning and hear from those who have low visibility in the mainstream. It acts as a space in which people can realize that they are innovators, who can also learn from and inspire others.
  • A distributed model – Each event is hosted indifferent venues across the city. The host organisations invite their own participants, so a large number of people are invited to events they would not usually know about, and they get to know different kinds of people and different parts of the city. This means there are a great variety of experiences for participants - from workshops, to seminars, to walks in several different locations.
  • Case studies - By focusing on real stories and case studies (both locally and globally) that demonstrate the mechanics and processes of making change work through social innovation and collaboration, the Festival provides direct exposure, and an opportunity for collaboration, between different sets of issues and actors.
  • Breaking down barriers – by not using the language of social innovation, we are able to bring in and open doors for many different types of organisations who are working to improve society in interesting and effective ways, but who don’t identify with the language of social innovation.

The impact of the event – developing a legacy in each city

Whilst the experience of attending an event is important, we believe it is also essential to design experiences where the impact increases once the event is over. The festival must develop a legacy in each city. The impact of the Unusual Suspects model can be seen:

  • In numbers: During the previous 3 festivals, more than 1900 people have attended over 70 small events run by more than 110 organisations working in partnership. Over the previous 3 Festivals in London, Glasgow and Northern Ireland, participants have come from more than 30 different countries and across the public, private, and third sectors.
  • In experiences: We keep in touch with the organisations that hosted events to see how being a part of the festival impacted how they work. For example, told us:
  • “It’s not often that you get to think about the time to think about the big issues, the big questions. It feels like there's been some space and time made for the unusual suspects to come together and share”. - Liz Morton, Battersea Arts Centre, London 2014
  • “I go to lots of events, but this was the only one where I’ve met up with new connections afterwards and we are going to be doing a piece of work together with two local communities in Glasgow around issues of health inequalities” - Hilda Campbell, COPE Scotland, Glasgow 2015
  • In connections and new collaborations: We track how the unusual connections made during the Festival develop into something bigger in the months after the event. For example:
  • Social Innovation Generation (SiG), Canada, collaborated with Festival participants and other hosts including Oxfam to continue the conversation both online and offline to explore the field of ecosystems for systems change (London 2014)
  • Hivos, the Dutch development agency, used the Festival to further explore how to innovate the international development sector, now a main pillar of the way they work around the world (London 2014)
  • The Social Innovation League was formally launched during the Glasgow Festival- hosting informal meet-ups for like-minded individuals who want to connect and learn from other sectors (Glasgow 2015)
  • After meeting at the Glasgow Festival, the Melting Pot was contracted to lead the year longscoping process for Social Innovation Northern Ireland by Building Change Trust. (Glasgow, 2015)
  • In learning: We harnessed the cumulative knowledge developed throughout the Festival, by documenting the best examples of collaboration, how organisations are overcoming challenges; and key themes, lessons and recommendations for our leaders and communities. We are also exploring what more can be done to enable citizens to play a greater role in changing the systems in which they live through collaboration. This is documented by videos, reports and blogs which can be found on the festival website.
  • In legacy: Each festival has led to another. Despite only planning to host one festival, participants at each have requested a festival in their own cities. Following Building Change Trust attending the Glasgow festival in 2015, they hosted the first ever multi-city festival in October 2016 in Belfast and Derry, Londonderry. 80% of the organisations that hosted events in the London festival in 2015 have told us that it was so useful for their own work that they would like to host a session again this year.

How to get involved

We are seeking to collaborate with a range of organisations that can provide a different perspective and who are prepared to work in a collaborative way to be part of both this event and future work.

Sponsor:

-Core sponsor £10,000+ – Your contribution will enable The Unusual Suspects Festival in London and its outputs. You will be acknowledged on the website and on our marketing materials.

-Supper Club Sponsor £5,000 - £10,000 – Your contribution will make it possible to bring together all the partners and participants together for a shared meal and drinks on the last day. You will be acknowledged on the website and on our marketing materials.

-International Speaker/ParticipantSponsor £1,500 - £5,000 per participant(includes ticket fee, travel and accommodation) - Your contribution will sponsor specific delegates (including speakers for opening and closing, and people from other parts of the UK/world whose travel costs are prohibitive). You will be acknowledged on the website and on our marketing materials.

Venue Partner: You can contribute as a venue partner by providing space / room for the Festival. We are planning to have a focal area for each day of the festival, for example, King’s Cross area and East London.

Session Partner:You can contribute as our content partner by hosting an interactive session. The session can be a workshop, walkshop, a film screen, discussion, open space, etc. Feel free to be creative and fun!