Last Friday I attended Cultutal Conversations: Tales of our cities at the Round Foundry, Leeds. The event was the latest in a series organised by The Culture Vulture. During the event different conversation topics are proposed and you take yourself along to which ever one takes your fancy.
The subjects range from 'Blogging without fear' to 'What to do about the council' and the forumla works very well. I often found myself wanting to attend more then one of the conversations which is a great sign. The conversations I attended were 'What to do about the council', 'Better to ask for forgiveness then permission' and a subject which I proposed: 'Retaining Leeds talent'. In each group there are people of different levels of experience, different motives, varied interests and this difference in people often creates a lively dynamic and sometimes heated exchange of views.
One thing I found myself saying over and over in all three conversations was "Just do it". I really believe that if people are passionate about a project or idea they will find a way to at least get it off the ground and after that anything can happen. There seems to be a lot of people in the city who are feeling the same way. Projects, some at idea stage, some at 'about to go mainstream' are happening all over Leeds. I hear a lot of talk about 'lets take action' and 'so what will be the result' etc and I think people who think of things purely in that way are missing a lot of the magic happening at the moment. There is a big shift taking place right now: people are talking, collaborating, making things happen and this is happening regardless of the support of government or funding bodies.
The conversations taking place at the moment are building relationships, trust and creating spaces to share knowledge and skills. What I also like about these events is what they allow you to learn in a negative yet still constructive way also. There are people or projects that you will not immediately love or agree with, but this is all part of the process of people connecting. Like-minded people will connect and work together and the 'results' are already there to be seen.
After the afternoons events and conversations we moved onto the 'secret social' where we enjoyed drinks, music and delicious food thanks to Fish&. All in all it was an excellent day and evening, a big "thank you" goes to Emma, Phil, Mike and everyone else who helped to make the event a success.