November Update

November has been a packed month mostly about face-to-face connections with peer networks and little by little with the local and jobless communities.

The First Micro-Lab took place on November 19th.

The Highlights

• Re-connected with a group of 'Lab-Pioneers' across Europe; Maarten Roels, Simone Poutnik and Philippe Vandenbroeck amongst others. Very inspiring work churning in this network!
• Mette, Mamading and Sofia attended a great “Laboratories for Social Change” Seminar by Reos’s Zaid Hassan. This was a very generous investment (in kind) in LCL by Zaid; a friend and peer since Sofia’s “Pioneers of Change” days. Thank you Zaid!
• Sofia facilitated a collaboration session at the exciting Media Ecologies Workshop. Her experiment worked! This p2p network is key to LCL for sharing and developing cutting-edge knowledge and practice on collaborating in a very open and participatory way.
• After office space deliberations, we have a perfect solution! We are now sharing a small part of 2 of the units in Brixton Village Market that are inhabited by our friends “Remade in Brixton” and "Transition Town Brixton" following the smart Spacemakers Agency 3-month rent-free brokerage.
• London Creative Labs was thrilled to be one of 107 organisations invited to a Global Grameen event organised by Grameen Creative Lab in Autostadt, Wolfsburg, Germany.
• Social business pioneers shared challenges: How do you ask a population to begin to pay for something they have never paid for before? (Context: Grameen Violia producing non-arsenic water 80 times cheaper than normal bottled water but of course, not free.)
• It was inspiring to hear in simple terms why some investors invest purely for social good and not for financial benefit. As Muhammud Yunus put it “I do not give this sentiment [of selflessness] to them. They already have all of it! I allow them to connect with it.”
• Executed the first Micro Lab on Nov 19th.The workshop was held in Brixton St Vincents Community Centre. The two hours were a great experiment which generated a lot of new questions to think about. See the flyer above!
• We finally established that we are still in the design and prototype phase -- a very exciting and exploratory phase of an idea.  A full business plan is therefore not quite what we should be aiming for at this stage. Our road maps will take us to the Job Labs!
• After feedback about names, (too much use of 'job' and 'lab') “micro lab” is now  “watering hole”; where animals all gather to drink from the lake as it is a regular drop-in session. "Job Camp" is now "Skills Camp". What about our "Core Job Lab"? Ideas on a simpler name are welcome! Refer to the video if in doubt!
• The peer fund reached £8040. Very encouraging and have had a number of people asking how we did it. My advice is this: stay authentic and very real in your requests. Believe in yourself and people respond to that.

In December we are preparing for our first mini Skills Camp which will take place in Unit 5, Brixton Village Market, hosted by Remade in Brixton. I cannot wait! Thank you to all who keep showing up with support, ideas, energy, feedback, and belief in us.