Epic Birmingham
Believing in Birmingham — belief in our own capacity is key to innovation and change.
I woke up this morning to read Mark Roger’s article calling for us to stop poring over Birmingham’s failings. Quite frankly, I couldn’t agree more.
We talk widely about innovation as the key to growth and survival. We are all feeling the effects of seismic shifts in every aspect of our lives. Quite fundamentally however belief in your own capacity is key to innovation and change. We must confidently emerge as a city for the 21st century, a vibrant and dynamic home for the youngest population in Europe, and a beacon for groundbreaking social change. We know we need to make huge fast advances in our city in this generation to tackle the crisis for the many and to build a home to be proud of, in every way.
It’s not a case of ignoring the findings or governance challenges we face. It isn’t also about doing things a better — instead a fundamental reinvention of broken systems. Being in the unique position as the youngest city in the UK, perhaps we need to rethink what this means for us and embrace new models of growth? Many of these challenges may well be at the heart of where we real innovation lies. If however, we allow the enquiries that do not provide bold new solutions — to dominate our narrative, the media, and the minds of this young city — we have no real chance to transform and realise its potential. Our institutions need to be platforms to allow a new transformative innovative economy to grow and flourish leading us into the future.
I think we also risk never really recognising a generation that of people making a new Birmingham. Hey, media? Flood your pages with the stories of these pioneers, they really care, they are passionate, and they are building a better Birmingham. One that makes us all wildly exciting that we live here. You don’t have to go very far to start picking out loud, proud and vibrant pioneers here. Just a few that came to mind over lunch today. Just a few of the many citizens, creative, proud and embracing experimentation. Not claiming to be the best straight away but committed to rapid, continuous improvements and a deep commitment to the people / future of Birmingham. Is this — the heart of a better Birmingham and example of the confidence and creativity we need to unlock in the many?
City of Colours
With over a year of preparation and commitment — Karl Jekyll Paragreen, Becci Wright and an army of volunteers set the alight with colour, excitement and unity. I hope this isn’t the last we see of the City of Colours, I know it certainly wont be the last we see of passionate people creating the city they want to be a part of. I hope we shine a light on the incredible commitment of people who put these things together and more importantly perhaps help to fund and grow them sustainably for the future — @StreetArtBrum
BeatFreeks
You just have to step into Urban Coffee Coffee during a monthly Poetry Jam session to see what these amazing guys host to understand what Birmingham is all about. 100’s of young people from all over the city pack in, they sit on the floor, on each other, on the stairs and pretty much any tiny space they can find to be a part of it. They want to hear each others voices and they want to be heard. I’ll never forget a line I heard a few months back from a young male poet ‘I am a child of this city, if you don’t nuture me as your child, how do you expect me to love you back’. Ive never seen a group of people do such genuine work that is impacting young lives every second of the day. This is Birmingham — @BeatFreeks.
Digbeth Dining Club
Over the last few years, DDC has grown from a one off a event to being part of the heart of Birmingham’s street food revival. I’ve often heard Jack the founder quoted saying ‘Fast food doesn’t need to mean cheap food’ but beyond that people are coming together to enjoy their usual Friday nights but this now means that they are able to spend their money supporting young new businesses transforming the food industry and the city. Brummies are able to directly invest back into their city, their peers, and businesses through models like DDC. Its also a bundle of fun — @DigbethDiner.
TEDxBrum
4 years, more than 50,000 hits on their talks, 500 attendees, over 2,500 live stream views, and preparing for their 3rd event. Over 50 Birmingham citizens have grown this from scratch, with no funding and all as volunteers. Every year the commitment to the city, its ideas and its future becomes more vocal. A crucial platform to surface ideas, build confidence and fuel collaboration? — @TEDxBrum.
Historically, Birmingham’s creativity has been mainly focused and highlighted in certain areas of the city. However, over the last few years we have seen a more vocal explosion all over the place, far to many to name individually but there is a wide spectrum of examples of pioneering entrepreneurs, creatives, artists, doers & dreamers building a differently reality. They aren't tucked away in corners of the city, but creating new possibilities for a new generation. There is a critical mass, a real drive for change. There are thousands of people making this place amazing, many are doing it completely bootstrapped at the edges, some are boldly investing and building for all to see in the centre. They are crucial, they must work together.
Since being back in Birmingham I have been blown away by the number of people creating this new way to live, play, create and exist here in Birmingham. Whether it be the independent coffee shop culture which is providing a new type of office for people and creating opportunities and convening spaces for informal groups to organise in ways that was not previously possible for them. I know much of what we have done with TEDxBrum, Impact Hub Birmingham and much more simply would have not been possible without the regular, free, flexible spaces offered by Urban Coffee Company, Yorks Bakery Cafe, Brewsmiths, Alfie Birds & many more. I know so many other informal young groups building incredible things boldly emerging in these new spaces that allow them to create in ways that was previously tucked away in warehouses or instead only accessible for the privileged few — wildly popular #PoetryJam stands out as an example of the convenors who are uncovering the true voice of the young in the city.
As a city we produce passionate, bold, creative and talented people — I know of so many, I wonder what it will take to keep many of them here and what will happen when they collaborate. From producers such as Amy Martin & Alex McCorkindale, creative visionaries like Mohammed Ali, Jodi Ann Bickley, Steve Camden (Polar Bear), Alison Sadler, Ines Elsa Dalal, and Amerah Saleh to innovators changing the way our world works like Dominic Campbell, Zubeida Limbada, William Lilley, Matthew Green, Jeremy Walker, Matt Nation & Simon Jenner. The writers documenting the city in ways the traditional media struggle to capture and cover including Created in Birmingham, Birmingham Updates, IChooseBirmingham, Polaroids and Polarbears, We are Eastside, Digbeth is Good and much more. A tide of creative photographers capture the city everyday and are flooding our timelines with the beauty we are surrounded with. I will never forget the first time I met Verity Milligan, she said ‘I had moved here and wasn’t finding my place so I hit the streets with my camera and fell in love with the city, now I want to share that’. This isn’t a small movement in the basement of a cellar, this city is brimming with world class talent, incredible passion and an appetite for change. They are Birmingham.
Steve Denning describes:
The confusing reality of the moment, however, is that there are (at least) two different systems, operating simultaneously, at different speeds and on different trajectories.
One — the Traditional Economy — is the economy that we inherited from the 20th Century. It’s a world of command and control, focused on making money through economies of scale and comprising big hierarchical bureaucracies that push out products and services and get customers to buy them with sales campaigns and advertising. This is still the larger of the two economies. It’s been in steady decline for a number of decades. It doesn’t generate net new jobs. It’s not very agile. It’s becoming steadily more efficient. But it’s not good at innovation. It’s less and less able to capture the gains of its efficiencies. It’s still a big part of what’s going on in the world. But it doesn’t have much of a future.
The other economy — the Creative Economy — is an economy of continuous innovation and transformation. This is the economy of firms and entrepreneurs that are delivering to customers what they are coming to expect, namely, “better, faster, cheaper, smaller, lighter, more convenient, and more personalized.” The Creative Economy is still relatively small but it is growing rapidly and, when implemented well, is highly profitable. It is the economy of the future. It doesn’t have to be invented: it’s already under way. Its practices represent a paradigm shift in the strict sense laid down by Thomas Kuhn: it’s a different way of thinking, speaking, and acting in the world.
The shift from the Traditional Economy to the Creative Economy isn’t just a technical wrangle about economics or management theory. It’s a shift in what society demands of the managers of its most powerful institutions: from narrow definitions of their owners and decisions that serve their short-term interests, to broad acceptance of the responsibility that comes with power and leadership concerned with what is best for society. In the shift, we are learning that an argument about the proper activities of managers can be logical, can be strongly argued, can influence decades of practice in the world’s largest corporations – and can still be plain, flat, dead wrong.
We are all responsible for shouting loudly and proudly about our missions, our hopes, our struggles, what we are doing, how we are doing it, where we need support and what is great about Birmingham. We can’t leave it to those who will just tell our story for us, as we can probably tell they haven’t really been doing a grand job of it so far.
Birmingham must as Mark said stop poring over its own failings, it must unlock the belief of the many in the city, and it must learn to nurture and elevate its own incredible citizens. We need to lift the mood music in the city, because amazing things are happening, have been happening and are just around the corner. There is a generation who aren’t poring, lets start with them?
We can’t even contemplate tackling the massive issues we are obviously facing unless we shine light on our assets — the people of this amazing place. We all need to take responsibility for shouting a little bit louder for what we believe in, and the unstoppable belief we have in this place. It’s really what has inspired building Impact Hub Birmingham, creating a platform where this creativity and purpose can thrive. I have been consistenly inspired by the story of Impact Hub Oakland who are not only providing spaces for creativity to flourish, convene and collaborate. They are also emerging as a strong bold platform driving local system change, accelerating civic justic through a combination of social renewal start ups and changemakers commited to Oakland. They recognise change is driven by an integrated collaborative environment focusing on cultural, social and environmental innovation.
How else can we unlock the confidence of the city? When we transcend the fears that block the creativity of the many, provide platforms that help to drive a collaborative local system change, I think all sorts of new possibilities will emerge.
For every person mentioned, there are a 100 that aren’t mentioned, lets share & build a Birmingham that isnt clouded by poring over its failings, but instead boldly reinvents & celebrates itself — using recent events as a catalyst to reinvent our systems. Thanks for the inspiration and bold leadership Mark Rogers!
