One City. 10 Projects . 1 Gig. Repeat.
A refreshing way to do Good in your Hood.
If you’re familiar with Good For Nothing you’ll have seen our global chapters run all manner of events including 24hr Gigs, the 48hr Gig, The Social, The Gig in a Pub… all these previous events are great stuff we’ve been experimenting with them over the years. And they really work. People love to gift their creative talents. Co- Founder Dan Burgess’s post on Nothing Works tells us that.
And now we want to really engage the masses. So, we are experimenting with a new format with the aim of making it easier for all chapters to run their Gigs, easier for local communities to Get Involved and easier for innovative projects making social or environmental change to get the support they need.
How does it work?
Two evenings across two months, you’ll need a room in a cafe, pub, in an agency or studio or community space. Whatever you can find. (People are very happy to gift spaces for Good for Nothing to happen ) You’ll need a willingess to run a creative experiment and to get the word out there. And the Good for Nothing Mothership will support you.
here’s the steps…
Step 1. Call out for local projects and innovators to come and pitch
Who can apply?
- Projects are “Up and Running” (i.e. needs to be a project that is live, not just an idea)
- The People running the project are “Up for the Party” (i.e happy for their project to be interrogated by the community)
- The Project is built on a Disruptive Idea (they have an unusual or creative solution to tackle an issue in their community)
- The Project is about making a positive social or environmental change and impact
- And they need help from Good For Nothing to have more impact.
Step 2. Up to Ten Projects to tell their story
A public Gig is arranged called Pitch Night. Over the course of two hours the projects will have a 3 minute slot on the Open Mic to tell the room what they do, who it’s for, why it’s important and what their challenges are.
Step 3. Good For Nothingers do Good in their Hood.
Designers, marketeers, strategists, coders, finance folks, videographers, artists, comms experts, cooks, dancers, magicians and other talented folk from around the city who have gathered to hear the pitches, lightly sprinkle their gifts to the ten projects including ideas, suggestions, introductions and maybe offer their skills to the projects. They also get one Gold Star to vote for their favourite project to go through to a gig next month
Step 4. The Gig Night is set for the winning project
The Gig is a 3 hour Good For Nothing event where the Good For Nothing members dive in deeper to gift their creative talent to a single Project to help them make real, tangible positive social and/or environmental change in their city. Voted by the city, for the city.
Step 5. Reflect, Rest and Repeat.
The goal is to have each chapter run this cycle 2–3 times a year.
*The Chapters Nestled in the Boston Tea Party Cafe’s will actually have one additional stage which is shortlisting the ten projects to three, which are featured in the cafe and online for a month before the winning project is selected.
Sound good? Get in touch, we need ambassadors who are up for going on a learning journey with us. Like everything we do, it’s an experiment. We’re prototyping it with the four new chapters in Bristol, Bath, Exeter and Birmingham and their pitch nights are this September and October.
Comments and feedback — please post below or email hello@goodfornothing.com
