“It’s not the destination, it’s the journey…”
The Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games kicks off later this month on the 28th of July, and this phrase captures how we’re feeling about the impact of the Innovation and Digital Accelerator, that CAST is leading.
The Innovation and Digital Accelerator represents a new and different way of working, both for us as a funder, and for the National Governing Bodies (NGBs) we are working with to help build and share innovation and digital skills to reach underserved audiences during and after the games.
This is going to take a shift in mindset and approach — but we’re really excited about it, and we hope you will be too. By working in an open way we hope that we can share as much of what we learn, as we are learning it.
Credit: We Are Open Cooperative
Some funding programmes focus on ‘end point’ solutions, which has its place, in this instance we want to shift attention to the path we are taking so that as a sector we can grow in our approach and confidence to use digital to its full potential. The endpoint of the Innovation and Digital Accelerator doesn’t necessarily need to be a big, shiny ‘solution’, but a better understanding of how to engage audiences, as well as building re-useable in-house innovation and digital skills, so that we can achieve the ambition of Uniting the Movement and create a positive legacy from the games.
During other major events, we have seen the benefits of thinking more long-term and grassroots focused around legacy, like the Places to Ride programme, and this resonates with the point that Sport England Partnership’s Director Phil Smith makes in his article on Olympic inspiration being short-lived and the key being affordable local opportunities.
We’re sure we can discover better ways to reach underserved audiences, and it’s exciting to think about the useful products and services that will be developed — but we’re interested in the steps taken to get there as the digital products themselves come and go. We want to travel the journey with the NGBs; we want to hear how things are going at each stage: what’s going well, what’s not — and what they’re learning along the way.
Because that’s how we can learn from each other. If we’re all working in isolation developing perfectly polished solutions, there’s no opportunity for insights into others’ experiences — both the ‘how not to do it’ lows and the ‘breakthrough moment’ highs. We want all involved — to share these with us and with each other so that we can all contribute to — and learn from — the collective pot.
But we don’t expect anyone to do this alone. We have already established ‘open working’ sessions to help get into the mindset of sharing work in its early stages. For a taster of why this is so valuable — and how to start thinking about doing it — take a look at content strategist Christine Cawthorne’s article on the benefits of open working.
We’re looking forward to seeing how a more agile approach — that is, focused on the process of discovery rather than the delivery of a predetermined solution — will work: CAST is a firm advocate of agile models (take a look at their blog on flexible funding to see why), so we’ll be learning from them, and from each other as we go!
We hope you’re as excited about this approach as we are. As ever, do please get in touch with any questions or suggestions. And here’s to the first step on a journey of discovery!
ICYMI Previous Innovation and Digital Accelerator blogs are already up, and can be found here:
· Design Hop — overview of digital service design and starting a digital discovery,
· Personas & User Journey Mapping — understanding target audiences, insight to develop personas, and user journey maps,
· Open Working — process for writing openly about your work.
There are also some great Sport England funded digital resources that can be found here:
· Digital Marketing Hub: Resources to develop digital marketing skills.
· OpenActive initiative: Resources to help publish open data on when, where and what sport activities are taking place.
