Join the Do Lectures

The Do Lectures are around 6 weeks away. The speakers are preparing their talks, and ticket holders readying for inspiration. We're offering a crowd-sourcing membership of the Do Lectures this year to raise money for the talks and help reach 1 million people next year. Here's why in words penned by Do founder and co-pilot David Hieatt

Why The Do Lectures matter?

And why becoming a member matters too?

We live in interesting times.

And we live in important times.

Most of the important business models have yet to be written.

Most of the ‘why didn’t I think of that’ answers for climate change have yet to be dreamt of.

Most of the important scientific or technological breakthroughs are just doodles on a notepad.

As well as interesting times, these are exciting times.

Necessity will make a good taskmaster. Crisis will make a good editor. Having finite resources will make us infinitely more creative with how we use them going forward.

Yup, interesting times.

And if consumers will have to change how they consume, and if business will have to change how they do business, then so will Government have to change how they govern.

Our system of having a four-year government for 100-year problems means tough decisions are rarely made. A manifesto designed to win votes isn’t the same as a manifesto designed to do what needs to be done for the safety of future generations.

And how we have treated this planet in the past will have to be different to how we treat it in the future. A tree helps produce oxygen, rain and sucks in carbon dioxide. Yet we only put a value to it once we cut it down. At the very same time as when it stops producing rain, when it stops producing oxygen and stops sucking in carbon dioxide.

Indeed these are interesting times.

We have to fill in a 3-page form to start an account with Fed Ex. Yet a badly run bank has to only fill in a 2-page form to get billions from the Government to shore up their bank.

Interesting times, indeed.

But rather than being a time to be down or despondent, this is the time for great change. And yes, there is much that needs changing. There is much to do.

But reassuringly the human mind is more creative than any computer will ever be. The answers will come from the brightest, stubborn-nest, and oddest of people.

And the thing that brings this oddball bunch together is that they are all stubborn dreamers. Brilliant enough to have the idea. Stubborn enough to make it happen.

Buckminster Fuller described the importance of vision best when he said, “ There is nothing in a caterpillar that tells you it’s going to be a butterfly”. But as well as the vision, you need that grit determination to make your idea live.

That is what The Do Lectures is here to Do. It is a platform for the Doers of the world to tell us their stories. So they can inspire the rest of us to go do something amazing too. In simple farming terms, it is just manure for the field. It is here to help grow ideas.

The Do Lectures is not a business, but it has to pay its way in the world. Appropriately a set of talks with sustainability at its heart needs to be, well, yes, sustainable.

To that end, we sell tickets for the event so the rest of the world can see them the talks for free. Our aim this year is for a million people to see the talks. To me, that is a lot of ‘mind manure’ being spread around the world.

So does the Do Lectures matter? I believe they do. And maybe they matter more in these interesting times than any other time.

I believe that ‘mind manure’ sure needs spreading around.

So my last question today is would you become a member of The Do Lectures?

Memberships costs £50. You will receive 4 newsletters a year. Have the inside track on choosing speakers and be able to make suggestions too. Have first refusal on future tickets. Receive a Do Lectures 2009 T-shirt that has a chance of coming with a golden ticket to this years Do lectures.

But the biggest thing of all is just to feel part of it. To feel like you are doing something to make this happen. To become a doer too.

So if this is crowd funding in its truest form, we need the crowd to put their hands up and say ‘I’m in.’ ‘I think The Do Lectures matter. Here’s my £50.’

A simple email to Claire@thedolectures.co.uk will be enough to start this off

NZ Government CO2 mobilisation

The NZ Govt, working with the folk at 350.org have produced this video to encourage people there to get on board with the debate on how to reduce emissions by 40% by 2020. Good to see creativity used simply and effectively to create a strong message, and one that we need to repeat in Wales

Not too late

Over the bleached bones and jumbled residue of numerous civilizations are written the pathetic words: ‘Too late.’ -Martin Luther King

With around 1000 days to get the plans in place that usher our businesses and communities into a long, steady process of carbon descent and the transformation towards sustainable business, let's not forget Mr King's observations. Focus instead on the spirit of Doversity: The art of making good things happen quickly.

Authority for change

Spent an interesting day in Cardiff - my second this week in the capital of one of the world's fastest moving countries on climate change. Day one was great, catching up with Steve Garrett from Cardiff's Riverside Market, Helen Northmore from Energy Saving Trust Wales and the folks at Cynnal Cymru before a reception to say farewell to the delightful Adrian Piper on his retirement as the Bank of England's Agent for Wales.

Day two, today, was even better - six hours of action planning with around 50 leaders from Local Authorities in Wales; speaking with Arup's Peter Head, top politico Jane Davidson and Tim Peppin from the Welsh Local Govt Association before moving into an afternoon that saw excellent distillation of ideas into action, facilitated by colleague Steve Bather. Now is the time to turn 'smart' goals into 'Do' verbs and make change happen - and if we can make this happen on the scale talked about this afternoon, a seismic shift would be possible. Steve, the WAG team and I will make the declarations public so that we can all play a role in giving our politicians the space to lead.

Key targets:

1. Replace oil our economy by 2050
2. Reduce CO2 emissions by 40% by 2020
3. Get into 'carbon descent' within the next 1000 days.

The answer (for now) is 42

The Guardian reported a couple of days ago about some very important developments north of the border, where Scotland have committed to a 42% reduction in CO2 emissions by 2020. That's the biggest commitment in the world, to date.

We need to urgently start looking at what these numbers mean for public sector organisations, community and business. On July 10th, I'll be asking representatives from 22 local authorities to do just that, and get the first analysis complete by the end of the year