Do: without TV

Last weekend's Do Lectures were the most amazing weekend of my life; four days spent with some of the brightest, most caring Doers that you could ever hope to meet. Do colleague Leonora Oppenheim is blogging summaries of the talks on Treehugger. Here's a taster:

"Turn off your TV", "Get Rid of your TV", "I haven't owned a TV in years!" This refrain was heard throughout The Do Lectures this year, putting a damper on our nights slobbing out in front of the box. Right out of the starting gate came graphic designer Geoff McFetridge with the statement "Never watch TV it's just not good for you!" "But", came the response, "What about good TV?" And then, almost in unison, everyone said "But what about The Wire?" Nope, it seems that if you are a Doer TV just doesn't cut it, not even The Wire. So folks what shall we do instead?

The Big Do + The Small Do
Each speaker throughout The Do Lectures was asked at the end of their talk for a 'Big Do' and a 'Small Do'. Geoff Mcfetridge's Big Do was really a don't - don't have a TV. His Small Do suggested what we can do instead - draw for half an hour a day. Even if you are not an artist just set a stopwatch for 30 mins and doodle, see how it calms you down and clears your mind.

We'll be posting talks in the coming weeks, and aiming to enable over 1 million people to do a little more in the next 12 months. Email me if you want to get involved as a volunteer, speaker or participant

Biomimicry in design

Greengaged at the Design Council brings together designers, thinkers, doers and makers for a week of talks and interactive events. I'll be speaking there with colleagues Michael Pawlyn from Exploration Architecture, Julian Vincent, Melissa Sterry and others for a day on 'Biomimicry in Design'. Email the link at the start of the article to register for this free event.

In November, Melissa, Johnn Grant and I will be speaking at Salford University on biomimicry and eco-logical design for business and social change.

Next week, at the Do Lectures, Michael Pawlyn will be joined by Tim Birkhead (the Wisdom of Birds) and 20 other top speakers for four days of theb best talks anywhere. Half a dozen tickets are left...

Future food considerations

This report has just been released by a working group in the Welsh Government, and lays out comments and expectations that frame the anticipated direction of food production in Wales in the coming 10-20 years.

Much of the focus is on branding products and business, rather than addressing the deeper core issues that lie at the heart of our unsustainable production and consumption of food. Levels of food waste thoughout the supply chain for instance, caused by a combination of supermarket purchasing practices and consumers throwing away 1/3 obuy, do not appear to be covered by the report. Whilst energy prices are factored into discussions, the absolute role of oil and gas in producing the fertilisers we need to grow our crops is not. Similarly, soil erosion doesn't get a significant mention.

One of the most important next steps is to help communities grasp the opportunities and benefits that they can derive from more localised food production - impacts of an order of magnitude more important than branding local products. The role of geographic communties is key to the future of food security as much as it is for climate and sustainaibility response; action, as always, will result from individual involvement.

Buckminster Fuller

"Make the world work, for 100% of humanity, in the shortest possible time, though spontaneous cooperation, without ecological offence or the disadvantage of anyone"

Fuller was a man who understood science, ecology and humanity at a time before climate change and sustainability were talked of everyday. It's important to look backwards for wisdom as well as trying to invent our new future. Whether through the lens of biomimicry or history, the answers we need are already out there if we are prepared to look.

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