funky facilitation

Social Media Marketing

2011-11-29T15:00:00.000Z

We just attended a half-day business booster mini-workshop, run by a friend, Terry Carney, on ‘Social Media Marketing’. The session was really informative around what’s out there, what works and what doesn’t, how to join up all your business related social media, to ensure it’s consistent, to the point, relevant and useful.

The session also high-lighted some really good do’s and don’ts, pitfalls and possibilities that can drive benefit and business to companies.

Terry, who ran the programme, also manages a Business Booster LinkedIn group which you can find at http://www.linkedin.com/groups/BUSINESS-BOOSTER-GROUP

Product Innovation Stimuli

2011-11-28T16:28:00.000Z

We recently facilitated a product innovation workshop for a corporate client looking to break out of existing product paradigms.

We put a lot of effort into making sure we had both related and un-related stimuli on hand to help people see things in different ways and explore new and fresh ideas. This included a large table of related products, some of the clients and many from competitors, several mood boards of ‘what the future might hold and look like’ and a really good, varied selection of magazines and periodicals, a few related to the clients field but most not!

We also showed a couple of thought provoking video clips from You Tube which incorporated lots of stats, numbers and provocative statements about the future, this gave us additional food for thought!

With all this stimuli we were really able to stretch and pull the clients existing paradigms around products and generated some really great ideas to work up into full product propositions.

Combining Virtual preparation with Multi-Cultural Facilitation

2011-11-18T15:57:00.000Z

We recently worked with a global corporate client to design and facilitate a 2 day global strategy workshop with 8 different multi-cultural regions, Russia, Ukraine, Europe, USA, South America, Asia, Africa and Australia.

Nearly all the pre-workshop contact, consultation, design and preparation was carried out remotely and virtually making good use of e-Mail, Word, PowerPoint and especially Skype! The workshop design went backwards and forwards several times and a ‘few’ Skype calls later we had our 2 days mapped out and the client was happy. Virtual working is definitely enabled and enhanced through the ability to see one another.

During the workshop, all geographic regions were represented; the challenges as we progressed through our agenda were not unexpected: language, communication styles (soft and hard, direct and subtle), misunderstanding meaning and perceived cultural hierarchy (in part influenced by the level of maturity of local markets) all had to be embraced.

To overcome these challenges some basic but critical techniques we employed were:

collectively building meaningful workshop guidelines and actively using them;

making sure we managed perceived and actual hierarchy in the room by making certain

everyone was included, listened to and heard and NOT interrupted;

giving opportunity for table discussion in native/first language;

speaking clearly and slowly and asked others to do the same;

asking others to help and support those who’s English was not as confident;

summarising and paraphrasing more regularly

seeking to use lots of praise and thankyou’s!

It was a really rewarding engagement. We’ve definitely seen an increase in the need for cross-cultural work in the last 4-5 years and we’ve found these basic ‘top tips’ help the group make good progress.

Farewell to Sarah

2011-09-30T15:55:00.000Z

Our recent public ‘Building Resilience’ event was also our last chance to work with our friend and colleague Sarah Willis before she moved on to pastures new. The event was a big success, with great feedback and was a fitting end to Sarah’s time at circleindigo.
One of Sarah’s central passions and themes in her life and work is about enabling and developing young people. So she is very happy to share the news that she is going to be the National Lead on a programme called Positive Futures for Catch 22 www.catch-22.org.uk a charity that enables young people to develop their confidence, skills and potential. She will carry her great experiences from circleindigo into her new role and will remain connected to the community of circleindigo clients and friends.
We wish Sarah every success in this new chapter of her working life, focussing on the area she has always had immense passion for.

Building Resilience Event

2011-09-30T10:15:00.000Z

Based on the research ‘Being Resilient’, carried out with the University of Westminster, Business Psychology Centre (BPC) Business Psychology MSc programme we recently ran a public ‘Building Resilience’ event called ‘Resilience - Push Pause: Time to Connect, Learn, Think & Adapt’ at our friends space, headrooms (www.headroomsip.com).

With 20 participants from cross-sector and cross-industry organisations we facilitated a half-day event which was an interactive and participative exploration through circleindigo’s 5 key characteristics of resilience model (based on the research above). For each characteristic we ran a practical exercise designed to reinforce learning and extend competence and to get each participant to interact both with the model and one another: building resilience one characteristic at a time.

We had an enjoyable afternoon with our participants in the headrooms space, learnt lots and made new friends and connections, as did others. For more information on our Building Resilience work e-Mail us at info@circleindigo.com.

More than just sheep!

2011-06-20T10:32:00.000Z

Ever open to exploring different ways unlocking new learning and insights we recently had the pleasure of facilitating an afternoon’s (2+ hours) team development activity with 1 corporate client, 2 groups of 12 people, 20 sheep, 2 shepherds and no sheep dogs!

We split the people into 2 groups and each had a shepherd and 10, one year old sheep that had never been herded before. The objective of the activity was for the 12 people to work as a team to herd 10 sheep in a (large!) field and get them in to a small pen, with little or no instruction form the shepherd! In the first sheep trial the groups were allowed to move the pen, and once this was ‘known’ the activity was pretty straight forward and successful, about 20-ish minutes to get all 10 sheep in to the pen. The second trial was a little more difficult, this time the pen had to be placed somewhere else in the field, this proved to be much more difficult and in fact after an hour and fifteen both groups had not achieved the task.

Now the shepherds came into their own, with a short instruction session, providing advice and answering questions, the groups were set a third trial, herd the sheep in to a pen, out in the field against the clock, 15 minutes! BUT following the instruction and advice the group Gary was working with at the time managed to get 8 out the 10 sheep in to the pen in 12 minutes, 2 sheep made a sly and last minute successful escape attempt, a massive achievement after trial 2!!!

And so to learning’s and application in the work place: someone has to be a shepherd, others have to be the ‘dog’: plan, communication, team work, belief in the task being achievable and commitment from all to the task at hand, and of course think outside the pen (box!).

It’s part of how we do things around here

2011-05-31T11:30:00.000Z

We’ve just come back from running an in-house Facilitation Skills training programme as part of a week of skills and competency building for 250 staff for an international client. Alongside our programme were Project Management, marketing and client-relationship training session offerings: demonstrating that awareness is growing in organisations of the need to develop facilitation skills as a core skill across many roles alongside other more established core competencies.

Building participation in multi-stakeholder working

2011-05-30T10:00:00.000Z

Recently we were asked to design and deliver a consultative workshop for a research organisation. The workshop was a multi stakeholder event and participants came from a broad range of backgrounds including health professionals, volunteers, service users, project managers and carers.
It was important to ensure the workshop was inclusive, accessible and engaging. It was also vital that the workshop process enabled everyone to feel they could contribute and that their opinions were heard and valued. We designed a workshop that began with an introductory activity that enabled ‘connection before content’ in order to create a safe space for the group to work in. Following on from this we used a number of methods throughout the day that covered different learning intelligence preferences including visual spatial, verbal linguistic and both intra and inter personal. This enabled greater levels of participation and engagement ensuring that everyone could contribute their ideas. For those of you who’ve trained with us you’ll be very familiar with this approach! For a useful resource to learn more about multiple intelligence theory visit http://www.multipleintelligencetheory.co.uk/

Gamestorming – by David Gray, Sunni Brown & James Macanufo

2011-04-08T10:47:00.000Z

We’ve recently read and appreciated Gamestorming): The cover states it’s ‘A playbook for innovators, rule-breakers & change makers’.
This is a good toolbox type book of structured group processes, tools and techniques for group work, collaboration, innovation and problem solving. It’s nicely laid out, easy to read, understand and apply when working with groups. There are well over 50 different tools listed in this book, with a good explanation of each and how to apply them. It has several well-known ones like brain-writing, cover story, fishbowl and dot voting and lots of others I had heard of but not used, I shall definitely give some of them a go though!

O’Reilly Media. ISBN 13 – 978 - 6596804176

Welcoming unexpected workshop participants

2011-03-28T09:15:00.001Z

Many of the people we train ask us about good ice-breakers and energisers. Justine recently experienced her most unusual one yet in the shape of a very affectionate and bouncy dog that stayed for the whole workshop. It wasn’t a stray that just came in from the street…one of our clients has a ‘bring your dogs to work’ scheme (it’s nothing against cats, just that cats tend to do their own thing…) and one of her participants did just that. Whilst the workshop treats and goodies (for the participants) had to be locked away our canine friend certainly added lots of good energy and laughter trying to use one of the large marker pens as a stick to be thrown and fetched and offering doggie woof insight at certain parts of the session. Perhaps not an appropriate energiser to be used on every occasion it certainly was a new workshop experience.

headrooms opening

2011-02-18T16:30:00.001Z

On Tuesday 22nd February headrooms in Clerkenwell officially opened and circleindigo were pleased to be there to celebrate with their friends.
The people at headrooms are passionate about seeing people improve, create, innovate and do things better. They believe that people need stimulating environments hence they have created space in a great location offering a range of services from fully equipped meeting and training rooms, support from highly experienced management consultants, open development events in collaboration with People Tree and external support from facilitators including circleindigo as their best friends!

Establishing a Internal Facilitator Resource Pool

2011-01-20T10:14:00.001Z

Over the past 2 years we have been working with a children’s charity to set up a sustainable internal facilitation resource. We initially delivered a two day core facilitation skills training programme to senior managers followed by a practice period where they had the opportunity to facilitate internal sessions using their new skills. Six months later we delivered a further two day high performance facilitation skills for this first cohort. Then followed a consultation period and over a time the facilitation team was firmly established and a process was agreed for developing more facilitators. It was decided that staff from across the organisation should be invited to apply to attend the next round of training stating their objectives and identifying their skills. Successful applicants then formed the 2nd cohort and they too went through both the core and high performance programmes.
This programme of work has had a positive impact on both individuals and the organisation and this February several members of the first cohort successfully completed their International Association of Facilitator’s Certification (see http://www.iaf-europe.eu/ and http://www.iaf-world.org/) .
The charity now has a professional internal resource that is being used regularly throughout the organisation. The outcomes organisationally include increased capability and capacity, effective and productive meetings and significant cost reductions.

Witherdens Hall opens new workshop and meeting space

2010-11-21T11:35:00.000Z

If you want a secluded place to work, rest or play then explore what Louise Chester had created at Witherdens Hall www.witherdenshall.co.uk in Wingham, Kent. It is an intimate space to hold awaydays with food locally produced and sourced. You can arrange your own event or draw on her network of skilled coaches, facilitators and business leaders to apply some Breakthrough Business Coaching and Consultancy; arrange some holistic pampering at The Retreat or simply take a walk through the surrounding countryside. It’s an inspirational place and has innovative events on offer if that’s what you’re after. It’s also great news for those of us based in and around Kent. A real gem I’m not sure we should be letting you know about in case we can’t book it when we want to!

Project Management - APM Conference

2010-11-15T09:50:00.001Z

A productive place to run workshops is at key points through the project lifecycle: to bring the project team together to make qualitative decisions; achieve buy-in from the whole team to the way forward; and build commitment to achieving the project outcomes. For this reason we like to keep up to date with the latest in project management and recently attended the annual Association for Project Managers conference at The Brewery. www.thebrewery.co.uk

As I sat in the large Porter Tun room for the conference opening my heart sank as I saw that we had a one hour ‘Opening Speaker’ presentation and a huge screen that signalled powerpoint! I couldn’t have been more wrong.
Stephen Carver from Cranfield University www.cranfield.ac.uk was introduced to talk about Project Partnerships: Past Present and Future.
What followed was a master class in creative presentation and effective use of powerpoint! From the opening visuals of David Cameron and Nick Clegg symbolizing a new partnership the audience were engaged. There followed a whole narrative with visuals about the construction of the Pyramids and what type of project management was happening throughout. We were then treated to a short film clip from the Gladiator and subsequently tasked with a related activity to work on in table groups. And so it continued the whole presentation alive with visuals, quotes, stories, humour and activities and not an overcrowded, wordy slide to be seen! It was an excellent start to the conference. For more about the conference go to www.apm.org.uk

Facilitation Camp

2010-09-28T15:03:00.001Z

Sarah spent two days at FacilitationCamp in Vauxhall South London hosted by www.decisionlab.org.uk and www.LondonCreativeLabs.com. The venue was Vauxhall Gardens Community Centre. Originally an old bed factory it was recently rescued and reclaimed for community benefit and provided a unconventional urban conference space. You can see the team of visionaries who rolled up their sleeves to make it happen, if you watch this short film about it: http://s.coop/2l8

FacilitationCamp was described as an ‘unconference’ where participants could co-create the agenda on the day as well as co-create the experience they have. It was run using the BarCamp model based on Open Space Technology www.openspaceworld.com so that we as participants could design the agenda and convene sessions. It was an energetic and exciting two days with lots of interesting ideas generated.

Sarah convened two sessions on Saturday 21st Open Space 2: Mapping & Exploring your facilitation practice and Open Space 3: Visually Recording FacilitationCamp. To see more visit http://barcamFacilitationCampWhatHappenedp.org/

Up and coming IAF Europe Conference: Paradoxes in Facilitation

2010-09-09T12:00:00.002Z

Gary is currently the IAF Europe (acting) Conferences and Professional Development Lead and in a few weeks time he will be participating in the International Association of Facilitators (IAF) Europe conference 2010, 15th – 17th October, being held this year in Helsinki, Finland with the theme of ‘Paradoxes in Facilitation’; where we will explore paradoxes, magical tools, myths and rites in our facilitation practice.

The conference is on the picturesque peninsula of Kallahti, in a beautiful wooded area a few steps from the shores of the Gulf of Finland – it looks a fantastic place to spend some time catching up with old and new friends active in the field of facilitation.

The conference programme is offered by Facilitator colleagues from around Europe and beyond and contains over 30 concurrent sessions and 4 pre-conference sessions.

There will be formal networking sessions under the heading ‘Punainen Lanka’ (Red Thread) where people can organise gatherings of like-minded folk around a common topic of interest and more informal get-togethers as suggested by the local team; including a range of Finnish activities and offerings to try, as well as time to meet, network and socialise with Facilitator peers; sharing facilitation experiences, stories, tools and techniques with one another.

Have a look at http://www.iaf-europe-conference.org/

The first ed.space…watch this space!

2010-07-30T15:05:00.002Z

Since my early twenties I have cared deeply about the educational experiences of children and young people. Over many years this was reinforced by my experience of working with many young people whose creativity had been stifled in an educational system that somehow alienated them. The breakthrough question that ed.space is posing ‘How do we create a learning experience that fully engages with the hearts of children and young people?’ has a particular resonance for me.Also I have a firm belief that gathering together with other people to share conversation, time and space in relation to issues that matter we can begin to change the world. That may sound a grand statement but by promoting connectedness in this way we can listen, dream, explore, sense and be present to greater possibility.

Being in ed.space felt different from the start; the virgin martini’s, just an olive in a glass gave a flavour of what the evening was going to be like! Held in the inspiring Engine Hall of the People’s History Museum in Manchester (http://www.phm.org.uk/) there was an excitement in the air.
Mark Hodierne and the ed.space team created an evening that had the perfect balance of input and varied activity. There were video clips of Sir Ken Robinson, opportunities to play with music technology using ipad, small group work and a systemic constellation to explore the wider education system. There was a high level of engagement, great conversations and some powerful ideas emerged.

ed.space is definitely a new venture to watch to learn more visit http://www.edspace.ws/

Engaging Parents

2010-05-29T15:14:00.000Z

Recently Sarah was asked to design and deliver a workshop for parents in a South East London borough. The parents all have children attending schools in a particular part of the borough and form what is called a school cluster group. The Local Authority Extended Services team were keen to engage with parents in relation to increasing participation in family learning as well as ensuring that parents had a voice and an opportunity to contribute their ideas for a large scale parent’s conference that would be held in July 2010.
Sarah worked with local practitioners to design a workshop that would encourage participation and inclusion. It was important to make the workshop activities accessible to all parents. Things for consideration were the wide range of cultural backgrounds and varying levels of literacy as many participants had English as a second language.

Sessions ranged from: a creative market place of information; a dot voting and marble voting series of activities; large graffiti walls that the parents could contribute their ideas to using words, images or symbols and small group conversation sessions facilitated by local practitioners.

There were high levels of participation, lots of great ideas for the conference in July and positive feedback from the parents plus a desire to be involved in the future. It was a wonderful session to be a part of.

Volcanic ash enables virtual IAF...

2010-04-29T10:45:00.000Z

Having been asked to facilitate an observed (goldfish bowl) keynote workshop on ‘The Future of the International Association of Facilitators (IAF) at the Chicago 2010 North American IAF conference, Gary’s plans, and session, were suddenly in disarray due to the volcanic eruption in Iceland which put paid to flying to the USA!

With a few days to go before the session and no let up on the volcanic ash cloud, Gary along with the conference design team decided that as leaders in the field of facilitation, the IAF should be doing something different and so it was decided that Gary’s keynote workshop would be run virtually with facilitation support from a fellow IAF colleague and friend, Nadine Bell, who would be in the room in Chicago.

So come the day, 16 participants and 12 observers in a hotel conference room in Chicago, Nadine Bell co-Facilitator in Chicago, a five hour time difference and Gary in his office at the bottom of his garden back in the UK, the workshop took place.

Having chosen to do this over Skype and Skype video calling, which all stayed up and connected, with the fantastic help of Nadine Bell in Chicago, a web cam, frantic note taking on post-its stuck up around Gary’s office and a webcam in the room in Chicago, 3.5 hours later virtual facilitation workshop completed, session went really well and feedback very positive.

Now to find more ‘virtual opportunities’ and good online tools and software to support it!

University of Westminster – Resilience Research

2009-11-09T15:30:00.000Z

Following many years of supporting client groups and individuals manage change and transition and building on our three year plus relationship with the Business Psychology Centre at the University of Westminster, London, this year we sponsored two research projects on resilience during major change.

The first was a theory based research project, researching the many (if not hundreds!) of resilience models and frameworks out there and identifying if there were common themes and characteristics, this project was carried out by Irene Xanthaki, a business psychology student at the university.

The second was a practical based project which researched how people handled major change well, what they did and what characteristics did they display or use. This project was carried out by Katie Roth, also an MSc student at the university and involved interviewing our client’s cross-sector and cross-industry and then reviewing and collating the findings.

Both research projects have now been finished and dissertation reports handed in!

Through reviewing the two reports we have built a ‘key characteristics of resilience’ framework that we are now using to inform our work to support both individuals and groups develop and build resilience to enable them to survive and thrive in turbulent times!

We already have a number of clients who are keen to take and extend this work further with us, and we thank both Irene and Katie for all their hard work and effort.

IAF Europe Conference – 2009

2009-09-30T10:20:00.000Z

This year the International Association of Facilitators (IAF) Europe conference was held in September in the hallowed halls of Keble College, Oxford, England.

Attended by over 170 Facilitators from not just Europe but all over the world, from afar as the USA to Africa, to the Philippines and New Zealand, as well as the usual strong contingents from the UK and Sweden.

It was a great weekend, having the conference in a venue where the sessions, the eating, the celebrating and the accommodation were all on the same site definitely helped build and foster a strong sense of community and being in the heart of Oxford itself meant visitors were able to see the historical beauty of the city of Oxford. The conference sessions were generally of a high calibre and conference participants could be found networking in the collegial surrounds of Keble College, sharing their learning’s from the various sessions they had attended.

And we ate in the largest college dining hall in Oxford and it was all very Hogwarts and Harry Potter!

circleindigo ran a conference session on ‘Building Resilience in Turbulent Times’, based on our recent research with the Business Psychology Centre at the University of Westminster. The session was well attended and much appreciated with participants gaining insights from both an individual and group perspective.

For more information on our resilience work please contact us.

2009-07-04T16:05:00.004Z

“In between client workshops circleindigo had the opportunity to experience the ‘wow’ factor again at Turner’s Point as we spent a glorious 3 days together over the course of running our facilitation skills training programme.

The weather was perfect with balmy views across Whitstable Bay while the odd sailing boat bobbed up and down which provided the backdrop to the training event as we went on a learning journey together with our participants…
As we shared workshop tools, techniques, models and concepts alongside extending our own self-awareness as Facilitators the environment gave us an inspiring light and airy space to work and relax in. Lunch was taken on the upper deck: lots of delicious food; much of it local produce…with homemade cakes for afternoon tea to boot!

We will be running another public facilitation skills training course there again between October 5th-7th and are hoping for some Autumn sunsets!

If you’re interested contact our Jen: jennifer.austin@circleindigo.com

Leadership in Tough Times – Wavelength100 Day

2009-05-21T17:20:00.000Z

On Monday, I participated in a one day workshop event titled ‘Leadership in Tough Times’ hosted by Wavelength100 www.thesamewavelength.com/pg/leadership.php and attended by approximately 100 people from diverse backgrounds and organisations, cross-sector and cross-industry.

This was an engaging, useful and timely event which included brief (20 minute) insightful ‘key note’ speeches by four session leaders; Martin Narey, CEO of Barnados and former chief of the UK prison service, Garvis Snook, founder and MD of ROK, the UK’s ;largest local builder, Sophi Trenchall, CEO of Divine Chocolate and Gerald Ratner, founder and former CEO of Ratners the Jewellers and Gerald online Jewellers.

The day encompassed four key themes under the Leadership in Tough Times heading; holding it all together, turning it around, holding on to your values and rising from the ashes. The day was an engaging mix of speaker led sessions, small group discussions, conversations in pairs, a world café type session and a ‘Tough Times’ clinic with a panel Q&A, it was energizing and thought provoking and I have pulled some key points and conclusions together on ‘Leadership in Tough Times’ as follows:

Don’t lose sight of your organisations primary purpose and vision even if you have to put in place some short-term reactive strategies, strategies must always connect with and support your purpose and long term vision

Remain visible and accessible, regularly and consistently communicate where you are going, what you are doing and why

Remain true to your company values, they are what you are, your company DNA and not to be abandoned to serve a short-term need

Ensure your people have a voice and can be heard

Wanting things to be ‘how they were before’ may in itself be limiting – new models and ways of working aren’t bad, it doesn’t have to be how it was before!

It’s ok to ‘not be sure’ and to ‘know you do not know’

And finally the only limitations are the ones we impose on ourselves

I came away with lots of nuggets, thoughts and questions to explore even further….

Research in to resilience begins

2009-05-19T16:20:00.000Z

For more than three years circleindigo have had an ongoing relationship with the Business Psychology Centre at the University of Westminster, this is one of the country's leading academic bodies for Business Psychology programmes and is home to Stephen Benton, the UK’s only Professor of Business Psychology.

This relationship has seen circleindigo as part of the visiting lecturer team on the Business Psychology MSc programme, delivering sessions on managing change and transition, building resilience in individuals and teams and facilitation skills.

This year circleindigo have sponsored two research projects as part of the current MSc student cohort’s end of programme dissertation work. One of these sponsored projects is a client facing research project on ‘What makes individuals (and teams) resilient or adaptive to major change?’ and during this project the student will carry out qualitative research through a short face to face structured interview with a small number of circleindigo clients in each of the sectors we support. The 2nd is “Investigating individual/team resilience & adaptability models/frameworks”.

We are looking forward to seeing what emerges and using the outcomes and conclusions of final report to support our clients in the current tough climate, to help build resilience and to manage major change.

Whitstable Surprise

2009-04-20T13:50:00.001Z

“Just before the Easter holidays circleindigo were working away at Turner’s Point – an exceptional workshop space overlooking the sea at Whitstable. Nothing can prepare you for the spacious workshop room with a wall of windows to the sea and sky. I had a feeling of uncertainty on arrival as it looks just like residential house from the entrance but it was like a double whammy of ‘WOW’: the main room being ideal for group working and the view just breathtaking with the outside space to take in the sea air almost as big as the room itself!!! The space itself enabled a relaxed and meaningful dialogue to unfold and the coffee was pretty good too!! We’re so enamoured with the place – we’re running our public training course there at the end of June…”

The Dinner Party.

2009-03-26T16:50:00.001Z

On Thursday evening I attended an Inspiring Women’s Dinner organised by Carole Pluckrose, Artistic Director at Arc Theatre. It was inspired by Judy Chicago’s piece called The Dinner Party which represents 1,038 women in history.
There were around 70 women who attended the wonderful dinner ranging in age from 15 to 84! The 15 year old was Eliza Rebeiro who founded Lives not Knives in 2007 and has recently been awared Croydon Community Champion. The 84 year old was Helen Bamber who has worked tirelessly in human rights for over 60 years.
Helen Bamber (www.helenbamber.org ) was the speaker for the evening and was incredibly inspiring and humble. She shared stories of her both her recent work and her time in Belsen afer the liberation of the concentration camp. I was moved by the lessons that Helen had learnt in Belsen about courage, resilience, humanity and cruelty. One very vivid image was of a Belsen survivor who very near to death had held on to Helen’s arm and said “tell, tell, tell”. Helen said this taught her how important it was to people that their stories were heard and told and how important it was to bear withness to the pain of others. www.livesnotknives.com

Revived UK Facilitator’s Network

2009-03-23T11:40:00.001Z

“On Friday, a regeneration meeting was held for the UK Facilitator’s network to explore in what way a ‘community of practice’ for Facilitators based in the UK would be of value and if yes, in what format, style etc. This meeting was attended by nearly 30 UK based Facilitators and there were at least another 30 who wanted to come but could not make the date.

It was an interesting and fruitful day, where a number of processes were worked through to identify what was required of such a network, what style and format it might take, what was needed in this day and age to support UK Facilitators.

This event was hosted by Keith Warren-Price at the Pinpoint Centre in Chalgrove, Oxon and all present were looked after with extraordinary care, right down to the small tin of food and refreshments we were each given for the journey home; much appreciated and a great touch!

The day was organised and designed by our Gary, and the process itself allowed for two content/process sharing sessions, one facilitated by Keith Warren-Price drawing on the well established Pinpoint technique and the other by Gary who ran a poetry based introduction exercise.

The good news is there are people now on board, willing to help design and shape the UK Facilitator’s network of the future, watch this space for more details as it unfolds”.

A big thanks to Etc venues

2009-03-15T09:27:00.000Z

Our group size up at the last minute and the booked client site room shifted overnight from workable to inappropriate physical proximity of participants (let alone the ideas than would have been demoralised and crushed)…we were able to use Etc Venues www.etcvenues.co.uk space (Prospero House) close to Borough tube at very short notice. Even though it’s on a busy main road the first floor rooms overlooked a tree or two and lots of natural light came through to support the nicely sized and well-equipped room. The staff were fantastically responsive and a good supply of both fruit and biscuits next to an ever-flowing drinks machine made for happy brain-working conditions…

Meeting Magic’s Medicine

2009-03-04T10:26:00.000Z

Last night we headed into the Institute of Directors to share in the celebration at the launch of The Meeting Magic Method www.meetingmagic.co.uk. For Katherine Woods and the team their whole ethos is successful meetings made easy and this latest publication is a user friendly seven step guide and tool aimed at supporting business managers gain more effective results from any meeting. It’s also a great tool for us Facilitators serving the wider community; visually strong with simple steps to apply.

Café Conversations

2009-02-28T12:05:00.000Z

World café is one of my favourite tools in my facilitator toolkit. I never fail to be moved be the power and effectiveness of this elegant method and its inclusiveness.
I recently worked with a client to support them in leading their own world café and watched from the sidelines instead of hosting myself. I did the same a few weeks later with a friend working with a community group who was keen to have everyone in the group to feel equitable and empowered in the conversations.
And then just this weekend someone approached me to thank me for introducing them to the world café process. They had been a participant in a session I hosted in January and had just finished running one themselves with great results. If you’re not familiar with the process go look at www.theworldcafe.com it is an excellent resource and community.

Boy X

2009-02-17T09:25:00.000Z

Arc Theatre’s Stereo Trilogy is a powerful series of plays aimed at 12-18 year olds and focuses on the issues of knife and gang related issues. In 2008 in London alone 29 young people aged between 10 to 19 were murdered with a knife.

The latest in the trilogy of plays is Boy X. The play begins at the graveside of another 16 year old who has lost his life. It was developed with four young actors and draws upon real experiences of living in gang dominated estates.
The play was first performed on 17 February at EC1 Music Project in partnership with The Flavasum Trust, in memory of Tom Easton who was stabbed to death after leaving work there in September 2006. Sarah sat in the audience at the EC1 Music Project amongst young people, their families, parents of young people who had been murdered as well as representatives from the Metropolitan Police and the Home Office. After the performance the four young actors facilitated a discussion with the audience to encourage debate about the fears associated with issues raised in the play and also to explore possible solutions. To find out more see http://www.theflavasumtrust.org/projects/arctheatre.

Sospiro Jam

2008-12-01T20:00:00.000Z

Last week I had the chance to connect with some interesting folk and get a glimpse in to the world of Sospiro at a networking event they held. After champagne, canapé and conversation, John Harle took us on a magical journey to reveal the essence of leadership and powerful communication drawing on Renaissance understanding and reframing it for a 21st century application. Through a blend of Obama’s victory speech; Duke Ellington’s masterful sounds; a nod to Daniel Barenboim Festival Hall performance in January this year along with his own saxophone, John revealed his insight captured in his Sospiro System which balances achieving both decoro - rational skills (technique, discipline and knowledge) and sprezzatura - emotional skills (ease, impact and persuasiveness) to achieve ‘grazia’ or grace. I think I got that right?! It was certainly engaging and mesmerising! For much more see www.sospiro.com

Resilience at the University of Westminster

2008-11-26T08:50:00.000Z

On Tuesday night Gary was back at the University of Westminster to give his annual lecture to the students on the MSC Business Psychology programme. For this evening event he was able to give more attention to Building Resilience and drawing on Gladwell’s reference in Outliers explore for himself Hofstede's Cultural Dimension www.geert-hofstede.com on ambiguity/tolerance and resilience to change with the students who come to the programme from around the world.

Having spent the first half of the session defining resilience with the group and what makes a team or individual more or less resilient and what you can do to help build resilience I asked the group if we could 'play' a while with Hofstede's cultural dimension and put it to the test with a group of largely overseas students!

I asked the group if they felt that national and cultural differences played a part in how resilient individuals were and whether they thought some nations/cultures were better able to manage change than others and it was agreed that this could play a large part.

In revealing Hofstede's top and bottom five most/least tolerant to change nations, interestingly the Greek student absolutely agree with Hofstede’s work that Greece is one of the least tolerant nations reflecting his experience that they like order and control and that if something happened to disrupt the order and control they found this really difficult to handle.

The group also agreed that the Scandinavian countries who mostly rank high on the tolerant end do seem more resilient to change.

Our mini exploration certainly supported the research to date!

Outliers

2008-11-25T17:50:00.000Z

Having just finished reading the new Malcolm Gladwell book, Outliers www.gladwell.com/outliers, I was pleased to find out that Gladwell was in London and on stage at the Lyceum theatre for one night only! So having secured a ticket I found myself in amongst a hugely 'varied' audience of people from all walks of life and all ages.

Gladwell's premise for Outliers is the story of success or more specifically the fact that where you were born and raised and by whom plays a significant part in whether you are successful or not (I guess not dissimilar to the nature versus nurture debate?) Your culture, history, background and the opportunities open to you all shape your future success…Did you grow up in a supportive environment; were opportunities open to you; were you supported in some way to follow your dream by chance or by judgment?

A theme he comes back to is the 10,000 hours rule: did you put in the time (whether it be 10,000 coding computer programs or 10,000 hours practice on the court) practice and hone your skills, knowledge or experience?

What I found most interesting was Gladwell's reference to the work of Gert Hofstede and his cultural dimensions in particular; how different nations are more or less tolerant of ambiguity and uncertainty than others. This scale or dimension of least to most tolerant is an indicator of a 'national level' of resilience. Gladwell listed Hofstede's top and bottom five of most and least resilient and the results were surprising!
Now like all models, Hofstede's cultural dimension is not black and white and just because an individual is from the least tolerant nation does not mean they can't be resilient and vice versa but it gives us a framework to explore why particular nations and cultures might manage change well

Learning Maps

2008-10-20T15:20:00.000Z

Our facilitator friends Holger Scholz and Roswitha Vesper based in Germany have just authored another great Learning Map published by Neuland www.neuland-world.com. These are a great resource pulling together in handy map form key facilitation methods. This latest one captures Appreciative Inquiry (AI). The illustrations are done by Martin Haussmann a Visual Facilitator extraordinaire who captured the IAF Europe Conference experience when it was held in Germany in 2006.
You can order them from Neuland’s UK partner www.pinpoint-facilitation.com amongst other facilitation tools and equipment. We all love pinpoint! Their website is full of facilitation goodies and the people there are jolly nice folk too!!!

Bridging Cultures at IAF European Conference

2008-10-06T11:45:00.000Z

It was great to attend the IAF Europe conference in Groningen, Netherlands and Justine, Sarah and Gary spent a weekend in northern Holland connecting with Facilitators from across all parts of Europe, in fact from different parts of the world. The theme was Facilitation: Profession of Bridging Cultures which we explored across the event. Catching up with old friends and making many new, it was good to be back amongst the community of largely European Facilitators, all gathered to share, learn and co-create. For more take a look at www.iaf-europe.eu

Over the weekend Gary’s facilitated session on Building Resilience seemed to strike a cord with the participants reflecting on how important it is to understand and build personal resilience in particular during these turbulent times, to help ensure we can ride the waves of change and make the transition during change both shorter and less disruptive.

Meanwhile Sarah and Justine led a session on Enhancing Learning and Participation drawing on Eugene T. Gendlin’s – Felt Sense work where in his words: “Your body is not a machine, rather a wonderfully intricate interaction with everything around you, which is why it "knows" so much just in being.” As a group we undertook a journey to be present and explore what we ‘know’ to deepen our awareness to enable others to enhancing their learning and participation as we enhanced our own…

Maureen and Jon Jenkins (authors of: The 9 Disciplines of a Facilitator – Leading Groups by Transforming Yourself www.9disciplines.com ) did the Facilitation community proud leading the Dutch conference team at Hanze University supported by the amazing young people studying there.

Hope for the Flowers

2008-09-21T13:15:00.001Z

This week Sarah was reminded about the importance of hope and courage when she picked up an old favourite book called Hope For the Flowers by Trina Paulus. The front cover reads: ‘a tale – partly about life, partly about revolution and lots about hope for adults and others (including caterpillars who can read)’.

It’s been a grey week in London, the skies have been grey and I confess to feeling slightly grey myself this week! I was conscious that I needed to take small actions to shift my mood and one thing I did was to read Hope for the Flowers again. It’s a short and very beautifully illustrated book that follows the journey of two caterpillars and their transformation into butterflies. It begins ‘Once upon a time…..’ and immediately I am transported into the world of Stripe and Yellow (the two caterpillars). It’s a very simple book with some very big messages that I find I need to remember.

Here are some of my favourite bits…..
“It can’t be true!” gasped Yellow. “How can I believe there’s a butterfly inside you or me when all I see is a fuzzy worm?”

“How could she risk the only life she knew when it seemed so unlikely she could ever be a glorious winged creature? What did she have to go on?
- seeing another caterpillar who believed enough to make his own cocoon
- and that peculiar hope which had kept her off the pillar and leapt within her when she heard about butterflies”

Thinking Breakfast......

2008-09-17T10:11:00.000Z

The subject was Generation Y, the venue Sadlers Wells for the latest Talent Foundation Breakfast.

Simon Walker of talentsmoothie, a talent consultancy that create research based and custom training and development programmes gave a brief input piece to set off the discussion re Generation Y employees. Talentsmoothie have completed a research project– ‘Tell It How It is’ that explores what Gen Ys want from work. Simon talked about the importance of not assuming that our own generational view is right. We all see the world through our own generational lens which is formed by the landscape against which we grow up. For the Generation Ys this has been a technological landscape. They are ‘natives’ of the technological world and feel very comfortable in it.
“I see frustration among Gen Y and their employers caused by a mismatch in how they see the world” offered Simon. When we fail to understand each others generational lens it leads to frustration and limits what is possible. The trick is for all parties to understand the others generational perspective and with understanding comes the creation of possibilities and also choice. To see more on Gen Y visit www.talentsmoothie.com .

Calming, flowing water in EC1

2008-09-01T09:26:00.000Z

Gary and Sarah recently visited the Inmarsat Conference Centre www.inmarsat.com/conferencecentre in London EC1 in preparation for an event that circleindigo will be facilitating later in September. The centre has a light and spacious feeling. A colour palette of white accented with blues and greens creates a relaxed, calm environment as does the sound of running water that can be heard coming from the glass sculpture in the lounge area. The added bonus is that all the rooms have large windows allowing a flow of good natural light. And the menu looks good too!

Back to School

2008-08-27T11:59:00.000Z

The summer holidays are almost over and schools are almost back: time to swing in to full on work mode again…
Behind the scenes (amongst other things) we’ve been preparing for the International Association of Facilitators (IAF) Conference in Groningen, the Netherlands on October 3-5, 2008 at the School of Intercultural Communications and Media of the Hanze University of Applied Sciences http://www.iaf-europe-conference.org/

We’ve also recently held several runs of our essential facilitation skills training programme for a range of clients whose feedback has inspired us to run some public courses. Watch this space for further details…although not before the spring of 2009!

Summer Fun.

2008-08-06T09:05:00.003Z

circleindigo were to be found at our summer planning event playing, creating and idea generating galore in Broadstairs…the sun on our side, the sand between our toes and the sea serving as inspiration…the beach hut became our latest workshop venue and although the post-its didn’t directly stick to the wooden walls our sand-portraits were something else!

Great space - bad chairs!

2008-08-01T10:45:00.000Z

We recently ran a workshop event at a hotel close to Victoria Station. Hoorah for a hotel whose conference facility is not buried in the basement! Natural light and space galore…lovely! They just need to sort out their chairs…more than one request was made for cushions to support aching backs… a great conference space but such uncomfortable chairs!!!

Usability & Warmth

2008-07-26T13:00:00.000Z

Part of our way of working at circleindigo is to explore different venues for running sessions; testing out the usability and warmth of a place, whilst working on our own dreams and plans. This week we were back at Wallacespace but this time trying out their new place between Euston and St. Pancreas http://www.wallacespace.com/. It was good to experience more of the same as its original Covent Garden home. Rooms are wonderfully functional and have a touch of personality with all of the ingredients in one place for good workshopping: space, natural light, great food, refreshments on tap and a welcoming and responsive team of staff. The stairs to the very top were a bit steep for my liking (no-one else seemed to mind!!!) however, this is apparently very good for the thighs and a way of getting some exercise built in to the day…”

Outside in.

2008-07-25T16:20:00.001Z

On her way to deliver a team development workshop on a hot July day Sarah wondered if the room that had been booked in a small Surrey hotel would be what was needed to support great engagement and participation. She was delighted to find that the workshop room had French windows leading directly onto the garden which had a series of small round tables nestled amongst the trees and shrubs an ideal setting for some outdoor group work and a great way to increase the size of the working space without the need for builders…

The Challenge of Hierarchies

2008-07-20T12:34:00.001Z

Gary has just facilitated a three day ‘Managing Change’ workshop for a client in Bangkok, Thailand. An interesting challenge was presented by the participants that were local to the region:
We were debating how successful a programme can be if it is driven or pushed not top down, not even bottom up, but by a group of senior middle managers who then have to implement the programme to others who have not been through the same programme, in particular to more senior people back in their regions.
It was felt by the far east Asian participants that this can be quite problematical as they are often (if not always) working in very hierarchical companies where trying to influence someone more senior than you to do something can be very difficult. No easy answer but it does bring a different perspective to the Margaret Mead quote: “never doubt a small band of citizens can change the world, in fact it’s all that ever has”. I wondered what in addition might be needed to help enable people in this environment, to support the process of introducing something new.

Enchanted Evening

2008-07-17T08:20:00.002Z

The nowhere http://www.nowheregroup.com/ summer party was a delight for all the senses and was held at the Delfina studios, restaurant and project space in Bermondsey St, London SE1 http://www.delfina.org.uk/. Sumptuous canapés excited taste buds, the nowhere book, tools and projects provoked thinking and conversations with friends old and new encouraged connectivity. And finally an outstanding array of entertainments by The Petebox, The Kakatsitsi drummers and the breakers from Soul Mavericks & Flowzaic crews encouraged everyone to limber up and dance the night way…

Enhancing Children's Learning

2008-07-14T15:06:00.002Z

Sarah has been taking part in the CoLPI programme (community of learning, practice and innovation) for the past 7 months run by the nowhere foundation http://www.nowherefoundation.org/. Connected to this she recently went to a talk given by Judith Hemming one of the Directors of the nowhere foundation on Education.

As I stepped from the busy streets of Bloomsbury into the October Gallery http://www.octobergallery.co.uk/ I suddenly found myself in a quiet oasis. In the centre of the building I entered a large open air garden courtyard with fruit trees and shrubs and made my way up an iron staircase to the Club Room where Judith Hemming was to give a talk on Education: the development of systemic ways of enhancing life and learning for children.
Judith’s talk began with a brief meditation where the audience recalled memories of their own learning as children. This was followed by dialogue that included head teachers sharing how whole systems based approaches had successfully been used in schools with children, parents and teachers to improve learning, emotional awareness, engagement and creativity. A series of ‘tools’ that have become part of the classroom kit were also introduced and these included the ‘feelings thermometer’ that helps children identify and understand a range of emotions and develop sensitivity to their own and others feelings. This innovative research project has been developing over the past 4 years and is called enhancing children’s learning, to learn more visit: http://www.enhancingchildrenslearning.org/

Youth Act

2008-07-06T13:54:00.002Z

Last (very rainy) Sunday afternoon Gary and Sarah could be found as part of the audience at The Street Weapons live debate hosted by Jon Snow. www.channel4.com/news/microsites/S/street_weapons_commission/index.html

This was an opportunity to meet with others who care deeply about the issue of gun, gang and knife related crime especially young people as so many of them are directly affected by this issue. We met young people who are taking action in their local areas to address crime on their streets and heard about the projects that are supporting them.

One interesting training project is ‘Youth Act’ from the Citizenship Foundation, the education and participation charity, for young people aged 11-18 who want to achieve political or social change in their community. One of the Youth Act groups in London is ‘Value Life’ from Gladesmore Community School in Haringey. Talking with a couple of the young people it was good to hear how the project has grown since 2003 and that now there are at least eight other schools involved in the campaign. Over the past few years the group has successfully run and organized annual marches and rallies against gun crime, each attended by over 500 people from the local community and the next one will be held on 22nd July 2008 where there will be open top buses traveling the streets of Haringey. Check out the Citizenship Foundation at http://www.citizenshipfoundation.org.uk/ for more information on Youth Act.

Enhancing the Project Lifecycle

2008-06-20T12:41:00.001Z

Having been asked to run a session on the use of facilitation in the project management lifecycle and to include facilitative leadership for the Association of Project Management Special Interest Group (APM SIG) Forum (www.apm.org.uk), I reflected again on the number of people related project issues that could be either caught early, headed off at the pass or not happen at all if appropriate facilitated interventions were in place throughout a project.
At key stages through the lifecycle, bringing together all the appropriate project stakeholders to consult, identify and agree (as well as plan!) project deliverables and outcomes can minimise people related issues as well as save time, money and resource.This supported by a facilitative leadership approach where the inclusion of key project staff and those impacted by the project can also help dramatically reduce resistance to the key project changes to be implemented and speed up delivery.
Gary.

An Exchange on Managing Change

2008-06-12T11:54:00.001Z

The Talent Foundation www.talentfoundation.com is a not for profit, networking organisation developing new thinking, undertaking practical research and creating business tools to enable businesses and individuals to adapt, grow and thrive in a world of change.
Gary’s just been to their Summer Networking Event on 11 June 2008 at the Centre for Excellence and Leadership. They use a simple approach that works – a few short inputs on the issue from a range of perspectives followed by an opportunity to give your own views and hear the views of others. The theme for this last event focused on ‘Managing Change’ and it was intriguing to see the different (or are they just the same old…) reactions to the use of the word ‘change’ and what issues/associations and opportunities this raise for people!
We were all asked to bring some change related quotes that resonated for us or represented what managing change meant for us and then in small groups we were encouraged to dialogue around one or two that stood out for our particular group.What became apparent was that actually it’s the use of the word ‘change’ itself that can often cause the most distress or problems! Which got us to reflecting on is this still the right word to use or is there something more ‘palatable’ that might help alleviate some of the people centred change issues we can face?

Yummy Art!

2008-06-10T10:13:00.002Z

On the first Friday of the month TateBritain does an event called Late at Tate as part of the Lates www.lates.org/home cultural events across London in and around twilight. The Rex Whistler restaurant www.tate.org.uk/britain/eatanddrink/restaurant.htm offers a wine-tasting menu and delicious organic, low food mileage. We’ve been twice now – and it was utterly delicious both times.
How did we find out about it? It’s all about the connections we make…Sarah, Justine and Jen went off to a networking event organised by Learnpurple in partnership with Harvey Nichols a The Oxo Tower (we do like our food…in a beautiful space…with a view!) and sat next to the sommelier at Tate Britain…we got loads more from the event too including a generous presentation on Impact and Influencing Skills given by Mary-Jane Flanagan. Learnpurple http://www.learnpurple.com/ are really good at bite-sizing learning.

Arc at The Malthouse

2008-06-02T13:29:00.000Z

Our Sarah is a non executive directive of the amazing ARC Theatre Company. If you don’t know them – take a look on www.arctheatre.com – they’re all about using theatre for genuine, sustainable change. Recently they’ve moved home to The Malthouse in Abbey Road, Barking in to a newly refurbished warehouse, by the river Roding, in the heart of an ambitious creative industry regeneration scheme for East London. You can hire the space for (amongst other things!) meetings and workshops.
On July 8th we’re heading there to share in Barking & Dagenham Youth Theatre's annual celebration and watch a re-staging of their 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' - this way we will get to experience the space in its full glory as the young people aged 12 to 21 who live, work or play in the borough perform across the whole space! We’re especially looking forward to seeing them as they recently received a great boost in funding from the Jack Petchey Foundation www.jackpetcheyfoundation.org.uk (which focusses on programmes and projects for 11-25 year) olds via an Achievement Award aimed at 'recognising effort, endeavour and achievement in a practical and positive way'

Inspiring St.Ives

2008-05-30T13:48:00.001Z

Recently on a visit to St Ives renowned for its amazing light and home to artists for many years Sarah felt deeply inspired:
‘Visiting the Tate in St Ives was amazing; the building in itself is inspiring and imaginative. From the derelict gas works which once existed there is now a beautiful building that echoes both the landscape and original architecture. The curves of the Loggia and the rotunda recall the former gasometer and I loved the views of Porthmeor beach set against the white and honey stonework.
It was also my good fortune that the week I visited there was an exhibition of Margo Maeckelberghe’s work called Extended Landscape. I was captivated by her paintings that displayed depth, strength and dynamism. She somehow abstracts and develops the landscapes she paints and the result is thrilling. I sat for an hour in one room and felt I could almost stay forever – this was a feeling I hadn’t experienced for a very long time.’

The Wheel of Life

2008-05-24T17:55:00.000Z

Justine’s mostly been reading The Wheel of Life an autobiographic account of the life of Elisabeth Kubler Ross:
“As we work a lot with the transition curve as a tool for supporting and enabling people through change – I have some appreciation for the theory behind it, but I wanted to take this further and so read The Wheel of Life by Elisabeth Kubler Ross from whose work with death and dying the transition curve was developed. I was moved and inspired. Her whole life was filled with compassion, courage and challenge. One theme that stood out was that the greater her commitment to the task in hand – the greater it seemed was the resistance she encountered…in part, her approach seemed to be to find supporters and work with them and in seeking to overcome the obstacle she was able to unlock new ideas and solutions. And she didn’t always ‘win’. And she felt defeated at times. Having the luxury of viewing her overall life it was clear that obstacles and resistance were integral and essential to the journey… Also however much love, generosity and kindness she gave – always more was needed and unlocked for the next person and the next project…”

Beware of Batter!

2008-03-18T12:25:00.001Z

I recently drove late at night to reach the venue for a one day workshop – how fantastic to realise by morning that the hotel conference room not only had natural light – it overlooked the sea. Wow, what a good space....but a bit of a distance to travel to find a good room mind but this room was a find!

It was a really energising workshop…in an inspiring space…ruined by the FOOD….I should have realised when the morning snack was apricot flavoured yoghurts and cold bacon. When lunch arrived everything was deep fried with some brown lettuce for decoration. What sad participants I had: they had worked so hard to be rewarded with batter!!!

HUGE note to self and top tip for all - don’t underestimate the importance of good food and water!!!

Using Large Graphics

2007-03-13T17:19:00.005Z

More and more of our clients like to see and keep all their workshop outputs in one place and one way of doing this is to create and use large wall graphic templates (like those from Grove Consulting) and capture the outputs as you go on large sheets of paper.

We use different templates and tailor them specifically to fit workshop outcomes, output and of course what the client wants to see!!!

It's a great way to combine outputs from different processes and methods on to one memorable output that can be taken away or digitally photgraphed like the one here!

We also try to use as many small graphic images to enliven, stimulate and draw attention to workshop outputs, again have a look at the examples above!

Women in Project Management (WiPM)

2007-03-09T15:09:00.003Z

One project Justine is currently working on is the Women in Project Management (WiPM)conference coming up on the 27th June. Themed ‘new ways of working’ the event will be an inspiring and engaging one.

Stimulated by great speakers, the whole group will have the space to draw out and share insights...as well as to explore tools to enhance good project management…not forgetting the chance to connect and network galore, the event will end with an evening of celebration!

More information will be on their website in the coming weeks – keep your eyes on www.wipm.co.uk