The Plotting Shed is an open space for capacity building, community-led activism and boundless co-creativity.
Sessions will be curated each morning and afternoon, featuring expert speakers and solutions-based group discussions on the most pressing issues currently facing We, the People.
Meanwhile, an open space will be hosted each evening, inviting discussion and debate on the issues on the day, as well as dynamic feedback on Off Grid’s innovative One Planet Community event design as it is experienced on the ground.
Please visit our Line Up A - Z for full biographies on all speakers and workshop facilitators listed below.
Thursday
4pm - 4.30pm
Pedro Brace: Simple Revolution: Climate Change Solutions
Why we need to rapidly reduce our emissions immediately. What actions individuals can take, how we can each make a difference and why personal responsibility is essential.”
A brief intro on why urgent action is essential. Discussion of different ways we can engage as individuals (political, educational, legal, personal change, direct action). How, despite the gloomy prospects, we can actually make a difference as individuals. Why personal responsibility is essential - integrity, creating examples for others to follow, breaking psychological patterns, morality, personal happiness. Discussion of the changes we need to make to our lives if we wish to avoid catastrophic climate change.
FOLLOWED BY:
Climate Change: What actions do we take to adapt our lives and environment to the coming changes? Do we engage or go ‘Off Grid’?
We’re excited about this dynamic session bringing together grassroots activists with leading thinkers on climate change adaptation.
With architect Jason Fitzsimmons (http://www.ecodesign.co.uk) and climate campaigner and global expert, Kit Vaughan (http://careclimatechange.org/team/kitvaughan/)
More guest TBC
Friday : Back to the Land
Morning Topic: Low Impact Living Forum
9.30am - 11.30am
With participants from Steward Wood Community & Tinkers Bubble
Join Tinkers Bubble and Steward Wood Community for an update on what’s going on at each of these amazing low impact communities, plus an open forum for those interested in exploring low impact living further
Steward Wood will offer a brief history of the project from inception pre 2000 to moving on April 2000 and the journey since then to where we are now (practical, legal, technology, planning etc).
Followed by an open Q&A session.
Followed by:
The Hillyfield: Woodland Management & Restoration on Dartmoor
11.30am - 12.30pm
With Doug King Smith of The Hillyfield
Doug and his partner Clare manage 45 acres of ancient woodland and organic pasture in Dartmoor. In the usual absurd way that planning departments function, as with Steward Wood they are now being put under pressure from planners, aiming to force them to take down their buildings of work despite their practicing forestry on the land.
This session will be a presentation about the process of obtaining the land and managing it sustainably, an update on the planning situation and an opportunity for discussion of this and other aspects of woodland management.
http://www.thehillyfield.co.uk/
-
LUNCHTIME
-
1.30pm - 5.30pm
Afternoon Topic: The Agrarian Renaissance
With Joanna Dornan of The Landworkers Alliance, Bob Mehew of Huxhams Cross Farm, Pedro Brace of Tinkers Bubble, and other growers
La Via Campesina is the international movement representing 200 million farmers including, peasants, small and medium-size farmers, landless people, women farmers, indigenous people, migrants and agricultural workers from around the world. It defends small-scale sustainable agriculture as a way to promote social justice and dignity. It strongly opposes corporate driven agriculture and transnational companies that are destroying people and nature. The Landworkers’ Alliance is the UK arm of Via Campesina. This session will give an overview of our activities, and how you could get involved, whether you are an existing or want to be grower, the Landworkers’ Alliance is here to represent you.
Pedro Brace will talk about Horsedrawn Agriculture & Bob Mehew about the community-owned Biodynamic Huxhams Cross Farm near Totnes as part of this dynamic session.
If you want to be on the land, grow food, claim food sovereignty and be part of the renaissance, this session is for you.
-
5.30pm - 6.30pm
TBC
Saturday : Helping You Help Yourself
Morning:
9.30am - 11.00am
Repair Cafes - With Nick Mercer of Reading Repair Cafe
A repair cafe is a community project bringing people together to repair things rather than throw them away!
At a repair cafe you can bring your unfinished projects and get together with those who may be able to help finish them off. This workshop is about how to set up a repair cafe. And, hey, why not bring something along that needs repairing and see if there’s someone who can help!
http://www.transitionreading.org.uk/projects/reading-repair-cafe/
followed by
11.00am - 1pm
Social Enterprise Surgery - Funding, Structures, Opportunities
Are you part of a social enterprise looking for more support?
Interested in finding relevant funding streams for co-ops and community enterprise?
Looking to set up an enterprise and don’t know which structure to choose?
Join Alex Lawrie of Somerset Coop Services for an informal drop-in
-
Lunch Session: TBC
-
Afternoon Workshop:
1.30pm - 3pm
Transition - A revolutionary movement?
With Michael Thomas of Transition Network
The Transition movement is building. People are reshaping their communities. It’s rooted in caring for ourselves, each other and the living world. It shows a different future is possible when we come together. But is it truly revolutionary movement? Mike Thomas from Transition Network will argue that it is through utilising the ideas of Erik Olin Wright’s Real Utopias project and Joanna Macy’s three dimensions of the great turning.
followed by
3 - 4.30pm
Legal Surgery with Solicitor Sonya Bedford of Stephen-Scown in Exeter (Community, Energy and Land Law)
4.30pm - 6pm
Peer to Peer Support Session - Conflict Resolution & Community Building in your organisation with Maria Franchi of Rhizome Coop
This peer to peer support surgery will provide an open and safe space to discuss and explore our experiences and issues in relation to conflict and its resolution in the context of collaborative and decision making. A chance for folk to share and investigate the challenges of working collaboratively when all things may not be equal and divergence and diversity are core to our values and intentions. Come along to take part in the conversation and gain new insights and tools to work positively with conflict
-
Evening Panel 7.30pm - 8.30pm
Having a voice in development at a Local Scale - With Alan White & Trudy Turrell (Don’t Bury Dartington)
Sunday
9.45am - 11.00am
Morning Reflection: Quaker Meeting Session
New to Off-Grid 2016 we are introducing on Sunday morning an opportunity to gather in stillness and shared faith through an Quaker Meeting which will take place in the …. A short introduction to Quaker practice will precede the Meeting at 9.45 and there will be an opportunity afterwards for discussion and questions. Everyone is welcome including those of any faith and those with none.
A Quaker Meeting seeks through sitting in communal silent worship to connect with the Spirit of God that is within us all. There is no formality; no doctrine and no preacher
For further information https://www.quaker.org.uk/
followed by
11am - 1pm
The Housing Game: With David Parkes of Community Juice
Nothing can be more socially divisive than the haves profiting from the have nots. Have we gone from a nation of homeowners to a nation of landlords? Is this a ticking time bomb?
How might we harness peoples energy in local place-making rather than just policy-making? .. and use the Localism Act as a framework to build local affordable housing?
DIY housing: What are the practical difficulties of building our own homes …? Learning the lessons of collaborative building and sustainable living.
Whether you a DIGGER or a DREAMER an ENTREPRENEUR or ECO-WARRIOR, come and share your experience and ideas on a romp around the housing crisis….
For further information: contact David Parkes 07787 153410
-
Afternoon Workshop
1.30pm - 4pm
Jo Clarke of Embercombe: Land-Based Experiential Learning
A short talk and discussion on the future of experiential education in the UK. With John Yates of the Biophilia Project (home to Off Grid Festival)
4pm - 5.30pm
TBC
