Running a buzzy event isn't too difficult with the right people and facilitation skills. Doing it online can be more challenging. Combining the two and making a real-world difference is really tough - but that's what Steve Moore and his collaborators are trying to do in a first run of their PolicyUnplugged format with Channel 4. The event was held recently at Channel 4 as a cafe-style workshop. As Johnnie Moore reported:
Essentially, Steve gathered together a range of thinkers and innovators with an interest in education from a variety of perspectives, minus the usual suspects from Westminster. The idea being that real change in society needs to come more from the bottom-up, and we need to give less attention to the command-and-control diktats of attention-seeking ministers who are in their jobs for only a year or two.
The aim is to feed ideas into Channel 4's new E Word education policy, by combining the event with before and after online discussion. The online element is provided by Charles Armstrong of Trampoline Systems, with an email and web-based system that enables everyone to have their own profile and to mix-and-match discussions in different groups. More about that here.
Lloyd Davis shot some video, and has also posted audio here, including frank comments from participants in the bar afterwards. I was slightly involved, because I introduced the event and online teams. On the day I shot some video of Steve and Charles, in which they explain how they hope it will all work out. 
Their view on the site: "Passionate arguments ensued, great connections were made and ideas blossomed. Already new ideas are being animated as participants reconnect around shared ideals and ambitions. We now want to build on this and develop a marketplace for policy innovators in education."
Lloyd's interviews seemed to me to give a fair range of people's opinions after this type of event, including some scepticism ... "is it just a PR exercise for Channel 4?"... "there were a lot of consultants, and the problem is they are always looking for the next gig". However, the general feeling was that it was worthwhile for the ideas generated, the contacts made - and the approach. One headteacher said it had made him rethink how to engage with parents in his own school. That may be a clue to where real change could come from - and a very real example of what I mean by Engagement 2.0.
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