Social reporting

During the event we introduced an innovative approach to communication for social innovation - social reporting.

Social reporting aims to help anyone engaged in social innovation use a range of different media to communicate with each other, and key interests, in ways that are conversational, informal and highlight interesting stories. It is a complement to more formal documentation and presentation.

At the event we did this in a number of ways:

• By having a lead social reporter - David Wilcox - who took video and uploaded this for use on our site.
• By working with participants who had agreed to act as social reporters, lending them cameras if they did not have their own.
• Also encouraging anyone else interested to become social reporters and use the cameras.
• Engaging an illustrator - Lucy Pepper - to create drawings of the event.

Social reporting using videos, drawings and associated text served a number of purposes:

• It created a shared memory of the event, which is richer and more engaging because it was created by those at the event, not just by an observer.
• It developed informal material to complement the presentations. Speakers were invited to give short interviews summarising their main points.
• It encouraged participants to have deeper conversations with each other, as they took a little more care in framing questions and answering them - as the video below confirms.