The publications are coming thick and fast. "Glass Half Full" from I&DeA is a compelling argument for Asset Based Community Development; Nesta's Mass Localism describes how this worked with the Big Green Challenge and how it might work with similar community level inovations; Co-Production is the next big thing - how we can do some of this stuff together. My contribution is a secondment mechanism for public sector folks to try their hand at social enterprise. I find so many friends in the public sector increasingly disenchanted by dysfunctional organisations. The organisations themselves are hamstrung by central government directives and a performance management paradigm that starts from the assumption that people are not to be trusted..... John Seddon's book, Systems Thinking in the Public Sector explains about this and other problems - worth a read.The NHS has chipped in with "The Power of One, the Power of Many", which makes some very good points about staff empowerment and the need to pay attention to "care", "passion" and other difficult to measure things.We are planning hi3(2) and have several offers already... get in touch if you want to contribute to the programme..........

Well, we set up a blog for feedback, which is about as open as you could wish for...... but no blogging!However, we have had some great feedback on the Sage event, which has been helpful to me, since I was in the same position as everyone else on the day - wondering where to go next, since there was so much choice! Perhaps we would slim down the choice next time, but we make no apologies for giving folks options. How many times have you sat through parts of conferences that are not for you? At hi3, you could just get up and find something else......Lots of participants have said they made great contacts and some even made contracts too!So, entertainment, education and networking were all part of the plan. We had not really anticipated the words of one performer : "This was the best day of my life" or the words of a politician after she heard our young Traveller speak from (and to) the heart: "I am going to ask my officers what they intend to do about Gypsy and Traveller health."Mark Booth from Durham University said "I've been to a lot of conferences and I can honestly say, I have never been to one like this!" He meant it as a compliment............As for the accounts, we are still finalising them, but we have recycled over Ј30,000 from small sponsorships from mostly public sector bodies, to ten 3rd sector organisations as well as donating Ј1028 to Stand up for Africa, as a result of our peasant lunch.We have also retained some money to invest in the next stage of hi3..................