What’s Happening at
ABCs Festival We’re really excited to be in Bristol this month for the ABCs of the New Economy Festival, from Wednesday 10th–Thursday 11th July, at the Arts Mansion at Ashton Court.
There will be two packed days of practical workshops, inspirational panels, and ideas surgeries, exploring community ownership of energy, housing, and local assets, the role of AI in the new economy, how to build a policy manifesto for the new economy, and more!
Compared with our Playground for the New Economy Festival, which wrapped its fifth year last spring in Manchester, the ABCs Festival will be focused on how people and organisations are making an impact in their local economies. Where previous events focused on the what or the why, this year we’re convening panellists and facilitators to share how they’ve been successful or made things happen.
To fuel up between sessions, participants will get a free lunch from Bristol’s Coexist Community Kitchen. On Wednesday evening, you can enjoy more local food from The Little Taquero and Wood Chop Pizza, and live music with Afro Cluster collective, followed by the club night experience with Friends of the Joiners Arms’ Lèse Majesté.
See inside this issue for the full programme – and we hope to see lots of you there. With huge thanks to our festival sponsors and supporters: Co-operative & Community Finance and The Co-op Loan Fund, our media partner The Bristol Cable, and Arts Mansion.
And if you haven’t yet got your copy of our primer, the ABCs of the New Economy, order your copy from stirtoaction.com/abcs Book competition: The Populist Moment We’ve teamed up with publisher Verso to offer readers the chance to win one of three copies of The Populist Moment: The Left After the Great Recession. To be in with a chance of winning, go to stirtoaction.com/populist-draw
To find out more about the book, read an interview with Anton Jäger in this issue.
Business for Good – Study Visits Co-op Fortnight 2024 has just come to the end. Along with Co-operatives UK, we invited people to get involved and come along to visit and learn from an exciting range of co-operatives across West Yorkshire, including Suma Wholefoods, Elland, Horton Community Farm, Bradford, and Holmfirth Tech. The visits went well and we’re confident that those who participated left with a broadened awareness and deepened knowledge of the co-operative sector.
The study visit programme is part of the Business for Good West Yorkshire partnership – an 18-month programme of accelerators, business coaching, and other free specialist support to help people start or grow organisations that help make communities in West Yorkshire into better places to live and work. For any enquiries contact suzanne@stirtoaction.com Centre for Democratic Business Last month we launched the Centre for Democratic Business – Stir to Action’s specialist home for our work on transforming business ownership in the UK and beyond. Our new website – designed by our team member Guillermo Ortego – outlines the Centre’s approach, questions that we’re exploring, as well as our current and recent work with local government, foundations, and other partners.
Find out more at democraticbusiness.org New team member Finally, we’re delighted to welcome Suzanne Orchard to our Centre for Democratic Business team (part of Stir to Action). Suzanne is our co-lead and an experienced business advisor and relationship manager with 15 years experience working in economic development in Scotland, and she has built a large bank of national and local economic development experience. She’s passionate about co-operative models, working closely with the sector, and shaping an economy that values inclusivity and democracy.
If you would like to collaborate, partner, or get involved in any of our projects, you can contact us via hello@stirtoaction.com
