The first month of my Shuttleworth Foundation Fellowship has flown by… here’s a round-up of some of the highlights (in no particular order):
- Starting and announcing the Fellowship to colleagues, friends, family and the young people I work with
- Live Magazine, Volume 2 issue 2 spilling out onto the streets of London
- The continuing march towards self-sustainability for Live Magazine in the UK, with adverts from Adidas, Walker Books and now a deal struck with Nando’s – including a 3000-copy distribution deal in Nando’s restaurants
- Re-contacting all the ‘warm’ leads for partners for Live Mag SA that I met last year, all to brilliant and enthusiastic responses
- An avalanche of new contacts in South Africa from clients in the UK: including Google, Nando’s, The Hub, Psychologies magazine, and BBC World.
- Finishing my Social Franchising course at the School for Social Entrepreneurs in London: rounding up lots of learning’s and theories to feed into the South Africa plans
- Seeing the Live Magazine film for advertisers being let loose into the world
- Presenting the somewhereto_ project to a Film London conference at BAFTA
- Re-securing funding for the Live Landing Pad project from both Tom’s Trust: which pays for direct intervention and engagement work for ‘at-risk’ teenagers, school exclusions and ex-offenders within the Live office in London
- Launching the new blog at www.livityafrica.com, which will document my Fellowship adventures
- Breaking the back of admin challenges in preparation for my departure for SA: including bagging my Exceptional Skills Visa!
- Seeing 15-20 of Live Magazine’s alumni come to the office one Friday for a photoshoot – brilliant memories and brilliant young people doing amazing things
- Being interviewed for a NESTA-funded book about 25 innovative business models in the ‘civic economy’
- Taking part in the successful launch events for somewhereto_, an London 2012 Legacy project that helps young people find underused spaces and places to do the things they’re passionate about
- Learning more about openness, intellectual property and social enterprise governance
- Meeting and getting to know the Shuttleworth Foundation family and Fellows
- General sense of overwhelming excitement and optimism for the next twelve months…
