Parliament Of Owls » News

Promises, promising

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 12:45:43 +0000

With the new year comes new energy and what was, it must be said, a deep hibernation is being broken. By what? Right now, a few conversations, a few more experiments in the works, and like any true exploration, an evolving destination. In short, we’ll let you know.

And where have we been? Well our series of experiments last year proved to us there is potential to develop interesting formats using video conferencing, and identified for us a couple of places where we could bring and develop expertise, specifically in devising formats, creating content and the hard skills of facilitation.

We loved doing them, but they raised questions and challenges too – for who, where? To what end? We lacked partners, and real life took over.

Our little foray has been noticed though. And we’re feeling sufficiently encouraged to put a bit more energy in. Let’s see how we go.

Press here

Mon, 04 Jul 2011 17:23:16 +0000

So yes, our not-so-covert trials made it to the attention of Design Week . Here’s the feature in it’s full glory:

End of term

Wed, 22 Jun 2011 14:25:23 +0000

And if we had a report card it would say something like: ‘Good work to date. Huge potential. Needs to work hard and consistently to see it through once back in September.’

Come September what will you see? Among other things we’re planning a monthly series open to all. We want it to be truly international this time. In the trials we had Spain and Germany as well as home ground, but look out China, India, Japan and the US – we want you…!

We’ll also be looking at how we can push live video a bit further. We had hints of how rich it could be in the trials – when Asa Bruno swung the camera around to introduce us to his colleagues, or when Simon Waterfall flashed his rocks on screen (you had to be there:).

If you want to be first to hear our plans sign up for the newsletter, or even more immediate follow us on Twitter or Facebook. And see you in the autumn.

We have alumni!

Tue, 07 Jun 2011 22:01:18 +0000

And in what felt like the blink of an eye it was over – what we’ve been calling the London trials are done, and we’re left with a huge sense of relief and the inevitable slightly empty feeling. But we have the memories (and lots of screenshots and recordings – look, see?!).

Seems like a moment ago we were discovering what it really meant to deliver a live masterclass with actual real people (to quote my own tweet – I know, the horror – “‘Live’ has power to excite/terrify that you just don’t get with vimeo”.

So now, it’s over but we know we’re excited about it, and while we recognise the possibility of bias in that, it could have been a very different story. We certainly had all the technical, social and performance related hitches we could have imagined – so coming out smiling says to us there’s something in it. Now it’s processing the feedback from the 30 or so ‘alumni’ who were game enough to rock up to who knows what and get stuck in… We’ll post some insights here in the coming weeks. But to be honest, we know already we’re going to do it again. Roll on the autumn programme…

Trial classes are up – get ‘em while they’re hot.

Thu, 31 Mar 2011 16:03:16 +0000

So spring programme of London-based trials are up – 8 classes with 8 masters. Now we get to look and learn – is anyone interested? Is anyone out there? Let us know… All going well autumn programme goes international, from Shanghai to Mumbai, when we can really start to test the format. Looking forward…

Shhhhhh – beta launch

Tue, 01 Feb 2011 11:58:25 +0000

After all the conversations with friends and close colleagues, false starts and trial runs, now we’re thinking it might be healthy to get a bit of air. Classes currently being scheduled for late spring, open on a first come first served basis to – gasp – people we might not know. Hello world…