Minutes - Festival of Ideas co-ordinators meeting 12 March 2014

Attendees at the meeting: Malavika Anderson (Festival co-ordinator), Dane Comerford (Public
Engagement Manager), Emily White (Festival Assistant), Abigail James (Heffers), Astrid Martin (Clare
College), Brendan Giggs (Ancient India and Iran Trust), Claire Gilmour (Cambridge Youth Music)
Elly Wright (University of Cambridge Museums), Erin OGrady (Museum of Cambridge), Gladys Jones
(White House Arts), Jane Cooley Fruehwirth (Economics), Jeni Lecky Thompson (Philosophy), Kevin
Coutinho (Equality and Diversity), Lisa Gold (English), Lorena Bushnell (Whipple and MAA), Lucy
Welch (University Library), Nasim Mavaddat (Bahai Society), Paul Ireland (Institute of Continuing
Education), Rebecca Burtenshaw (POLIS), Robert Good (Art, Language, Location) Sally Lewis
(CRASSH), Paul Ewans (Humanist Society), Sigrid Fisher (Equality and Diversity), Valentina Tongo
(Architecture), Liz Hughes (UCM); Miriam Berg (Anglia Ruskin University); Michael Rand (FAMES),
Livia Argentesi (Churchill College), Matt Lane (RDP), Geoff Shipp (English Faculty Library), Stephen
Homent (Central Sites Technical services)



Presentation by Malavika Anderson, Festival co-ordinator (please see accompanying slides)



Looking back at the Festival of Ideas 2013

Statistics accumulated from a three part evaluation.
1. Pre festival thoughts
2. Experience during festival
3. Feedback on thoughts after festival
How did people know a festival was on?
In addition to marketing the printed materials, such as programme, flyers and posters, we
also deployed lamp post banners across the city.
Merchandise was produced; volunteer t-shirts, t-shirts we sold to the public and canvas
bags.
We created a mobile phone app for the first time.
Press
Becky Wieczorek is our Press Officer: Becky.Wieczorek@admin.cam.ac.uk
Please contact her with regards to any new research that you are producing and presenting
at the festival.
Local, National and international Press coverage like never before.
Feedback
We collated some social media feedback from the festival. Feedback came from co-
ordinators, volunteers and members of the public.
Also been able to identify complaints, for example being over booked to capacity and
request for information on where to park a bike.

Looking ahead to the 2014 Festival

The festival has been slightly extended from 12 days to 14 days.
The Festival of Ideas 2014 runs from Monday 20 October to Sunday 2 November 2014.
Scope to expand comes from the increasing number of events are able to accommodate the
additional dates, in addition to providing more events in and outside of the half term dates.

Looking ahead to the 2014 Festival: theme
Identities to be this years theme
Idea that identities can be interpreted in numerous different ways, proving a wide range of
ideas to expands on.

Building partnerships and Festival strands
Curating Cambridge
Working with solid partners such as Curating Cambridge.
Elly Wright, University of Cambridge Museums Events Co-ordinator, introduced the Curating
Cambridge project. Curating Cambridge: our city, our stories, our stuff is presented by the
University of Cambridge Museums with the Festival of Ideas, cultural partners and
community organisations. Through a five week public programme of exhibitions, workshops,
displays, talks, performances, trails, digital media and other opportunities to get involved,
Curating Cambridge brings together a range of approaches and perspectives from across the
city to explore Cambridges rich culture and heritage. To curate is to select, to organise and
to care for objects, but it is also to tell a story or to ask a question, to pause for reflection or
to enjoy a link to those who came before us. The core principles of the programme are to
look at our relationships the things and places that surround us; the stories and connections
that add value and understanding to these things and places; the stories of the city and its
treasures; and the process and forms of curation. The current call for expressions of interest
is to identify: organisations or individuals who have a project, artwork or event they would
like to be programmed as part of the initiative organisations or people with venues, spaces
or platforms they would be interested in programming or partnering with others to
programme to link with the initiative.
Please contact Elly Wright: ew363@cam.ac.uk or Liz Hughes: lizhughescc@gmail.com


Women of the World (WOW) with Southbank Centre and Equal Diversity
See attachment Women of the World, Cambridge. Developing a local feel.
In collaboration to curate a programme of an exciting and interesting events
First think-in event to take place at the University Centre on 25

April this will be used to
inform programming the WOW day at the Junction on 26 October, coinciding with CFI 2014.
Think-in is open to all and everyone, please to present any ideas on Women of significance
to invite along to talk.
For more information, please contact Malavika or email Sigrid Fisher, Head of Equality and
Diversity: Sigrid.Fisher@admin.cam.ac.uk


Heffers Classics Day
To be held on the last Sunday of the Festival of Ideas
Success from CFI 2013, will continue to build this relationship

Art: Language: Location
This was a city wide collection of exhibitions, concentrated on the Sidgwick Site during CFI
2013.
Included 40 artists, with national and international reputation. All working on text related
themes, some works produced in response to space.
Cambridge being so poor in space, invite faculties, departments, institutions and companies
to offer space to exhibit or present works for the next instalment. Funding opportunities
may also be useful.
Please contact Robert Good: robertgood@aol.com

Getting involved
For first timers: Please see attached a presentation introducing the Events Management
System (EMS) if you have any problems speak to Malavika Anderson, Festival Co-ordinator
EMS will open for proposals in April.

Notes on using EMS
In order to help save time after the deadline for event proposals, please include an image:
Landscape image (ideally 580x290 pixels, at 300dpi).
Please limit the short description to a word count of 30. We are short of space in the Festival
programme and need events to be clear and concise.
Editorial style guides are posted on the co-ordinators page and contains all information on
how we use text within the programme.

Preparing for and running your event
Venue if you are having problems sourcing a venue, let us know and we might be able to
help.
Dates and times make sure these are corrected inputting before the deadline.
Audiences we run the risk of producing simply a family festival. Aim to be able to target
certain audiences with the programme of events.
Publicity and marketing we use social media sites to attract audiences and to get the word
out.
Branding templates and information on co-ordinators webpage.
Volunteers You are able to request volunteers to help the smooth running of events.
Update us on event information such as being fully booked, cancelled/new speaker.
Feedback and evaluation we have produced a model for evaluation. We encourage
everyone to use these however we understand if you want to produce something yourself.
Media Becky will tack on to as much new research coming out of the University. If research
co-insides with CFI 2013 we can produce a package of media and will in turn case for a larger
media footprint for Festival.



Key Dates for the 2014 Festival of Ideas
Deadline for event submissions think about events, develop and finalise details. Let
Malavika know if you need help.
The public will have one month between the programme being distributed and bookings
opening.
22 September Bookings opening please could you coincide your booking openings on 22
September. It will save complaints from the public.
Main festival day will take place on Saturday 25 on Sidgwick Site.

Schools
If you know of anyone from your department who would benefit from sharing their research
with young students (Year 9), please do get in touch.

AOB
Please refer to the Festival as Cambridge Festival of Ideas, abbreviation of CFI (rather than
FOI)
Event co-ordinators page continually updated, please check here for additional
information on Festival, holds good resources

Questions:
Q Are we all included in the co-ordinations contact list?
A Yes, but if you know others who would like to be on the list, please do

Q How do we send out information and events to share with the co-ordinators group?
A All emails can be sent to Malavika Anderson, who will circulate through the co-ordinators list.
Elly Wright Curating Cambridge mailing list is another useful way to communicate.

Q Are we able to have more text and a few words about the various strands and the theme put
online?
A Malavika Anderson will post some more ideas and interpretations of theme on the co-ordinators
page.