Happy New Year …. better late than never. Before we launch into 2022 fully we thought this was a good time to reflect upon our experiences of 2021 and the work we were privileged to be involved in during a full year of pandemic.
The lockdowns of 2020 brought many challenges and also gave us the impetus to embrace the world of online delivery, adapt our tools to suit this new delivery mode and acquire many new skills which we embraced and incorporated to strengthen our delivery offering. After a challenging 2020 it was incredibly energising to note the sea change which the new year, 2021, brought. Although Covid weary clients approached 2021 with renewed optimism and a desire to reconnect and reinvigorate their teams. During the early part of the year we continued to work online building new tools and experiences ensuring every workshop was definitely a “cameras on, unmute" and highly interactive experience . In the later part of the year we were delighted to return to face-to-face delivery happy to embrace social distancing and all the other covid safety measures that facilated this.
We have had the opportunity to work with an amazing array of clients in 2021 spanning education, business, community & voluntary sectors. Projects took us cross-continent (virtually) in our collaboration with the World Creativity and Innovation (WCID) team and with the Centre for Secure Information Technologies(CSIT). We worked virtually with Early Stage Career Researchers in universities all across the UK and then finally travelled again in November to London to deliver a workshop for the Royal Academy of Engineering.
Closer to home ideation workshops for game designers, Live Innovation challenges with QUB Graduate school, QUB careers, PhD students and Early Stage Researchers from both universities, creative thinking workshops for staff from Further Education, all kept us on our toes. We have worked closely with resilient community service providers digging deep into empathetic approaches for this work and have been humbled by these organisations continued flexibility, adaptability and perseverance for more equitable outcomes for society’s most vulnerable in the midst of a pandemic.
2021 was the year in which our long held education dream became a reality. After months co-designing with our associate, Peter Worth, it was confirmed in June 2021 that our project partner, Catalyst Inc, had secured substantial funding from the DfE to deliver a new and innovative schools programme. Catalyst Schools is a professional learning programme designed to support school communities in fostering a culture of inclusive innovation and learning for the future of work and civic life. School leaders from across Northern Ireland joined us to develop their hacking and equity mindsets as they applied a design thinking approach. We are incredibly excited to continue this deeper learning journey with their teachers and students in 2022.
It has been a privilege and an honour to explore and develop solutions with our clients on these wide-ranging projects. We look forward to a new year of learning and the pursuit of creative excellence with clients new and old. We would like to take this opportunity to thank each and every one who trusted us to work alongside you for making 2021 a wonderful year of deliberation, curiosity, collaboration and innovation.
Comentarios