A good few of you have been asking (and rightly so) ‘what’s happened to LOPO?’
Here’s the update.
We feel we’ve done our ‘beta’ with the meetings in London – and now have a good idea where we want to go next and the infrastructure this will require: most notably a collaborative web-space to allow LOPO projects to live online.
We now know that LOPO helps projects thrive – just look at The Indigo Mind Machine one of the projectd that got a boost from the London meetings.
So, LOPOists from LOPO London and LOPO Wellington, New Zealand (who include the awesome people at Mohawk Media) are working together to find the right technology and bring it together to create the online collaboration and innovation space we need. This is taking longer than we’d like but we also feel that having more chapter meetings at this stage will just get us at the same point we’re already at – and we want to create a worldwide movement. That requires a good web-space.
In short, we’d like to launch LOPO Madrid, LOPO Singapore, LOPO Sydney, LOPO New York (and all the rest) with a good platform from the ‘get go’.
So, to (mis)quote Monty Python: LOPO isn’t dead, it’s not even resting… but we’re aware a lot of you want to meet again. We assure you, you will…. And we thank you for you enthusiasm for LOPO and your patience with the web-space team.
Meetings have been on hold since last month as we have decided it is important to have our web space running before continuing monthly sessions. Everyone keeps telling us they want somewhere to continue lopoing online – and so we’re in a research and development phase working with LOPOists in London and Wellington, New Zealand.
However there is a London LOPO speaker event coming soon so please hold tight for details…
In the meantime keep serendipitising and we leave you with this great vote of confidence from an exchange with Steven Pinker - “Pragmatic optimism is an idea whose time has come.”
LOPO London 3 (23rd Feb) went well. Six projects pitched and we were inundated with thanks afterwards from proposers who said they had great input from the LOPOers to take their projects to the next level. Hurrah!
That said, we still think the format needs tweaking – and we’re still working hard on a web space (we had some offers of help there which we’re following up), so watch this space.
In addition look out for a LOPO speaking event coming soon….
Update: This event now oversubscribed. Do add yourself to the wait list and we’ll try to release a few more places nearer the date.
After the success of London LOPO 2 in January, and due to popular demand we’re ploughing straight on with London LOPO 3; same venue on Thursday 23rd February and, we hope, much of the same vibe. We listened hard at the last meeting (and those of you that have been in touch since) and we’ll be trying a new meeting format including a slightly different room set up, easier ways to capture ideas and input, along with some other ‘serendipity tools’.
Similar to the last meeting we’ll have
a short update on the progress of LOPO (there is some good news on developing a web space for us and the launching of other LOPO chapters)
some updates from LOPO-launched projects
a place for new projects (or ongoing projects looking for fresh input) to get LOPOists thinking for them – using the new format.
As before we’re meeting upstairs at The Green Pub and Dining Room in Clerkenwell (Farringdon Tube and Rail). The pub’s website is here.
So come down to:
propose projects (do think about something you’d like to kick off)
get help with projects you have ongoing
or see if you have anything to offer projects presented – so many people have found this a great way to do something positive already.
As always it’s an opportunity to bump into people who want to make the world better – it’s all about serendipty and the meeting of minds…
The second meeting of The League of Pragmatic Optimists kicked off with a rousing speech from Mark in which all accusations of un-coolness, dismissive “it’s a bit too-deep” comments and, most importantly, cynicism were kicked out of the door and left in the cold.
If it’s deep, it’s time to dive in, be the clever kid with the big dream and make ideas the norm. And this is essentially what LOPO aims to do: by engineering serendipity, bringing great minds together in a welcoming, productive and, moreover, pro-active atmosphere in which ideas can develop and the future can be altered for good. As Matt Ridley puts it “every innovation is based on two other innovations having sex,” and so LOPO is the plush honeymoon suite (or seedy hotel room, depending on how you look at it) in which future-changing innovations will be conceived, and will also provide the nurturing support system required for these innovations to happen.
Dare2 co-founder Laila Pawlak then offered some inspiring words of wisdom to the gathered LOPO-ists. As exemplified in her lively, dynamic delivery, Laila stressed the importance of emotional energy, advocating the adoption of rituals which might enable future LOPO meetings to be communal, welcoming, cooperative and, thus, optimally constructive.
However, at the same time, she suggested that we need to ensure the LOPO mission is clearly defined, proposing a series of questions which we need to ask ourselves: How can we make sure we have a positive impact? How do we make it easy for people to copy us? But, above all, what are the things that we do? And, how are we going to do them?
The fact that Laila’s call-to-action was peppered with such questions emphasized that LOPO should be an environment characterized by inquiry: a space to show up to with questions galore, with the hope that you will find someone with the power to answer them or, even better, the courage for you to find the answers within yourself.
The emphasis of the remainder of the evening was on answering these questions and making the collective decisions required for LOPO to be the most fertile, productive and awe-inspiring movement we all know it can be. The most pressing question asked of the attendees was therefore:
How will you find your counterpart?
It was obvious that the room was brimming with great minds, harbouring brilliant ideas, but how to make these ideas happen, how best to build the structure of LOPO within which “engineered serendipity” can flourish and bloom?
This is to be the first project of LOPO, LOPO itself.
Thus followed a mass brainstorm followed by feedback…
Lucy argued that flexibility was the best way. Splitting the evening so that those who have come with ideas can kick off with two minutes each to pitch and then those who like their ideas can gravitate towards them over remaining time…
There was an emphasis in the room on the importance of recording ideas…Chalkboards were suggested as a way of achieving this…allowing an evolving space in which ideas can be developed upon over the course of the meetings…
Post-It notes were also championed as a succinct, neat and to-the-point way of remembering what was said…and a BLOG was considered to be the most useful method of cumulating results and recording the outcomes of subsequent meetings…
Although a “free-for-all” approach was mentioned, it was also stated that this needs to be combined with focus and discipline in order to actually achieve results and follow through on projects…
Reluctance to break the ice was identified as a common symptom of English-ness and therefore an anticipated hurdle at future LOPO meetings. Just making that initial awkward step towards getting to know someone by saying “Hi, How are you? Who are you? And what do you do?” was considered to be a key starting point.
There was the suggestion of an additional ‘core principle’ which states that you must invite someone to sit down next to you who you’ve never met before and, if you have come with a friend, that you must spend the evening separately and then introduce them to all the cool and interesting people you have met at the end of the night. This rule would also help to alleviate the ‘cliquey-ness’ which might otherwise ensue…
Bonding activities such as eating were suggested as incubation periods, after which ideas periods could follow…
Using mailing lists tools such as Eventbrite so that members can find out who will be attending the meetings, what they have to offer or why they are coming…
Having bigger tables with more people
A serendipity corner – ‘for lost serendips’…
A structured, fast-paced time schedule in which a speaker is given 2/3mins to present their case (answering the four Q’s…WHAT IS THEIR IDEA? WHAT IS THE VALUE OF THEIR IDEA? WHERE ARE THEY AT WITH IT? WHAT DO THEY NEED?)Followed by a 2 minute brain storm in which groups write down ideas and present them back to the speaker…
IDEAS MUST BE WRITTEN DOWN/RECORDED (as even a word or phrase could stimulate the speaker’s thoughts/imagination and lead to a breakthrough)
And finally, the introduction of an Optimist’s business card, on which would be written your name, email address and idea
London’s 2nd LOPO meeting was, all things considered, a great success. We’ll be putting up a more detailed post soon but already some projects are benefiting from new ideas generated by the LOPOists. You can here a short report from the lovely @documentally here.
A few tweets about the event…
@DrBobRollins “@Optimistontour Thanks for catalysing the fantastic #lopo meeting on Thursday. Plenty for me to follow up with over the weekend.”
@emidude “I was really inspired at #lopo last night! I can’t wait for the next one!”
@elimarte “Good vibes at #LoPO last night, hopefully prelude to more good ones.”
@NaomiAllen “great evening, let’s get this changing the world business off to a good start”
@Emmabel42 “Brilliant time at #LOPO tonight”
@DARE2dk “Awesome people and ideas at #LOPO meeting in London yesterday. May the force be with You!”
The debut London LOPO was a huge success, with several projects already kicked off.
This next meeting will have updates on some of those projects as well as:
special guests from a sister network of sorts from Denmark, who will tell us about what they do – and how they might work with us.
a general update on where LOPO is now, the interest we’ve had in the organisation and next steps to expand (we’re still getting invites to open chapters across the world).
As per the last meeting we’ll also be looking for some of you to:
propose projects (do think about something you’d like to kick off)
see if you have anything to offer projects (those already underway or new proposals) – so many people have found this a great way to do something positive already.
But, as always, just come down to bump into people who want to make the world better – it’s all about serendipity and the meeting of minds…
This is LOPO in its infancy. You can say you were there.
Many of you have been asking about what is happening at LOPO HQ following our test meeting in London in October. Already people are champing at the bit to open chapters across the world, from Singapore to Sydney, Madrid to Manchester. In addition we’ve had approaches from various other organisations who share a similar ethos to ours and want to collaborate.
The debut London LOPO was a huge success, with several projects already kicked off (updates on each of which will be given when the chapter reconvenes in the new year). However, it became very clear to us after the meeting that LOPO might fall over very quickly if we tried to grow it without a little web and admin structure behind it.
So, right now, we’re trying to find the funds (or the friendly developers) who can build us a web-based LOPOspace to host projects online (do get in touch if you can help with either). When we have something ready we’ll feel confident to unleash the LOPO ethos worldwide – and we hope to do this in the first quarter of 2012.
In the meantime, the London chapter will continue to meet because a) they want to get together again b) they can help bootstrap the wider LOPO organization.
That London Chapter will meet again on the evening of Thursday 26th January, and we’ll be having some special LOPO-like guests coming over from Denmark to join us and tell us about what they do. We’ll send out an eventbrite meeting in the new year so people can reserve places – but for now, if you’re in London, keep the date free.
On a personal note, can I say it’s been an incredible year – and I did not expect the end of it to see us launching such an amazing group of do-ers. 2012 will be the year of LOPO.
The League of Pragmatic Optimists (or LOPO) is a meeting place in cities and towns across the globe where people who want to make the world better can meet, generate ideas and projects, get inspiration (and a recharge), find collaborators and get their neurons tickled in the cause of improving the story of humanity.
We have eight core principles
● An unashamed optimism of ambition about the future
● A pragmatic focus. Chapters meet to help people do, not just talk. (Or to put it another way, if you’re a mouth on legs you probably won’t be invited back)
● Members involve themselves in projects that are ‘bigger than me’
● There is a strong belief that ideas become more powerful when they are shared, not protected
● Your stories and opinions are nice, but your evidence is better
● Making mistakes is OK, but not trying is irresponsible
● Members strive to police their own cynicism
● LOPO is a-political. All stripes welcome but we don't come to promote our stripes.
