Tag: (U1/2/3) Communication

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Holistic Reflections on My Project

Reflecting on my Position in the field of Biophilic Design:

Coming towards the end of my masters journey it offers the perfect time to reflect upon the work I have completed in my project so far and consequently the position I have developed as an expert and agent for change in the field of biophilic design.

Through my project and recently developing the Nature In Community I have formed respect amongst natural designers and I have formed a network of professionals and key contacts in the field that I am keen to continue to grow and build upon these relationships past the point of my masters. Forming the Nature In Community has vastly contributed to growing my network.

I aim to utilise my connections in the future to develop content and discussions that can facilitate the continued growth of the Nature in Community. But, also I will look to utilise these contacts to run collaborations that showcase how nature can be integrated into city spaces. For example, Kristina Libby is an expert I have been in contact with throughout my project and she is very keen to collaborate on a project involving technobiophilia in the new year. Additionally, I have been in contact with a new bar called the ‘Flowerhouse pub’ in Marylebone that aims to offer a space for women in hospitality. I have spoken with them in regards to running a collaboration in their spaces. This is an exciting opportunity that could also involve working alongside their florists and other natural design professionals.

Furthermore, on the academic side I have written an article for the Journal of Biophilic Design which began to solidify my position as an expert in this field and has been very beneficial in gaining respect from high profile contacts. This was apparent when helping at the Planted Event, whereby having done the article provided the opportunity to meet others who had written for the journal or wanted to get involved, and so it opened a door to meeting more contacts.

More recently, having been asked to guest lecturer at the University of Westminster has cemented my place in the field of natural design and proven that I do have the power to instigate change in this field.

Finally, I am in discussions with a company to begin working for them in natural design in the new year. The role would involve me heading up their department in CPD training for architects, interior designers and alike to educate them on biophilia and the benefits it can bring to their work. This opportunity is an incredibly exciting one which I have achieved purely through showcasing the work of my project to the company and having networked in the field of biophilic design to have met some of the employees in the company, leading to this opportunity. Working in educating professionals around biophilia through CPD training also fits seamlessly with the efforts of the Nature In Community. This aim being to educate professionals on what biophilic deigns is, its benefits and how to incorporate it into their work and spaces. Therefore, I would continue to run the Nature In Community alongside this opportunity and further increase my position as an expert in natural deign.

At the beginning of my masters journey I knew the arena I wanted to work in from the start, this being around natural design and sustainability. But, it has taken until forming the Nature In Community to feel I have a real channel and direction to instigate the changes I wish to create, which has fuelled a new drive and sense of purpose in me that I am excited to continue.

Reflecting on My Personal Journey Through My Masters:

Undertaking a masters at a arts university was a big unknown for me at the start of this year. It was a very different experience to my previous education in geography at the University of Birmingham and a very different experience to anything anyone around me had undertaken. This was scary jumping into unfamiliar circumstances, but I knew it was the best way to learn how to apply my academic background with developing concepts and ideas that can trigger changes in innovative ways, which is what I wanted to do. Reflecting on the work I have undertaken this past year I feel I have achieved the foundations of what I set out to do in undertaking this masters. I have developed a strong community and position in my field that have already instigated changes in approaches to how nature is applied in city spaces, but I can now utilise these platforms to trigger the larger actionable changes I want to achieve.

I have also learnt numerous new skills this year from creating branding and designing logos all the way through to hosting and organising physical events, including writing risk assessments and co-ordinating with different university bodies; and even to host panel discussions with experts from across the world!

Looking back it seems hard to believe it has only been a year, but I am very happy that I have thrown everything I have into this project to make the most of the opportunity of the masters which I can then develop into a future career in natural design.

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Involvement with CSM Climate Emergency Network

I have been aware of the work the CSM Climate Emergency Network is undertaking for some time. The network offers a necessary voice of the CSM community to action change in aiding the climate crisis. 

However, I haven’t been an active participant in this group due to restrictions on my time and having made the decision that my efforts are best focused upon driving the success of my project. This is due to the aims of my project focusing upon bringing nature into city spaces and aiding the climate crisis as a secondary benefit of the inclusion of nature into spaces. Whereas the climate network focuses largely on the wider issues of the climate crisis and how they should be tackled.

This does not mean that my overall ideals don’t align with theirs, I admire the work they are conducting and will continue to follow it past the point of my masters and hopefully, I will be able to engage more actively as alumni. Campaigns of the Climate Network that I have included new materials and rewilding are the most closely linked to the aims of my project and so I intend to get in touch with people involved in these areas and learn more about their work and any future collaborations that may be possible with them.

I have subscribed to the Climate Network newsletter and follow them on instagram so that I can keep updated with their progress.

Reflection

I am looking forward to having more time after the completion of my maters in which I will be able to become a more active participant in the Climate Network. I am very interested in the work they are conducting and I wish to ensure that my wider commercial and political awareness is expanded regarding the climate crisis.

I will also contact the Climate network to ask if they would be interested in utilising my work as an example of how the climate crisis can be aided through the integration of nature into city spaces. Additionally, I will invite anyone interested to the Nature In Community so that they can expand their knowledge in biophilia and learn how they can introduce it into their work and spaces to benefit their wellbeing and the wellbeing of the planet.

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Nature In Community Content and Feedback UPDATE

In light of the upcoming assessment I wanted to publish the most up to date figures, engagement and feedback relating to the Nature In Community.

This update post is a direct continuation of my earlier post which showcases all of the content on the Nature In Community at that stage, this post merely adds to that collect of content and feedback to ensure all new data is recorded.

Nature In Content Update

I can proudly share that the Nature In Community now has over 50 members and counting! These members come from all around the world ranging from Australia to America, the UK and beyond.

Reflection– It has been a huge effort to grow the community to this size in a matter of weeks but one that has been very worthwhile. Forming this community has provided a space for not only myself but others in natural design to pour out ideas and provoke discussion and thoughts. I am very excited to see where this community can go and feel driven with a true sense of purpose to take it there.

The range of global stakeholders provides a holistic view of the current usage, knowledge and acceptance of biophilic design across the world, which is vital in learning how and where change can be instigated. It also allows new inspirations and ideas to occur as everyone has very different backgrounds, cultures and viewpoints.

Community members have begun posting their own content in the community, as I have encouraged. The first two images show original content shared by Andrea Bariselli who is the founder of Strobilo and whom I met whilst assisting in the Planted Event. The second two images are from new connections I have made brining them into the community and they have posted short introductions to the community.

Reflection – The collaborative effort to meet the shared goal of integrating nature into city spaces is beginning to take shape here through members contributing their own content. I aim to have more community members posting content and ideas in the group, this is something I am going to focus upon over the coming weeks.

The content from Andrea is particularly interesting and in line with the aims and message of the community, as it breaks down the key points of an academic paper and explores why nature helps to improve our wellbeing, whilst linking directly to his profession.

(Critique) – However, I do recognise that the content of Andrea’s post is still very complex and someone from a none academic background may struggle to understand some of this post. Therefore, I am really focusing upon gathering members form all background so that some content my be more academic, like this, which provides clearly factual grounding for the concepts of biophilia. But then that other posts will be much more of a break down of ideas and concepts around biophilia in laymen’s terms.

Once someone joins the community I reach out with a message thanking them for taking part and asking if they would share a short intro to themselves, their work and link to interest to natural deign. I also state here that community discussion is encouraged and that they should feel free to post any thoughts/ problems/ ideas they have relating to natural design. Many members have continued to post introductions to themselves, however sharing own content of thoughts and ideas is proving a slower process to encourage. But I am confident this can be achieved as many members are very keen to get involved in the conversation and have been eager to help if they can relating to my project.

I have also continued to have overwhelmingly positive repossess from those I have been contacting on LinkedIn to join the community.

Reflection – The positive responses suggest that forming this community was exactly what was needed for the space of biophilic design and is an endeavour which I am optimistic can generate real change in the integration of nature into city spaces.

I have also started to see community members recommending others that I should contact to join the group, which is very beneficial in creating a true sense of collaboration and community in that everyone is contributing to the space that it being developed.

Reflection – This recommendation of members also helps to overcome issues in my own biases meaning I often subconsciously target people of work that I find interesting or that I feel could be of value to the community. However, members being added through recommendations helps to create a diverse space that interests all members of the community and pushes my knowledge and ideas of what can be achived.

Overall Reflection and Evaluation

The community has gotten off to a great start in attracting top professionals and engaging members in the common goal of educating in biophilia and how it can be innovatively integrated into city spaces.

The challenge is to sustain this growth and engagement and begin collaboration between member stop develop ways to apply nature in city spaces that can then be conducted in city spaces. To work on maintaining these factors I will refer back to the work of Bowes (2002) on building online professional communities.

To become more educated on how to effectively build the Nature In Community further, I intend to read the following:

Barrett, M., Oborn, E. and Orlikowski, W., (2016). ‘Creating value in online communities: The sociomaterial configuring of strategy, platform, and stakeholder engagement’. Information Systems Research, 27(4), pp.704-723.

Faraj, S. and Wasko, M.M., (2001). ‘The web of knowledge: An investigation of knowledge exchange in networks of practice.’ Paper submitted for publication.

Seddon, K., Skinner, N.C. and Postlethwaite, K.C., (2008). ‘Creating a model to examine motivation for sustained engagement in online communities’. Education and Information Technologies, 13(1), pp.17-34.

Thomas-Hunt, M.C., Ogden, T.Y. and Neale, M.A., (2003). ‘Who’s really sharing? Effects of social and expert status on knowledge exchange within groups.’ Management science, 49(4), pp.464-477.

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Being Invited to Guest Lecture at the University of Westminster

Guest Lecturing on Biophilic Design

Recently I have been invited to go into the University of Westminster as guest lecturer on their Real Estate programme in conjunction with their Sustainability and Planning module. 

My lecture will be for an hour to around 60 students and is to take place in January.  I will speak on what biophilia is, its benefits to health and sustainability as well as how it can be applied in the world of real estate and planning.

Reflection 

Being invited to do this discussion validates my position as an expert and agent for change in the field of biophilic design that I have built up throughout conducting my project and most recently through forming and building the Nature In Community. Being invited to do this lecture is a direct consequence of leading the Nature In Community, as I reached out to Professor Ali to join the community and in response he asked me to come in and speak with his students.

The request from universities for discussion around biophilia to take place in their lectures symbolises the rise in academic acceptance of the field and also the rising need for it within professions. This is due to the university wanting me to educate the real estate students on the value and potential power of biophilic deign, which may subsequently inspire them to following a career in natural design, or on a less grandiose scale, it may inspire them to join the Nature In Community and learn how they can begin to link biophilia into their work and integrate nature into professions they will undertake. Either way, this opportunity signifies a much needed step in making biophilia a well known and applied concept, as there are currently no university courses that focus directly on teaching biophilic deign; rather there are only courses on sustainability (or similar) that merely touch on the subject.

Conducting this guest lecture directly serves my mission of the Nature In Community to educate on biophilic design and how to integrate it into city spaces, making it approachable, engaging and exciting for professionals, or in this case upcoming professionals in university students.

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Content of Nature In Youtube Channel

The Nature in Youtube Channel hosts all the formal discussions I have had as part of my project/ the Nature In entity.

I have included screen shots of the discussions featured on there for ease of assessment, but the channel is publicly visible via the link below.

Link to Nature In Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqNK8rZOlsj1UFpzT3pfuCQ

Nature In Youtube Channel

Reflections/ Evaluation

The content on the Youtube channel is linked to through posts in the Nature In Community. Youtube is utilised as a platform to host the long-form videos of the discussions and talks held with experts in natural design.

The artwork on the YouTube thumbnails are consistent in theme, and I have progressed from the initial artworks present on the earlier videos to the more recent ones, in that I had paid extra attention now to ensure they are as clear to read as possible. This is after the feedback I received from my initial branding (see editing branding/ community content blog post) to make sure that text in the branding is easy to read as in earlier iterations the contrast between colourways was not strong enough.

I have had increased engagement in the content on YouTube from the growth of the Nature In Community. I wish to continue this growth to keep providing insightful and innovative discussions with experts. I have already planned ideas for lots of this content (see 1 Year Plan for Discussions/ Content for Nature In Community post). However, the order of this content may change slightly in accordance with the availability of experts.

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Content and Feedback on Nature In Instagram

I have included all of content from the Nature In Instagram page below for the ease of assessment, but the page can also be viewed publicly via the link below.

Link to Nature In Instagram page: https://www.instagram.com/nature.i.n/?hl=en

Nature In Instagram which promotes the Nature In Community whilst educating and provoking discussion around natural design in city spaces. The Instagram page is also utilised to showcase more visual ideas of how to add nature into spaces and provide inspiration for those who are curious about where to begin in integrating nature into their spaces and professions.

Nature In Instagram

Link to Nature In Instagram page: https://www.instagram.com/nature.i.n/?hl=en

Reflections/ Evaluation

I have received consistent likes on my post, but no comments despite posting questions. Possibly the language and thoughts I am posting on the page may not be as simplistic as they need to be to engage the audience of the Instagram page. I will try and make the content I post on there even simpler and more approachable to grow the following and make natural design exciting and engaging for the wider audience.

I am also considering making snippets of the discussions featured on the youtube and LinkedIn communities to post on the Instagram. This will help to make the experts more approachable to a wider audience.

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1 Year Plan for Discussions/ Content for Nature In Community

I have roughly planned the topics for the discussions and subsequent content in the community that will relate to the discussion theme for each month over the upcoming year and beyond. This plan can be seen below.

Year Plan of Nature In Content 

November 2021 – How can nature improve wellbeing in cities?

  • Health benefits of nature – physical and mental
  • Suggestions of where to interact with nature in cities (start with London) 
  • Ideas of how to add nature into the city
  • Ideas of how to add nature into your work practises – interior designers, to graphic designers to office workers 

December 2021 – How can nature be added into city spaces through businesses/ professions? 

  • Nature and work environment 
  • Percy Smith to guest speak?

Also – include some Nature in winter – making the most of nature this winter in cities 

  • Festive ideas of adding nature into cities
  • Winter ways of interacting with nature 

January 2022 – Nature and the climate crisis 

  • New year, new goals for nature – making nature integrated into cities to aid climate change
  • Facts on the power of nature for climate change 

February 2022 – Designing urban interiors with nature

  • Interior designers and architects guest speakers and graphic designers?
  • Alia Fadel to guest? – landscape architect 

March 2022– Nature and Technology 

  • Can technology boost connections to nature? 
  • Sue Thomas and Kristina Libby to guest speak 
  • Exploring nature and virtual reality to aid wellbeing/ mental health – ask Sam to collab on an activity tying in with her project on VR and metal health 

April 2022 – Economics of Biophilic Design 

  • How can adding nature into your work help you attract more customers and increase profits? 
  • Bill and Catie Terrapin Bright Green guest speak

May 2022 – Natural building in cities

  • Jeffery Heart Guest speaker 
  • What can natural building do for work/ life in urban interiors? 

June 2022 – Regenerative design and nature 

  • Carole Collet to guest speak 

July 2022 – Increasing connections to nature through targeting the senses

August 2022 – Increasing connections to nature through targeting the senses Nature and furniture/ sustainable furniture practises

  • Yarn Collective etc to guest speak 
    • How products are made, their link to nature and importance 
  • Explore how sustainable/ natural materials help to link to nature

September 2022 – Is a green wall really the bets we can do? 

  • General debate/ collaboration of companies pushing innovative ways of how nature can be added into spaces 
  • Could even form this idea into a competition – getting companies to collaborate and produce ideas to add nature to an internal city space 
    • The ideas can then be pitched as part of a competition where the winner gets to create their idea and install it in a given space
      • This does require someone to volunteer a space for the installation of the natural design
    • People will take part as it offers an opportunity to showcase their work, which can draw people to get involved in their work as customers or collaborators   

October 2022 – What is the power of plants in a city spaces? 

  • Plant designs and planteria 

November 2022 – Biodiversity/ rewilding for those of us in cities

December 2022 – Nature and city culture

  • Exploring in music, fashion, nightlife and how to incorporate nature

January 2023 – How to introduce nature in none-creative careers – nature for lawyers, bankers and business people in the city – ‘we haven’t forgotten about you’ 

  • Pushing past things companies do for their employees in regard to nature, such as adding nature to work environments and instead focusing more upon how nature can aid personal work/ careers

February 2023– Nature and displacement activities form screens 

March 2023  – Nature and food 

  • Contact chefs or the likes of Waitrose food magazine writers for a special 
  • How to feel close to nature through city food, where foraging and growing your own food is out of the question 
  • Nature for city chefs? – contact London honey company to guest speak? 
    • Bearing in mind out pricing people due to heightened prices of local produce? 

Reflection

Having this plan of my future content, past the point of my masters, has allowed me to develop a framework that I can continuously add to as I formulate new ideas that I wish to explore through the Nature In Community. This plan will also allow me to begin contacting guest speakers and arranging panel discussions to ensure that everyone has enough time to find suitable availability for the discussions.

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Agenda for Discussion – How can nature improve wellbeing in cities?

Due to having only secured 1 panellist for the discussion due to time constraints and people being very busy in the run-up to Christmas; I am running this discussion as more of a podcast-style talk with audience questions at the end.

The panellist is Kristina Libby, an expert in biophilic design who has been involved in running a covid memorial project centred around biophilia and has a background in technology; exploring the links in how technology can connect us to nature. Kristina has been involved in the previous two-panel discussions and so she is very familiar with the project.

The discussion will run Thursday, November 11th at 1pm and will be streamed to the Nature In Youtube Channel via stream yard. The youtube link for the discussion will be posted on the Nature In Instagram page and in the LinkedIn Community to direct the audience to view the talk.

The Agenda for the discussion between Kristina and I can be seen below:

How can nature improve wellbeing in cities?

  • Short background on you
  • How do you utilise nature in your work/ profession? 
    • Either for inspiration or directly implementing it into your practise? 
  • What are the benefits of interacting with nature – to physical and mental wellbeing / importance of nature if our lives
    • Exploring the various benefits and how they can be achieved 
    • Can nature be prescribed as a form of therapy – if it’s introduced into city spaces then the form of natural therapy would be a part of daily life and so not needing to be prescribed?
  • How do you interact with nature in cities?
    • What do you do to feel the benefits of nature when in the city? 
      • Walking with nature, higher air quality – recreating the setting of outdoors inside
    • What is you favourite recent experience of nature in the city?
  • How can nature be included in internal city spaces?  
    • Design elements – adding plants, taking inspiration from nature in patterns and lights
    • Workplaces/ hospitality/ public spaces?
    • Events/ experiences?
  • Final thought – easy idea to include nature in your work/ day today 
  • Any audience questions

Promotion of Discussion

Reflection

It is unfortunate that I haven’t been able to secure any more panellists this time around. However, this panel has been organized in a much shorter time frame than the previous two, as the recent evolution of my project to be around developing the Nature In Community has consumed the majority of the time to get it up and running. I have now planned out my monthly topics for the panels for the next year including ideas for panel guests so this issue shouldn’t arise again. I will post this planning of the content in an upcoming post.

However, I am looking forward to running the talk in a different format, as the podcast style focusing on one person will allow for greater insights and understanding into Kristina’s work and personal opinions and ideas on how nature can benefit city dwellers.

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Organising Panel Discussion 3 & Growing the Nature In Community

Over the past week, I have contacted the network I have developed throughout my project to join the Nature In LinkedIn Community. I also asked if they would like to get involved in the panel discussion I am going to run on the 11th November at 1pm UK time.

The panel is set to discuss ‘How can nature improve wellbeing in the city?

So far I have reached out to:

  • Kristina Libby
  • Vanessa Champion
  • Raji Iyer
  • Heidi Lenaerts
  • Lianne Bongers
  • Dr Alia Fadel
  • Bill Browning
  • Bruce Dallow
  • Bettina Bolten
  • Leonardo Binetti
  • Sue Thomas
  • Willem Van Bolderen

I will look to host the panel via stream yard linking to the Nature In youtube account. However, I am considering charging a small fee for audience entry to the event which would allow me to offer some form of small payment to my guest speakers. I am going to research the logistics and feasibility of this aspect further before committing to it.

I have also reached out to the participants of the Immersive Event whose contact details I received and invited them to join the panel as audience members.

The agenda for the panel will be posted in the upcoming days alongside promotions for the panel that I am running on the Nature In Community via LinkedIn and also on the Nature In Instagram.

Reflection/ Evaluation:

At the end of the week, the Nature In Community now has 8 members who are all involved in the natural design industry. I will continue to approach people over the coming week to join the community, now focusing upon other professions to gain a wider audience in the group.

For the panel discussion on Tuesday, I have secured Kristina Libby to part take and I have 4 confirmed audience members. Many experts I have approached are very busy in the run-up to Christmas and so are unable to get involved in the panel. Therefore, if I am unable to secure any more panelists for Tuesday I will run the discussion just with Kristina in a podcast-style format still taking questions from the audience.

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Nature In Community Planning/ Future of Nature In

Structure of Community Content: 

  • Monthly Talks 
    • Featuring guests and charging a viewing fee
    • Panel discussions and one to one podcast style
  • Weekly Community Discussions – on Clubhouse 
    • The week after the talk, the discussion will be based upon the content of the talk, in almost a book club style format, allowing the talk to be unpacked and applying the ideas to personal circumstances
  • Content Uploads 2/3 times a week
    • Provoking community discussion and contribution, as well as providing factual info 

Future Plans:

App/ Member’s area

  • Access to businesses/ designers – allowing members to view their work/ ideas and then message to collaborate/ work with them on projects to bring nature into cities

Aim of Nature In Community: 

Bringing together professionals to make bringing nature into city spaces an accessible and innovative priority.

Possible tag line – Making nature and sustainability an easily accessible, engaging priority for professionals working in and on city spaces. 

Everyone is concerned with acting more sustainably with nature, for the planet, especially in a professional/ corporate setting where there is pressure to be seen to be doing so.

The Nature In Community offers a one-stop-shop to access the leading experts, businesses, and ideas in bringing nature into city spaces.

Bringing nature into the city aids personal wellbeing and the climate crisis through protecting and enhancing nature as well as encouraging sustainability-conscious behaviors. 

Discussion and Collaboration: 

  • On current members current work with issues and questions regarding including nature
  • Instigating projects between members from connections made in the group
  • Members can post their work in the community inspired by community conversations

Content Ideas: 

Questions/ facts/ talking points/ games/ competitions/ interactive activities

  • Could look at introducing monthly themes or mini-series?
    • Theme could centre around that month’s panel discussion?
    • Mini-series idea – how to introduce nature through evoking the senses through the elements – air, wind, fire, earth, water
  • Games/ Interactive activities 
    • Interactive maps – Jauntly 
      • Map of biophilic/ natural places to visit in London
      • Map of the best biophilic/ natural spots to work in London (co-working/ cafes)
    • Group Collage 
      • Inviting members to post ways of adding nature in their work that week through images or text – these can be added to a collage of all the members posts 
  • Could begin posting content/ facts around a close look of nature and professionals in the city, gradually zooming out on the subsidiary impacts/ benefits of including nature in the cityscape 
  • Similar idea to ‘minute of me’ 
    • Community members post short videos of themselves – stating their work, goals and ideas
  • Post responses/ questions/ facts regarding the outcomes of COP26
  • Catching lucky leaf idea
    • Community members asked to post their reflections/ wants for good luck into the new year

Ideas for Talk Topics: 

  • How can nature improve wellbeing in the city? 
  • What can natural building do for your work/ life in urban interior spaces? 
    • Contact Jeffery Heart to guest speak
  • How can nature improve your work environment? 
    • Contact Percy Smith to guest speak
  • What does nature bring to the table? – benefits of nature to wellbeing and climate crisis
  • How can nature be introduced in designing urban interior spaces 
    • Contact architects and interior designers with natural deisgn professionals to guest speak
  • How can regenerative design aid our integration of nature into cities? 
    • Contact Carole Collet to guest speak
  • How can nature help graphic designers? – utilising nature for inspiration and for restorative rest bite 
    • Contact graphic and natural designers to guest speak
  • How can technology boost connections to nature?
    • Contact Sue Thomas and Kristina Libby to guest speak 
  • How can adding nature help your businesses attract more customers? -Economics of biophilic design
    • Contact Bill and Catie from Terrapin Bright Green to guest speak 
  • How targeting the senses can help to build connections to nature
  • Can you make a difference to biodiversity/ rewilding living in the city? 
  • Nature and Virtual Reality
    • Could link with Sam’s project for VR and mental health?
  • Nature and displacement activities from screens
    • Could link to Jariel’s project – utilise nature to give a the opportunity to step away from work and improve your project output
  • Nature and furniture
    • Contact Yarn Collective, John Lewis and alike to guest speak 
    • How products reduce carbon output and how natural materials help to improve wellbeing and build connections to nature, alongside benefits to climate crisis 
  • Is a green wall really the best we can do? 
    • General debate/ collaboration of companies pushing innovative ways of how nature can be added into spaces 
    • Could even form this idea into a competition – getting companies to collaborate and produce ideas to add nature to an internal city space 
      • The ideas can then be pitched as part of a competition where the winner gets to create their idea and install it in a given space
        • This does require someone to volunteer a space for the installation of the natural design
      • People will take part as it offers an opportunity to showcase their work, which can draw people to get involved in their work as customers or collaborators   
  • What is the power of plants in a city space? 
    • Contacts Planteria and Plant Designs to guest speak?
  • Nature and city culture – exploring in music, fashion, nightlife and how to incorporate nature
  • How to introduce nature in none-creative careers – nature for lawyers, bankers and business people in the city – ‘we haven’t forgotten about you’ 
    • Pushing past things companies do for their employees in regard to nature, such as adding nature to work environments and instead focusing mire upon how nature can aid personal work/ careers
  • Nature and food 
    • Contact chefs or the likes of Waitrose food magazine writers for a special 
    • How to feel close to nature through city food, where foraging and growing your own food is out of the question 
    • Nature for city chefs? – contact London honey company to guest speak? 
      • Bearing in mind out pricing people due to heightened prices of local produce? 
  • Nature and health/ wellbeing 
    • Exercise, yoga, mindfulness and nature’s integral role in instigating and elevating these practises 

More customer based: 

  • How can you bring nature to your life when living in the city with no garden? 
  • Nature for city kids 
    • How to get city kids to include nature in their lives, goals and ideas
      • Explore what’s out there for kids – ‘mind’ game looking at nature and now and getting kids to consider it at meal times

The Product 

  • App/ community platform 
    • Thursdays rebrand from honey pot that was hosted on Instagram and the oncoming birth of Web 3 suggests that the internets of social media is shifting towards a space where customised online community spaces are the form of social media whereby the spaces are less mindless scrolling and more mindful scrolling in community spaces of like-minded people 
      • Suggesting moving the online community group off linkedin to an own hosted platform might be the correct move to form the community into more of a viable business model
    • Companies/ experts/ professionals pay to be on the app as listed Nature In approved – subscription-based payment? – free gets you to see certain things but to utilise it properly or message people you have to subscribe? 
      • Possible feature/ section for venues wanting to add nature in projects and the professionals on the app can select them – the venues could pay to be listed in this section
    • Professionals want to join the app/ space to see who they can work with, see what projects are available and what ideas they can create/ utilise 
    • Could offer professional access first and then roll out to the public to access the listed professionals? 
    • The panels/ talks will be linked to/ access given via the app platform – free to members 
      • Or could do a tiered membership: 
        • Free- access to see some posted content (just enough to give the sense of the community and what to be achieved? 
        • Basic – access to members, messaging, and community content
        • Premium – access to all the above and panel discussions/ talks and access to listed venues or companies available for projects? 

Who to Get on Board with the Project – large targets: 

Technology Inspiration: 

  • Onezone app
  • Thursday app- Massively growth in short period of time – Jess Wreford Marketing lead 

Podcasts:

  • Design the future

Big Big: 

  • Bill Gates 
  • Google 
    • Off the back of how to avoid climate disaster – highlight need to include nature in all lines of professional work aimed in cities

Natural World:

  •  More younger generation figure of the likes of Chris Packham or Alan titschmarch 
    • Consider who this could be?

Reflection

Having started to grow the Nature In community on LinkedIn, through inviting the contacts I have made throughout my matsers journey to the page and uploading content, it is exciting to plan the future growth of the space.

I feel the platform of LinkedIn is the most suitable strating point to grow the community initially as it allows of easy acess to many professionals already on the site. However, looking to the future and growing this community and platform into a viable model for change and business I feel it may be best to move onto a self made home platform such as an app or website space that can be fully customisable and provide a space to unify people with alined intentions. Thus, helping to step away from the negative connotatons that can be brought into the soical media space. For instance, ideas of watsing time on the platforms through encourgaing habits of mindless scrollling. Also, with the prodicted trends in Web3 exploring future rises in social networking online moving off the current platforms I feel establishing a unique community space may be a suitable option.