Own Our Experiments

Experiments fill us with a sense of trepidation, but if they are part of a bigger plan, you tweak and produce work with intent.

Last year I started recording short videos called #parklife. I shared what’s been happening at the Dorset Innovation Park, the events and visitors to the Defence BattleLab. I also shined a spotlight on other tenants and what they do.

This year, #parklife goes on tour.

I will be visiting science parks, innovation hubs and collaboration networks around the UK. The goal is to interview the people who manage the sites and the tenants that are part of that community.

D3IP is the business unit that manages the ecosystem of partners around the goals of the Defence BattleLab.

I want to travel and meet the partners at their offices and get to see first-hand what they do and get them to share their innovations with those who are willing to share on camera.

It feels like a natural progression and feels right. We don’t get better at anything until we do more of it. I’m too old to be stifled by the fear of imperfection and what others might say.

Very little is about me and my business, but ultimately everything reflects back. Also, no one I can see is progressing with this type of initiative, so why not own that space?

All of this does come back to UK PLC needing to increase productivity and investment in innovation is touted as a key component, with job creation as a much-needed benefit.

This is an opportunity for me to improve my confidence, my media skills and to talk to a higher regional level. This Great South West region still has to compete with the rest of the country for central government funding.

This is collective action on a different level. The ideas, the work is no longer just experimenting, it become a role. It’s about the wider responsibility from having an initial idea to step up and bring to life.

It makes me realise that the risks we take and doing the things we don’t normally do, can lead to work that has meaning and provides a role for others. What might start as step into the unknown, becomes an approach that contributes.

When ideas start to work and you spend time with them, you don’t have to call them an experiment anymore.