About the conference

There are still 7 million people in the UK who have never been online before, and 11 million who don’t have the skills to get any benefit from the internet. The Digital evolution: Making good things happen conference – hosted by Tinder Foundation (the organisation behind the UK online centres network) - took place at the BT Centre in London. It was aimed at all those working in communities to help people improve their digital skills and take advantage of everything the internet has to offer.

The conference supported these grassroots practitioners to have a bigger impact in their

communities. Speakers from across the public, private and voluntary sectors talked about

why and how they’re supporting digital inclusion, and more importantly how centres can

attract more funding, work with new partners and essentially achieve more for more people.

Practical workshops also allowed delegates to learn more about fundraising, measuring

impact and preparing to support learners with Universal Credit.

The unconference

The night before the main conference, Tinder Foundation - in conjunction with Civic Agenda -

held an unconference event at Facebook’s Covent Garden HQ.

The event brought together over 50 delegates from across the sectors, giving them a chance to

create their own agenda, ask challenging questions of their colleagues and debate the issues

that matter to them.

Topics of conversation on the day included assisted digital, how we support and encourage

innovation and experimentation in the public sector, how we address issues of rural connectivity

and the role digital has to play in supporting a healthier nation.

During the conference, there was lots of healthy debate, some disagreements and a great deal

of agreement as attendees from big corporations, community organisations, local authorities

and central government discussed how we become the most digitally capable nation in the

world.

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Some tweets from the unconference:

@Hana_Alipour: Is social prescribing a way to get the digitally excluded with health and

social care needs to engage with the Internet? #digiunconference

@DigiSkillsCymru: This #digiunconference is one of the best event I've ever attended. So

many people passionate about innovation & openness in public service

@DeliveryIan: A potential solution to the assisted digital problem?

http://www.browsealoud.com/ Will definitely be taking a look myself. #digiunconference

@GregWat_Son: Very interesting question... How accurately do you know what 1 volunteer

costs a day? @TinderFdn #digiunconference

@NDeanStockport: Sometimes us little people (1st time I've called myself that) need to

help ourselves & work on the business not in it. #digiunconference

The main event: Digital inclusion – where we’re going

The conference was opened by Lord Knight of Weymouth, Tinder Foundation chairman and

Labour peer, who set out the mission for the day – to support the organisations working on

digital inclusion at grassroots level to have a bigger impact.

The day’s first speaker was Anna Easton, BT’s Connected Society Programme Director. Anna

talked about the commitment BT has made towards digital inclusion which, with 4.6 billion

people in the world offline, means technology is only as good as the people who use it. With a

goal for getting fibre to 9 out of 10 people in the UK by 2020, Anna talked about how BT are

supporting digital inclusion through the Digital Champions programme as well as research with

Scope to help disabled people access technology. She also talked about their wider work in

global digital inclusion programmes, and how that’s helping them learn and shape their activities

in the UK. Anna left delegates by challenging them to demand more of the private sector to

help them deliver more in their communities.

Next up, Helen Milner, Chief Executive of Tinder Foundation talked about Digital Nation, the

organisation’s new infographic that brings together all of the stats that exist around digital

inclusion, as well as what we know about how to support people with the skills, access or

motivation they need to get online. Helen also paid testament to the UK online centres network,

and the great work they have already done in communities – reiterating that it is people that

help people, and that technology is just a tool to do it. Done right, it can be powerful enough to

combat poverty, poor health, unemployment and many other social inequalities.

Maren Ashford, Deputy Director of Partnerships and Digital Inclusion at Cabinet Office was up

next, talking about the new digital inclusion team within Cabinet Office, and the work of GDS

(Government Digital Service). Maren talked about the revolution happening in government and

its mission to create services built with citizens in mind. She updated delegates on the progress

of GOV.UK and the Digital Transformation team that is helping make services simpler, clearer

and faster. She also talked about the 7 principles of digital inclusion, and the consultation the

team will start in the new year to develop them further.

Closing the day’s first session was Erica Swanson, Digital Inclusion Program Manager at

Google Fiber. With a third of Americans offline, Erica talked about the real stake Google has in

digital inclusion to meet their core mission of making information accessible to all. Google Fiber

aims to make the internet accessible to all in their homes, with gigabit connections supplied free

for community ‘anchor’ organisations like libraries, community centres and firestations. She

focussed on their work in Kansas City, and the very specific social, community and even racial

challenges the team faced in getting neighbourhoods to sign up to fibre.

Some tweets from our first session:

@AbiNStevens: Anna Easton #digievolution13 - not just UK 20 BT 'Connected Society'

projects across the world. All start IN communities, BY communities.

@BTBetterFuture: @AnnaEaston1 with #ConnectingAfrica, our vision is global. With

@sos4children we bring access to 20 villages in Africa #digievolution13

@UKonlinecentres: "This is about people helping people - technology's just the tool we

use" - @helenmilner #digievolution13

@BTBetterFuture: @anna_maren shows a clip of users giving "common sense" feedback

on beta Govt carer web pages with a view to improve #digievolution13

@charlottewheat: The Internet is most transformational when it's at home says Erica

@googlefibre #digievolution13

The panel session

The first session of the afternoon opened with something a bit different, getting the audience

going for the afternoon, young rapper Potent Whisper performing spoken word pieces about

leadership, and the power of technology.

Next, the Digital inclusion: Outside the box session kicked off. Speakers were all grassroots

practitioners working with very specific communities in very innovative ways. Chaired by Helen

Milner, the panel included Julie Hawker from Cosmic, Paul Davies from Destinations@Saltburn,

Louise Barbe from West Harton Churches Action Station, Alex Goody from Crisis and Nyree

Scott from Cambridgeshire Adult Learning.

All panellists talked about the importance of partnerships in helping them achieve more in their

communities and the commitment of volunteers, peppered with inspiring stories of the real

impact they’ve had on the lives of individuals.

Julie Hawker from Cosmic talked passionately about the need to sell your services and not rely

on government funding, while Nyree Scott from Cambridgeshire County Council talked about

the need to take risks to get to the hardest-to-reach. The panel also discussed the role of the

private sector, and specifically ISPs (Internet Service Providers) in supporting connectivity and

digital inclusion.

Questions from the audience included what tips would panellists give to ensure sustainability

once seed funding runs out, what one thing they would want to tell policymakers, and what we

can all learn, adopt and teach others about what really works in terms of digital and social

inclusion.

What our delegates thought:

@MMaryMcKenna: Teaching management theory thru #hiphop - it's the future

#digievolution13 #digital

@DigiSkillsCymru: @PotentOfficial wow, blown away by your words at #digievolution13.

Hope it brings attention to Passion project: http://thepassionproj.org/

@NDeanStockport @nyreescott moto is brilliant "you don't ask you don't get" organisations

giving free kit to social projects #digievolution13

@WEACommunityHub: #digievolution13 Panelists talking about the importance of

measuring impact of funding. Capture as much data as you can, use case studies eg

@BTBetterFuture: .@helenmilner if you don't have a track record, working with partners

can be key to help building trust #digievolution13

@UKonlinecentres: Paul Davies & @nyreescott: The real #digitalinclusion experts are the

ones working on the ground in @UKonlinecentres #digievolution13

The workshops

Digital Skills for Universal Credit

The Digital Skills for Universal Credit workshop was run by Charlotte Wheat and Abi Stevens

from Tinder Foundation. Attendees discussed a number of issues they faced around the

introduction of Universal Credit, including concerns around literacy, numeracy and digital skills,

plus dealing with people who don’t want to learn. Attendees also identified the barriers they

faced, including data protection, a lack of equipment, a lack of information about Universal

Credit, and the availability of meaningful funding to support digital skills.

Despite the challenges, attendees were keen to find solutions so they didn’t have to turn people

away. In discussion, centres explored a number of solutions, including building partnerships

with Jobcentre Plus advisors, developing new training courses for staff and volunteers and

structuring learning differently.

@elliekaypea: Wonderful to hear that @TinderFdn have strong links with DWP and will be

feeding back to them re. Jobsite/Uni. Credit. #digievolution13

Fundraising out of the box

Our Fundraising out of the box workshop was led by Matt Haworth of Reason Digital, who first

introduced attendees to the importance of digital for fundraising. He took attendees through the

tools they needed to fundraise successfully online, including the need to have a good website

and make use of social media. The group were also introduced to crowdfunding, and how they

could support campaigns of their own, as well as other digital tools that could help them raise

money, including cost-free giving, hashtag donations and eBay charity shops.

Matt’s overall message was to encourage attendees to raise the profile of their centre by using social media, with centres also taking away advice on updating their website to attract

donors, and creating online fundraising strategies.

@ivijuliane: @ReasonDigital getting inspired by Matt's workshop. We will be using your tips

very soon #digievolution13

Evaluating your community project

The Evaluating your community project workshop was run by James Richardson and Aniela

Kaczmarczyk from Tinder Foundation. Discussion revolved around the difficulty of getting

accurate demographic data on hard-to-reach groups, how to use methods like social return on

investment to put a value on services, and the evaluation tools that already exist to help.

Attendees went away with an understanding of how important evaluation is as a continuous,

ongoing process, that no method is perfect and that data should be communicated to partners

through as many different channels as possible.

@J_Rogers89: How to engage with hard to reach groups when evaluating projects...difficult

question needing creative answers #digievolution13

Social Impact and Social Enterprise

Following the final workshop sessions, delegates came back into the auditorium where social

entrepreneur and founder of the Big Issue, John Bird, took to the stage.

He talked to delegates about his vision when he first started the Big Issue – to decriminalise the

homeless, and give them the chance to make their own money.

John talked about the challenges he faced when setting up his own organisation, and the

freedom he and his founders had to take risks and build the business – all because they weren’t

relying on hand-outs of funding. John warned delegates about the dangers of relying on

government funding for their sustainability. He encouraged them to find a new business model,

identify things they could sell and to take risks to do things differently and - ultimately - better.

John continued to talk about his latest venture – Grandjar – a kind of social trading version of

Amazon where profits can go to charity, or go back to the social enterprises using the site to sell

their products or services. He encouraged delegates to think about how they could use the site,

and get in touch to talk about how might work together.

What delegates said:

@cosmicjulie: John Bird now moving onto the thorny issues of setting up #socent models

that work #digievolution13

@AnneFaulkner: The entertaining @johnbirdswords tells #digievolution13 about success of

Big Issue without a penny of government investment

@helenmilner: "Trade not aid. A hand up and not a hand out" says John Bird

#digievolution13

@MFCentre1: “Our doors are always open” @johnbirdswords wise words about the Big

Issue, and a belief we share at MFC. #digievolution13

Having a Big Impact

As the day drew to a close, Douglas White from Carnegie talked about the new report Carnegie

UK Trust have just published, looking at targeting digital exclusion in Glasgow. Douglas echoed

familiar themes from earlier in the day – that local activity needs to be scaled to be effective. He

talked about the cost barrier and the key hooks for engaging those that are offline, plus the

importance of partnership and working with others to maximise impact.

Finally, Chris Butcher from Big Lottery Fund took to the stage to talk about the organisation’s

commitment to Basic Online Skills through their large scale programme, as well as the smaller

initiatives that grassroots organisations can tap into.

What delegates said:

@UKonlinecentres: Hooks to get people connected: finding things they're interested in and

keeping in touch with people - @DW_CarnegieUK #digievolution13

@helenmilner: Scale at a Local level is key says @DW_CarnegieUK - familiar stuff Local +

Digital + Scale #digievolution13

@UKonlinecentres: It's important that we share a common definition of basic online skills,

says @BigLotteryFund #digievolution13

What next?

Chair Lord Knight of Weymouth closed the conference, summing up the day’s key themes –

more peer-to-peer support, more partnership with the public sector, adopting a social enterprise

model of working and developing new relationships with local and central government.

He closed by saying that while the need is there, there is no alternative but to build our impact.

He again paid tribute to the great work already happening in communities, and made a

commitment that together, we will scale it.

@helenmilner: "You're making good things happen, together we will scale your impact."

says @jimpknight #digievolution13

And that was it…

Thanks to those of you that came, and followed along on Twitter. We’ll see you all next year!

@NDeanStockport: Thank you to the guys at @TinderFdn have a thoroughly inspiring day

#digievolution13

@CosmicJulie: Great day at #digievolution13 conference and good to meet some wonderful

people. Oh and a John Bird of course

@TwoShedsNeko: highlight of the day? An interesting and at times hilarious talk from Big

Issue (co) founder @johnbirdswords #digievolution13 home time now!

@WEACommunityHub: #digievolution13 @WEAEastMidlands This conference

demonstrated how much UK online centres and partners have matured into a Digital force.

@Ivijuliane: On the train reflecting about our roles as digital champions Our centre is doing

well but we can improve in so many areas #digievolution13

@LOUISEBARBE: Well I survived London #digievolution13 great to hear so many people

are trying to improve the division between societies most vulnerable

Speakers Digital evolution: Making good things happen brings together a range of informative and inspirational speakers from across the sectors to inform you of government policy around digital inclusion, including:

Chair: Lord Knight of Weymouth Lord Knight of Weymouth, Jim Knight was a Labour MP from 2001-2010 and a former Schools and then Employment Minister. He became a Life Peer in 2010 and is currently working with ITN Consulting, TSL Education, Apple Europe, and Alderwood Education. Jim is passionate about the benefits being online can provide to everyone, and is chairman of Tinder Foundation. Tweet: @jimpknight

Maren Ashford, Deputy Director, Partnerships and Digital Inclusion Teams, Cabinet Office Maren is a Deputy Director and heads up the cross-government Digital Inclusion Team based in the Government Digital Service (part of the Cabinet Office). She was brought in to set up this new team in July 2013, with the purpose of helping individuals, small businesses and charities to improve their digital skills and online presence. The team aims to unite digital inclusion activity around one shared ambition and understanding of what works. Their work involves building the evidence base, embedding digital inclusion in government policies and programmes, and working alongside Go ON UK to develop partnerships with key public, private and voluntary sector stakeholders. Maren also heads up the Partnerships Team in the Cabinet Office, which she set up two years ago to act as the centre of government’s specialist policy unit for business partnerships, engagement and intelligence. Prior to this, Maren was one of the founding members of the Behavioural Insights Team in Cabinet Office (often called the ‘Nudge Unit’), which was set up in August 2010 to apply insights from academic research in behavioural economics and psychology to public policy and services. Tweet: @anna_maren

John Bird MBE, Founder and Editor-in-Chief, The Big Issue John Bird was born into poverty, brought up in care, and has lived through a lot. His life’s journey has included spells as a thief, prison inmate, artist and poet. Now an established iconoclast, activist and publisher, John Bird is the force behind The Big Issue, the world's most successful street magazine. He is an inspirational business leader with an outstanding record of using business as a tool for social change. At a time when Corporate Social Responsibility is preoccupying business leaders and consumers alike, John Bird offers an authoritative, fresh approach, and some original perspectives on the interaction of business and society. His diverse experience, combined with his exuberant personality, erudition and often trenchant views make him a compelling and entertaining speaker. Tweet: @johnbirdswords

Anna Easton, BT’s Connected Society Programme Director Anna is responsible for BT’s digital inclusion agenda across the globe, advising the Chairman, Board and Operating Committee on trends and strategy as well as directing BT's resources in this area. Anna firmly believes that a connected society is a better society and the programme reflects this. To ensure that everybody can benefit from access to fibre, UK projects range from regional digital skills initiatives (Get IT Together, BT Digital Champions) to research partnerships with Scope. Outside the UK BT operates ten digital skills projects from Brazil to Indonesia and this year will provide broadband connectivity to 100,000 people in sub-Saharan Africa. Anna’s strategy is to embed the Connected Society vision at the heart of the

business by designing projects that deliver both business value and social impact at scale. BT is a pioneer in sustainability and corporate responsibility: it maintains a gold status in the Dow Jones Sustainability Index and ‘Platinum Plus’ level in the Business in the Community Corporate Responsibility Index. Last financial year, BT invested £27.6 million, in cash, time and in-kind support, to projects that directly benefitted society. Tweet: @annaeaston1

Helen Milner, Chief Executive, Tinder Foundation Helen Milner is the Chief Executive of Tinder Foundation, a social enterprise and staff owned mutual. She is passionate about the benefits to individuals that digital technologies bring. Her priorities are to build capacity in local communities and to ensure that people get the capability they need to reap the opportunities of the web and 'digital by default' service delivery, and in the three years 2010 - 2013 her organisation and their hyper-local partners have helped 1.1 million people to do just that. She’s now working on a range of new products such as

www.communityhowto.com and www.learnmyway.com to drive the use of digital by millions more people and thousands of organisations in the UK and elsewhere.

Helen has over 20 years’ experience of working on the internet. She ran the ippr and University of Sunderland 'university for industry' pilot in 1997. She joined the newly formed Ufi in 1999 and helped to create and lead the learndirect learning network. Working closely with Government Ministers and officials since the 1990s, Helen’s ambition is to ensure that the UK doesn’t leave anyone behind as the nation becomes more and more digital. In 2012 she was included in the 20 influential people having worked or working in digital as part of the Digital Hall of Fame. Tweet: @helenmilner

Ximo Peris, Youth Development Director, The Passion

Project Ximo was a key part of the team that created the digital content for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. The teams he managed grew to over 50 creatives working in parallel from China to Mexico. Before that he successfully produced animations for London 2012 Olympic Bid, FIFA World Cup 2018 Qatar bid and FIFA World Cup Russia bid. During the 15 years he worked in media production Ximo developed his skills as public speaker, mentor and coach.

His volunteering took him to organise workshops in schools while at work he was running very young production teams. This happened to be the right experience to build to his current role as Youth Development Director of the Passion Project.

Linda Quinn, Director of Communications and Marketing,

Big Lottery Fund Linda is a member of BIG’s senior management team, responsible for corporate communications. This includes press, public affairs, publications, new media, marketing and public engagement. She was previously Deputy Director of External Relations and Head of Communications for the New Opportunities Fund.

Before joining the Fund, Linda was Head of Communications at the Communications Workers Union, where she helped oversee a merger between the unions representing Post Office employees and telecommunications employees. Linda’s long career as a journalist involved senior positions on a range of titles, including national newspapers and magazines. Tweet: @lindamquinn

Erica Swanson, Program Manager for Digital Inclusion,

Google US As program manager for digital inclusion, Erica collaborates with national thought leaders, community practitioners, funders, and technologists to drive strategic initiatives and scalable programs that will close the digital divide in cities served by Google Fiber’s gigabit Internet service. Before joining the Fiber team, Erica led Google’s outreach to advocacy organizations, advancing public policies in support of a free and open Internet. Erica came to Google from The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, where she helped national and local NGOs develop outreach strategies on issues ranging from voting rights to LGBT equality to media access. While there she led the coalition’s $3 million campaign that helped 180,000 of the hardest-to-reach people make the transition from analog to digital television.

Potent Whisper, Ambassador, The Passion Project On the 6th July 1989, Potent Whisper was born into the colourful backdrop of South London. Initially discovering his way with words as a theatre student at the world famous BRIT School, Potent’s musical journey as a rapper started in 2009 and he is now reputed for making Hip Hop music that affirms the message of love and unity. Aside from having received consistent support from BBC Radio One, Potent features in major music publications and is playing shows in Africa and Europe, Potent has spent the best part of 2013 developing his new business

‘WritePath’ providing lyricism and rap workshops to young people, both nationally and internationally. As Potent approaches his transition into 2014, he is proud to stand as an official youth Ambassador and member of the Youth Board for the Passion Project.

Douglas White, Carnegie UK Trust Douglas is a Senior Policy Officer at the Carnegie UK Trust, where he leads on digital policy. He is member of the Community Broadband Scotland Advisory Group, the Digital Participation Action Group, and the Scottish Parliament Digital Participation CPG. He is the author of the Trust’s recent reports ‘Across the Divide: Tackling Digital Exclusion in Glasgow’; ‘Going the last mile – how can broadband reach the final 10%’; and ‘Rural Broadband – Reframing the Debate’.

Prior to joining the Trust Douglas held senior roles at Blake Stevenson Ltd and Consumer Focus Scotland. He led CFS’s work on telecommunications policy and is the author of the report ‘Scotland’s Digital Needs’. Tweet: @DW_CarnegieUK

Workshop hosts Our practical workshop programme will give you lots of useful information and insight that

you can put into practice in your organisation. Our workshop hosts include:

Digital Skills for Universal Credit

Charlotte Wheat, Director of Delivery at Tinder Foundation

Charlotte is the Director of Delivery at Tinder Foundation and is passionate about digital inclusion, digital skills in building capacity in local communities, and the benefits of 'digital by default' delivery. She oversees the successful delivery of the organisation’s diverse delivery. Charlotte has over 10 years’ experience of working in the e-learning and charity sectors having previously held roles at Ufi, Learndirect and The Prince’s Trust before joining Tinder Foundation. Tweet: @charlottewheat

Fundraising out of the box

Matt Haworth, co-founder, Reason Digital Matt Haworth is co-founder of digital communications agency Reason Digital. An award winning social enterprise that magnifies the impact of charities using social and digital media. His experience spans projects and training for the BBC, The Fundraising Standards Board, Save The Children, Christian Aid, The WWF and dozens of national and regional charities. Matt will be talking about the latest ways you can use digital to source funding. Tweet: @acrim

Evaluating your community projects

James Richardson, Innovation Manager, Tinder Foundation James is Innovation Manager at Tinder Foundation, leading the team responsible for evaluating Tinder’s projects, network intelligence, and building research links with academic and policy partners. James has been involved in community volunteering for several years and he’s especially interested in finding ways to help community organisations increase their capacity using online tools. Tweet: @inagoldenframe

Aniela Kaczmarczyk, Training Manager, Tinder Foundation Aniela is Training Manager at Tinder Foundation, and leads on the development and delivery of training and development for UK online centres staff and volunteers. Aniela has over 10 years’ experience working in the e-learning and training sector and is passionate about continual professional development and the benefit training can bring to individuals as well as the organisations in which they work and support. Tweet: @anikacz

Louise Barbe, West Harton Churches Action Station Louise works as Development Worker at Action Station in South Tyneside, a small registered charity in one of the most deprived wards in the North East. Prior to joining Action Station, the majority of Louise’s roles were in the care sector supporting people with various complex issues. This experience is what developed her urge to help people and inspired her to complete a degree in Health Development. Louise has also worked as a Lecturer in Health and Social Care in a number of colleges in the region. Tweet: @LOUISEBARBE

Paul Davis, Destinations@Saltburn Paul Davies has been involved in training and learning for 16 years and has been active in the use of online and ICT learning methods throughout that time. Paul managed a publicly funded training provider for many years, delivering a range of learning programmes, NVQ’s, apprenticeships, employability skills, Management courses and Learndirect courses. After that, Paul spent time at Ufi, (the company that at that time managed UK online centres) as well as working in e-learning.

Since 2006, together with his Wife Sue, Paul runs Destinations@Saltburn, a Community Resource and UK online centre in Teesside which provides accredited and non-accredited ICT training for people of all ages and backgrounds, and any skill level, as well as programmes to assist new business, develop employability skills, improve community development and promote digital inclusion.

Alex Goodby, Crisis London Alex is the IT Training Co-ordinator for Crisis, the leading charity for single homeless adults whose aim is to bring an end to homelessness within the UK. His role within the organisation is to organise and deliver courses to their clients who are either totally new to IT, or in need of new skills to help them get ready to go back into the workplace. He has been working for Crisis since May 2008, having previously worked in the financial sector and within sales. Crisis currently have centres in London, Newcastle and Oxford, with outreach courses at other points in the UK.

Julie Hawker, Cosmic Julie is the Chief Executive of social enterprise COSMIC and for the past 16 years she has led the company to growth and development of a 17 strong team of highly skilled and dedicated individuals. Based in Devon and working across the South West, COSMIC offers web design, tech support, ICT consultancy and training, whilst at the same time focusing on digital inclusion projects as its key social objective. Julie has been involved at strategic and policy level in the development of regional and national partnerships, and support for wider economic and social impact through effective use of digital skills and social enterprise. She continues to champion these key components of the COSMIC business model with organisations and people she meets every day. Tweet: @cosmicjulie

Nyree Scott, Project Manager Digital Inclusion, Cambridgeshire County Council After gaining a Master’s Degree in Software Engineering at Newcastle in 1991, Nyree worked in the commercial training environment in both Newcastle and London before moving to Cambridgeshire to run ByteSize at Long Road College. Over the past 7 years Nyree has worked for Cambridgeshire County Council. In her current role as Project Manager for Digital Inclusion, community engagement is at the heart of the work she carries out. Nyree and her team support communities to bridge the gap in the digital skills divide that exists in Cambridgeshire. This includes significant outreach work that is delivered in rurally deprived areas. Tweet: @nyreescott