We’ve been trying new things at SPACE4 this month! We hosted our first online event since the pandemic, put on a film screening by one of our very own desk users, and had an engaging and insightful discussion event on Carbon Calculators.
To mark International Women’s Day on Wednesday 8th March we hosted an online zoom discussion about ‘The State of Inclusion in Tech’. We were joined by:
- Wendy Saccuzzo who leads Hiring Services with Tech Ladies, the largest online community for women in tech.
- Kay Kukoyi, multi-award-winning entrepreneur and the CEO and Founder of Purposeful Group®.
- And Irina Kamalova, a Director of Women Who Code London and a Backend Software Engineer at Revolut.
Wendy spoke about key ways in which tech companies can be more inclusive and job seekers can find the right role. Kay spoke about her personal success story in tech and how underrepresented groups can make the most of their opportunities. And Irina spoke about how instrumental networks like Women Who Code can be to underrepresented groups in the industry.
On Thursday 16th March we were thrilled to host a sold out screening of climate activism documentary ‘Finite: The Climate of Change’. We were very proud that Rich Felgate, the director, is actually one of our SPACE4 desk users. It was a brilliant film about two direct action groups, one in the UK and one in Germany, fighting to protect land from the construction and expansion of open-pit coal mines. The cinematography and stories were emotional and after the show we were able to host a short Q&A with Rich and a member of Just Stop Oil.
Finally, on Wednesday 31st March we hosted a discussion event on ‘Carbon Calculators: Data Tools for the Climate Crisis’. In these events, we invite three speakers to discuss and/or debate a contemporary issue. They each speak for 15 minutes with 5 minutes of questions after and a bit of a discussion at the end. For this event we were joined by:
- Polly Robbins from Outlandish who worked on the Carbon Calculator tool we built for Islington Council.
- Alex Moate from Islington’s Digital Comms team who has been responsible for promoting the use of the tool amongst Islington’s residents and businesses.
- And Ben Philp from Creative Coop, another tech cooperative, which designed and built a successuful and popular Farm Carbon Calculator in the UK.
Lots of people working in the carbon calculator space attended this event. There was plenty of mingling and lots of engaging questions. Polly and Alex talked us through the development of Islington’s Carbon Calculator and we even live demoed it. Alex was transparent about its limited usage so far but explained Islington’s plans for the future. Ben presented on the fascinating history of Creative Coop’s Farm Carbon Calculator. Initially developed for a farmer in the Scilly Isles over a decade a go, it is now onto Version 4 and is seemingly at the heart of a what could become a new kind of carbon consciousness in the UK farming industry.
There was lots of networking and good vibes at all the events. We try to organise two of these events per month so keep up to speed with our events and join us in April!
