It’s been almost a week since the dust settled like a shroud over the last ICT Hub conference - held at the cavenous Kensington Town Hall Conference centre - and we’re just rounding up some last thoughts and bones for you to pick over.
Keynotes:
We have to admit that an air of fin de siecle hung over the conference like a damp blanket - not surprising with the future funding of ICT so uncertain. Nonetheless, the Hub’s Nicky Thompson gave a rousing address to the ICT faithful gathered in the hall, praising “Lasa’s Knowledgebase as a quick and dirty solution”. Rather bizarrely, the second keynote speech was given by the Hub’s executioner, Capacity Builders’ Simon Hebditch, who was heard to say:
“…we are working with NAVCA on Business Plans for the Regional ICT Champions who can start on 1st July 2008 or, if they are wanting to be operational earlier, we can do that.”
“…[Capacitybuilders] will continue over the next three years to support ICT development.”
Does that mean a potential lifeline for the Knowledgebase and Suppliers Directory, which are currently not funded beyond 31 March 2008?
Moving along swiftly…
Publications:
The conference also saw publication of the ICT Survival Guide for Trustees by Preponderate’s Simon Davey. We hope to review it here as soon as copies are available from the Hub website or before they turn up on a Brighton market stall.
Presentations:
You can find most of the presentations featured at the conference here. The presenations will be up on the website until the end of March 2008.
A fevered Marc Osten went above and beyond the call of duty to deliver a great “Funding your future” workshop , which you can get here.
ICT Hub Awards:
You can also find out more about the fantastic award winners here. We were particularly impressed with one winner, Get Connected - which provides a free, confidential helpline for young people - and we’ll certainly be checking them out for the blog in the next few weeks.
Question time:
One more time…the panel (left to right: Nicky Thompson, Bill Freeman, John Davies, Simon Davey, Matt Legg) take questions from the floor.
Bill Freeman did confirm that NAVCA has been funded by Capacity Builders to manage a national programme of Regional ICT Champions from July 2008. However, the level of funding is such that regional champions will continue at a part-time level. Since the programme was announced regional ChangeUp consortia in London and the North East seem to think they’re off the hook for funding regional champion’s work. It’s also unclear at this stage just what agenda Capacity Builders envisage for regional champions - which may not be the same as that envisaged by regional consortia!
And lastly…
There are many things that could have been done differently or better, but nothing like the Hub model has been attempted before in the sector, and the Hubs have certainly had their critics. What the hubs did well was to leverage national economies of scale in setting up the Knowledgebase and Suppliers Directory as free resources for all. As a regional champion and a trustee of a volunteer centre, we have to say that some of the resources produced by the Governance, Performance and ICT Hubs have added real value to the sector through their publications. In fact, Capacity Builders likes the Hub model so much it’s decided to increase their number from 5 to 9 and rename them workstreams, that will no doubt see fit to re-invent the wheel.
The 9 new workstreams have just 3 years and reduced funds to bed-in - will they really be as effective as the Hubs? Will the resources they generate add value or duplicate? Will Capacity Builders be around in 3 years time. And what will be the state of sector ICT in 3 years time?
Capacitybuilders has today launched a new web resource for the nine new national support services - which started running today.
