1

The Fire Starter Festival is an annual festival highlighting and celebrating innovation and creativity in Scottish public services, with a particular focus on transformational change. The Festival is curated and organised by Scottish Government, with events hosted by a broad range of public sector, third sector and community organisations. In 2018 it will run between 29 January – 9 February

2

Fire Starter Festival was ‘sparked’ by a comment at an event ‘Flourishing Workforce’ in 2015. A participant made a comment about ‘lighting small fires of change’. This inspired then Permanent Secretary to produce ‘Seven Steps for Lighting a Small Fire’

3

A small pilot of the festival was held in 2016. 5 events over 5 days attended by 150 people.

4

2017 was the first ‘full’ festival and saw an explosion of interest from 2016.

5

All participants were ask what they felt was getting in the way of transforming public services – what they wanted to burn.

6

They were also asked what they wanted to see more of – what they wanted to spark and ignite.

7

We launched the event with 150 in Edinburgh, exploring the theme of the 21st Century Public Servant.

8

We had a diversity of events – this was a workshop sharing a digital tool – open badges - that social services are using.

9

The festival also asked ‘burning questions’ – like how to address ‘the elephant in the room’ around co-production

10

Events happened in different places – this was an outdoor education event for teachers – they also burned they things they wanted to leave behind

11

The festival was also about sharing and exploring issues together. This event was a continuation of the 2016 Performance Bonfire, looking in 2017 at how you can make performance matter – so it’s about the people rather than the data.

12

We culminated the festival with an exhibition at Scottish Parliament outside the debating chamber, sharing outputs and images from the festival. This was a great opportunity to engage with MSPs and ministers about the Festival and the projects and programmes underway in their constituencies.

13

Finally, we held a reception at the parliament, celebrating the successes of the festival and hearing stories from some of the hosts and key stakeholders.

14

We filmed a series of videos with some of the hosts from 2017, allowing them to explain what they see as the value of the Fire Starter Festival. Video - https://vimeo.com/album/4655330/video/222834504

15

Programme of events so far for 2018

16

2018 is also the Year of Young People. We will be framing our launch event around this question.

17

18

There are three rules for Fire Starter Festival. If you want to host an event and aren’t sure if you can meet all three, please speak to us in the first instance as we may be able to be flexible

19

We think all Fire Starter Festival events should align within the ethos of the festival.

20

To share the learning from Fire Starter Festival 2018 we will be hosting a ‘beehive’ – a co-operative learning event, looking to share and cross pollinate ideas and insights people have picked up from across the festival. For more information please visit https://firestarterfestival.com/2017/10/11/the-beehive-experiment/

21

We hold a breakfast club in Edinburgh the second Wednesday of every month. This is a good place for fire starters to network throughout the year. If you are interested in joining, just turn up! We are looking at setting up similar breakfast clubs in other cities, so if you are interested in hosting one please get in touch.

22

23