Nominet Trust Academy (September to December 2012)
As part of our Funder+ offering, the Academy will support you in making your work sustainable over the long-term and will help you to achieve the greatest possible social impact.
Find out more...
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What is the Academy?
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Who should attend?
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What are the key benefits?
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What is the format?
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What commitment do I need to make?
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How much does it cost?
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When, where and who?
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Who will be running the Academy?
What is the Academy?
We know what fantastic work that you are all doing and see great value in giving you the opportunity to share this with each other. We're pretty sure that across all our partnerships there are lots of people at similar places on their journey of discovery and growth; the value you can bring to one another in terms of what you are learning is what we would like to create the space for at the Academy. There's plenty of peer time in the programme as well as opportunities to meet people from previous Nominet Trust projects.
We also recognise that new knowledge and expertise is needed at different stages of growth, especially to find ways of making what you are doing sustainable. We've invited a whole host of experts to come and join you at the Academy and have designed the sessions so that you get plenty of time to talk and reflect with them. Alongside these experts are mentors. When lots of new knowledge is coming your way and you are trying to keep everything running, we know that some one-to-one time with somebody who can listen, support, challenge and advise is pretty valuable.
And finally, beyond the relationships with your peers, we know that building relationships of all kinds is central to creating value and achieving growth, for any initiative. So we've formed partnerships with other organisations who we think are providing some great learning experiences so that you can immerse yourself into their communities as well.
Who should attend?
- Strategic thinkers, organisational leaders, and decision makers.
- There is one place per organisation for our directly funded partners. Additional requests for a further two people are welcome, with a waiting list in operation.
What are the key benefits?
- Tutorials from experts
- Peer collaboration and support
- Access to mentors
- Extensive networking opportunities
- Extended learning options
How much does it cost?
- As a Nominet Trust community partner, your place at the Academy is free of charge*. The equivalent cost of the Academy is £1,000 per delegate.
- All that we need is your commitment. By joining the Academy we're asking that you commit to the whole 13 week programme. We have placed a great deal of emphasis on the peer learning aspect of this programme, but for that to really work it requires everyone taking part to be consistent in attending.
- We have limited places available, so if you decide to book and then don't come along, it will mean someone else has lost out.
What commitment do I need to make?
- The next Academy is running over 13 weeks in Autumn 2012. We've designed it to be one week on and one week off because we know how busy you all are. Sometimes, when you are learning new things, it can be helpful to have some space to test it in practice.
- It will take up two to three hours of your time every two weeks over the 13 week period. We know you are busy people, but we really do believe the content of this programme will be worth your time. If we are all so busy 'doing' how will we learn from each other's experiences if we don't pause, reflect and share?
- We need one person (the same individual) from the organisation to commit to coming to every Peer Club. Up to two additional people from your organisation can join for the Core Learning sessions if the topic is of particular interest to them, and also join the networking sessions after Peer Club, but it's really important that at least one of you is there for each of those. There are only three!
- We will ask every single person to write one blog post over the course of the programme to go on the Nominet Trust website. This might be a reflection from a Core Learning session, or about a visit to one of our Academy partners and the content of one of their events. Or it might simply be about your experience so far in doing what you do!
- The extended learning opportunities and mentoring will be available to those participating in and contributing to the full programme on a regular basis - attending, listening and questioning.
- Finally, throughout the course we'd really value your help in evaluating the impact of the Academy. Not only what you think could be done differently or better next time, but how what you have learnt has changed the way you work and therefore had an impact on those you work to support. You may also be asked to share your learnings to future Academy delegates.
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The Academy has four key elements:
Core Learning Sessions
These four sessions will be held in the same venue every month and will each have a specific theme. Their aim is to deep-dive into specific areas of expertise and we've invited three speakers along to each to try and ensure that there is something of relevance for everyone. Each expert will deliver a 20 minute session with content developed especially for the Nominet Trust Academy, followed by an hour breaking into smaller groups, spending time with the expert most relevant to you. We've got people who are experts in social investment, measuring impact, open innovation and social franchising - to name just a few.
The first part of the session will be filmed to help our community partners across the UK subsequently access the Academy talks via videos posted on our site.
Peer Club
Peer Club will be held at a different host venue each time. In some ways, this is the most important part of the programme. These sessions are about meeting with and supporting your peers. They will be facilitated as active-learning sessions, where each person brings a particular challenge to the table, and as a group we help find answers to these challenges. These sessions are the ones that build those long-term relationships that can be carried into the future and really draw on all your experiences to date. We're pretty sure that someone in the room will be able to help you!
After some reflective problem-solving, we'll be inviting people from the host organisation, other Nominet Trust projects and our mentors, to join us for drinks. There will be some short talks from a guest speaker from the host organisation who will have a specific area of expertise, and you'll hear from other community partners who will talk through their story so far. We want to help you build as many inspiring and useful relationships as possible and this will be a chance to meet a wide range of different people. Peer Club is part learning, part social and we hope you'll see the value in both.
Mentoring
As much as we are a fan of peer learning, we also know that sometimes a bit of one-to-one support and reflection can be really useful. There may be a particular challenge that you are facing or some very specific expertise you feel you need at a certain time. We've got a team of mentors that we'll be introducing you to throughout the programme. You can browse their profiles here. Rather than 'assigning' you someone, we are going to test our match-making skills! When you have a challenge, come to us, and we will connect you to the person we think can be most helpful. Each organisation on the programme has access to two hours of mentoring.
Extended Learning Opportunities
For the duration of the Nominet Trust Academy programme*, you can decide when and where you use your credits with our selected partners General Assembly and Hub Academy. Each organisation has £50 of credits for each venue (a total of £100) which gives you a great opportunity to develop new ideas to incorporate in your work and to share with your Academy peers face to face or via your guest blogs on our website.
We’d love you to get maximum value from your credits, so if you have any questions about using them, please contact Cassie Robinson.
*Academy credits are valid for sessions running up until the 31 December 2012. It is the responsibility of the Academy delegate to ensure that your organisation’s expenditure does not exceed your £50 limit at each venue.
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Autumn 2012 Timetable
Session 1 - Modelling your organisation for impact and sustainability (Core Learning)
| 4-7pm, Tuesday 18th September | Gulbenkian Foundation, London | |||
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This first session will introduce you to the Nominet Trust Academy and there will also be an introductory 'social' to meet the mentors and get to know your peers. You will learn about different models for structuring your organisations and/or programmes. The following topics will be covered during the session: 1) exploring different forms of business model and how they are informed by your values, 2) going from 1 to many - how to spin out venutures and scale, 3) how to use open innovation as a way of re-defining your value proposition. This will be useful for organisations looking to grow, restructure, generate new revenue streams and reframe their offer. |
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Guest SpeakersSiân Prime is the Course Director for Goldsmith’s MA in Cultural and Creative Entrepreneurship and teaches on the MA Social Entrepreneurship, based in the Institute of Creative and Cultural Entreprenuership. Find out more about Siân. Siân will talk about why values matter and how working with your values will help you define your business model. This will also involve talking through what a business model actually is, the different types of business models there are, what they mean in terms of your values, your vision and your operational model and why it's important to be able to articulate your business model to others. Roland Harwood co-founded 100%Open, coming from NESTA where he was Director of Open Innovation. Find out more about Roland. Daniel Dickens currently has a unique role at Participle as Project Entrepreneur where he is specialising in the growth of all of their initiatives at a scaling stage. He will speak about the process of scaling ventures, the ingredients that need to be in place to enable it and the different models for doing so. |
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Session 2 - (Peer Club)
| 4-7pm, Tuesday 2nd October | Design Council, London |
These sessions are about meeting with and supporting your peers. They will be facilitated as active-learning sessions, where each person brings a particular challenge to the table, and as a group we help propose responses to these challenges. Peer Club is part learning, part social, to enable you to build useful and inspiring relationships. Guest speakers: Mat Hunter (Design Council) and Carrie Bishop (FutureGov) |
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Session 3 - Money matters and the mastery of financing (Core Learning)
| 4-6pm, Tuesday 16th October | Google Campus, London | ||
| You will learn about different aspects of finance. Depending on your size and stage of growth, as well as your organisation's mission, you will get an overview about how to be investment ready, how to raise finance (this may still be part grant-based) and what types of investment might be suitable for your growth and sustainability. | |||
Guest SpeakersDaniel Linde will start the session by mapping out the investment landscape - showing what type of investments are available and where to find them. He'll then go on to talk through the different ways to raise finance and how to be investment ready, both operationally and financially. Suzanne Biegel will talk in more detail about the investment process and particularly the stage beyond start-up. She'll speak about later stage investment, what investors look for and how you might design that in to your growth plans now. Margaret Bolton will talk about sources of financing and support for more established organisations seeking to develop new income generating ventures or to invest in their capacity to develop and potentially grow. Since 2006 Margaret has been leading a programme of work for Mission, Models, Money examining how not for profit arts organisations might become more financially sustainable by developing new income streams and the importance of access to capital in achieving this. Find out more about Margaret. |
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Session 4 - (Peer Club)
| 4-7pm, Tuesday 30th October | The Fire Station, London |
These sessions are about meeting with and supporting your peers. They will be facilitated as active-learning sessions, where each person brings a particular challenge to the table, and as a group we help propose responses to these challenges. Peer Club is part learning, part social, to enable you to build useful and inspiring relationships. Guest speakers: Nick Temple (Social Enterprise UK), Tom Latchford (Raising IT) and Adam McGreggor (Rewired State) |
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Session 5 - Measuring and capturing your story of impact (Core Learning)
| 4-6pm, Tuesday 13th November | Google Campus, London | ||
| You will learn about the different ways you can measure and tell the story of your project or organisational impact. The experts available will offer pragmatic tips and approaches for organisations of different sizes and with different needs in terms of measurement and evidence of impact. One presenter will focus on the quantitative aspects of evidencing impact, alongside expertise from others who can suggest alternative ways to evidence impact through qualitative story-telling and walking through a Theory of Change. | |||
Guest SpeakersKerry McCarthy joins us to give an overview of what to measure and how to measure it. Starting with a Theory of Change, Kerry will discuss other qualitative approaches; how to design evaluation frameworks and different ways of identifying and measuring value. Eibhlín Ní Ógáin is from New Philanthropy Capital. She works with charities and funders to understand, measure and communicate their impact. She works with charities and funders to design measurement frameworks and also carries out qualitative and quantitative social research. Nominet Trust's very own expert in residence, Kieron Kirkland, will also be on hand at this session to help guide you through your project evaluation planning and reporting. |
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Session 6 - (Peer Club)
| 4-7pm, Tuesday 27th November | Hub Westminster, London |
These sessions are about meeting with and supporting your peers. They will be facilitated as active-learning sessions, where each person brings a particular challenge to the table, and as a group we help propose responses to these challenges. Peer Club is part learning, part social to enable you to build useful and inspiring relationships. For this session, Peer Club will finish at 5:30pm and will be followed by Nominet Trust's Speedmatching event; please register for this separately. |
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Session 7 - Reaching out and being heard (Core Learning)
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Tuesday 11th December 4-5:45pm, Core Learning session at Google Campus 6-9:30pm, Feedback on your Academy experiences, followed by end of programme celebration at The Reliance |
Google Campus, London The Reliance, London |
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| You will learn about the different ways to communicate and sell what you do. Identifying new audiences and practising selling will be one element. Knowing how to raise awareness of your brand/product/service is another aspect – this can be to achieve more customers, to build a network around what you do or to look for partners. And knowing different ways to communicate, whether it be through digital tools, or designed engagements, this session will cover a variety of ways to do marketing and communications. | |||
Guest SpeakersExperienced entrepreneur and marketing expert, Lizzie Ostrom will talk through the different tools for comms and engagements for start-ups, or new ideas and projects. Emma Thwaites will focus on the strategic aspect of communications and how it links to your organisation and growth plan. Josh Campbell has 20 years of experience in sales and business development, latterly as Global Account Manager with Salesforce.com. He will talk about how to develop a sales strategy and create a process for selling a product or service. Josh is also a member of our mentor team. |
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Who will be running the Academy?
It is part of our Funder+ philosophy that services should be provided by independent experts. The Academy will be run by Cassie Robinson and Amanda Gore on behalf of Nominet Trust.
Cassie will be your main point of contact for all enquiries, feedback etc. She'll be at every session with you and co-facilitating the Peer Clubs. Amanda will be co-facilitating the Peer Clubs and both Cassie and Amanda will help with match-making you with mentors.
A note:
*The Academy is open to all current Nominet Trust funded projects. Places will be allocated on a first come, first served basis. Organisations may apply for up to three places in total, but additional requests will be placed on a waiting list. Nominet Trust is unable to reimburse any travel, or other, expenses incurred by those attending the Academy.
