Agree
I think that we need to have a clear distinction between the levels of our plans.
I would suggest 3 seperate levels:
The grand plan: The Reef. This can be the headline information, or (i would suggest) it is our justification or reasoning.
The main event: LOTE/COTE - we need to clearly decide which of these titles we will use for the next gathering. My feeling is we stick to LOTE to have continuity of event name/brand identity, but we subtitle it something like The Edge of Care. So. LOTE6: The Edge of Care. However if we need to call it Caring on the Edge to fit into the OpenCare structure then we use that, but have to make a effort to use that in all our comms. If we use LOTE then we can tap into the heritage of the events that have come before and how they have led us to where we are now.
Finally we want to talk about the central prototype plan: The OpenCare PopUp village. This is the interesting part that we really want to pitch. It’s what makes LOTE/COTE 6 special and different from before. It combines everything that has been learned from 5 LOTE events as well as from the Open&Change workshops and the Open Care process. This is our core pitch to cities and what we want them to get excited about.
I would structure it like this: (in brief)
Hi City.
We want you to help us run and host our next LOTE, an international unConference and meeting of people from around the world who are exploring the leading edge of science, social policy and living. This one is about Care. We have spent the past 18 months studying cutting edge aspects of care from around the world. We want to come together to discuss, learn and investigate our findings, and we want to do it in your city.
What’s so great for you? As part of LOTE/COTE we want to set up a brand new idea: The OpenCare PopUp village. This involves reaching out to local initiatives in your city and providing them with a chance to showcase their work in action as part of the big event. We have experience of connecting to these initiatives through our work with the Open&Change project that brought initatives together in Belgium, USA, Greece. We are looking to extend our network and also help you raise international awareness of the great work that citizens and organisations are undertaking in your city. We have a skill of finding and reaching out to organisations and initiatives that operate on the fringes as well as in the mainstream.
Why are we doing this/Why your city? This is where we explain the idea of The Reef. How it’s about creating a physical network that matches our online network. How it’s about creating relationships with local governments and citizens. How it’s about being hyperlocal and globally connected.
That’s my view. If people like it i’m happy to spend some time tomorrow updating the Wiki to this type of structure.