Meaning 2012, October 1st, Brighton, Uk
A NixonMcInnes thing for better 21st century business

The Meaning conference is an annual gathering for people who believe business can and must be better in the 21st century. Learn from pioneers and build connections with like-minded peers. Together we can change the world of business.

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SPEAKERS

Our speakers are thinkers and doers from business, academia and activism, each bringing their view of the challenges and opportunities available to us.

Click on the 2012 speakers to watch the videos of their talks.

Caroline Lucas

Caroline brings two perspectives to Meaning: as a lifelong activist for a more sustainable world, and as a politician with experience at British & European parliaments. What future does Caroline see for business?

PROFILE & 2012 VIDEO
Caroline is leader of the Green Party as well as its first MP, representing Brighton Pavilion. She served as an MEP from 1999 until 2010 and as an Oxfordshire councillor previously.

www.carolinelucas.com
- Twitter
Caroline is leader of the Green Party as well as its first MP, representing Brighton Pavilion. She served as an MEP from 1999 until 2010 and as an Oxfordshire councillor previously.

She is Co-Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Fuel Poverty, as well as Vice Chair of the Animal Welfare, Public and Commercial Services, Sustainable Housing and CND All Party Parliamentary Groups. She is also a member of the Parliament’s Environmental Audit Committee.

Caroline continues to be an active campaigner on a range of issues and has been voted the UK's most ethical politician in 2007, 2009 and 2010 by readers of the Observer. She is also in the Environment Agency’s Top 100 Eco-Heroes of all time.
Caroline Lucas

Caroline is leader of the Green Party as well as its first MP, representing Brighton Pavilion. She served as an MEP from 1999 until 2010 and as an Oxfordshire councillor previously.

www.carolinelucas.com
- Twitter
Caroline is leader of the Green Party as well as its first MP, representing Brighton Pavilion. She served as an MEP from 1999 until 2010 and as an Oxfordshire councillor previously.

She is Co-Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Fuel Poverty, as well as Vice Chair of the Animal Welfare, Public and Commercial Services, Sustainable Housing and CND All Party Parliamentary Groups. She is also a member of the Parliament’s Environmental Audit Committee.

Caroline continues to be an active campaigner on a range of issues and has been voted the UK's most ethical politician in 2007, 2009 and 2010 by readers of the Observer. She is also in the Environment Agency’s Top 100 Eco-Heroes of all time.
Alexander Kjerulf

Alexander has spent years studying happiness at work, hanging out in the happiest workplaces in the world and spreading practical techniques & academic insight to help people enjoy their work. What will Alex share to help our businesses be happier?

PROFILE & 2012 VIDEO
Alexander is one of the world's leading experts on creating happy workplaces and the author of 3 books including the bestseller "Happy Hour is 9 to 5".

http://positivesharing.com/
- Twitter
- Google+
- LinkedIn
The future belongs to the happy.

Throughout the industrial age, work has been drudgery. We accepted jobs we disliked only because they paid us the money we needed to survive. That attitude will not cut it in the future.

If a workplace today wants to be competitive, it needs its people to be productive, creative, motivated, service oriented, helpful and engaged. And we know from research in psychology and neuroscience that only happy people reliably exhibit all these traits.

That is why the most important success factor for any modern workplace is its ability to make its employees happy and why happy companies make more money.

Learn from one of the world's leading experts about how companies can be happier and more successful.

What is happiness at work and what is it not.

What makes us happy and unhappy at work (it’s not what you think).

The latest science behind happiness in the workplace.

Happiness at work is one of the top 3 factors that make us happy in life.

Why happy employees are more productive and happy workplaces are more successful.
Alexander Kjerulf

Alexander is one of the world's leading experts on creating happy workplaces and the author of 3 books including the bestseller "Happy Hour is 9 to 5".

http://positivesharing.com/
- Twitter
- Google+
- LinkedIn
The future belongs to the happy.

Throughout the industrial age, work has been drudgery. We accepted jobs we disliked only because they paid us the money we needed to survive. That attitude will not cut it in the future.

If a workplace today wants to be competitive, it needs its people to be productive, creative, motivated, service oriented, helpful and engaged. And we know from research in psychology and neuroscience that only happy people reliably exhibit all these traits.

That is why the most important success factor for any modern workplace is its ability to make its employees happy and why happy companies make more money.

Learn from one of the world's leading experts about how companies can be happier and more successful.

What is happiness at work and what is it not.

What makes us happy and unhappy at work (it’s not what you think).

The latest science behind happiness in the workplace.

Happiness at work is one of the top 3 factors that make us happy in life.

Why happy employees are more productive and happy workplaces are more successful.
Stowe Boyd

Stowe spends his days immersed in research around the impact of social tools on media, business and society, and has advised technological innovators like IBM, Yammer and Bitly. How does Stowe see the near-future of social business?

PROFILE & 2012 VIDEO
Stowe is a sought-after speaker, and in recent years has participated in many prestigious events, including including Web 2.0, Enterprise 2.0, GigaOM Net:Work, Reboot, Next, Mesh, Shift, Lift, SIBOS, Defrag, and TEDxMidAtlantic.

http://stoweboyd.com/
- Twitter
- LinkedIn
For the past decade Stowe's work has been social tools and their impact on media, business, and society, and in recent years, a growing concentration on the future of work and the rise of the social business. He divides his attention across research, design, and media activities, working with a diverse set of companies and collaborators.

Stowe's work is generally directed to what’s just over the horizon, but considers himself a ‘postfuturist’ since his research approach is something past postmodern, something more post-industrial.

Stowe has served as an advisor to a short list of innovative social tools and media companies, principally focused on product direction and strategy. These have included giants like AOL, Microsoft and IBM, and start-ups like Bitly, Yammer and Wander. He also consults for large enterprises grappling with the challenges of applying social tools to their operations.
Stowe Boyd

Stowe is a sought-after speaker, and in recent years has participated in many prestigious events, including including Web 2.0, Enterprise 2.0, GigaOM Net:Work, Reboot, Next, Mesh, Shift, Lift, SIBOS, Defrag, and TEDxMidAtlantic.

http://stoweboyd.com/
- Twitter
- LinkedIn
For the past decade Stowe's work has been social tools and their impact on media, business, and society, and in recent years, a growing concentration on the future of work and the rise of the social business. He divides his attention across research, design, and media activities, working with a diverse set of companies and collaborators.

Stowe's work is generally directed to what’s just over the horizon, but considers himself a ‘postfuturist’ since his research approach is something past postmodern, something more post-industrial.

Stowe has served as an advisor to a short list of innovative social tools and media companies, principally focused on product direction and strategy. These have included giants like AOL, Microsoft and IBM, and start-ups like Bitly, Yammer and Wander. He also consults for large enterprises grappling with the challenges of applying social tools to their operations.
Vinay Gupta

Vinay is an international authority on resilience. He has created an open source structure called Hexayurt to provide low-cost shelter for those in need, and sees a volatile and radically altered future for business and society. How will Vinay challenge us to respond to the future?

PROFILE & 2012 VIDEO
Vinay Gupta is one of the world’s leading thinkers on infrastructure theory, state failure solutions, and managing global system risks including poverty/development and the environmental crisis.

http://vinay.howtolivewiki.com/blog/about
- Twitter
Vinay runs the world's most successful Free Hardware housing project, the Hexayurt Project, which takes modern ideas about cooperation and applies them to getting Buckminster Fuller's work fully deployed. Cooperating with architects, designers, mathematicians and thousands of shelter builders, real breakthroughs have been achieved in simple, low cost humanitarian construction. In recent years, he's turned his focus to systems more complex than a single household, developing a Creative Commons based "survival geography" called Simple Critical Infrastructure Maps which is used by the Pentagon and one or two other national governments in risk management and disaster relief. This system is being extended to help coordinate response to the economic crisis in the most vulnerable areas.

Gupta's original training is as a Hindu priest of the Nath Sampradaya sect. He was formally recognized as enlightened in the late 1990s, but does not teach, preferring to work in the world. He has discarded many of the pre-1945 religious frameworks as inadequate for an age in which humanity has the potential to destroy itself and the world we share.
Vinay Gupta

Vinay Gupta is one of the world’s leading thinkers on infrastructure theory, state failure solutions, and managing global system risks including poverty/development and the environmental crisis.

http://vinay.howtolivewiki.com/blog/about
- Twitter
Vinay runs the world's most successful Free Hardware housing project, the Hexayurt Project, which takes modern ideas about cooperation and applies them to getting Buckminster Fuller's work fully deployed. Cooperating with architects, designers, mathematicians and thousands of shelter builders, real breakthroughs have been achieved in simple, low cost humanitarian construction. In recent years, he's turned his focus to systems more complex than a single household, developing a Creative Commons based "survival geography" called Simple Critical Infrastructure Maps which is used by the Pentagon and one or two other national governments in risk management and disaster relief. This system is being extended to help coordinate response to the economic crisis in the most vulnerable areas.

Gupta's original training is as a Hindu priest of the Nath Sampradaya sect. He was formally recognized as enlightened in the late 1990s, but does not teach, preferring to work in the world. He has discarded many of the pre-1945 religious frameworks as inadequate for an age in which humanity has the potential to destroy itself and the world we share.
Margaret Elliott

Margaret launched two co-ops in the 1970s and now leads Sunderland Home Care Associates which is fully employee-owned and provides care to over 500 elderly and disabled people. How will Margaret inspire and educate us about employee ownership?

PROFILE & 2012 VIDEO
Margaret launched two co-ops in the 1970s and now leads Sunderland Home Care Associates which is fully employee-owned and provides care to over 500 elderly and disabled people. How will Margaret inspire and educate us about the employee ownership?

http://www.sunderland2020.com/independentfutures.html
- LinkedIn
Margaret Elliott OBE has been involved in co-operative and employee ownership development since the 1970s, first as founder member of a worker’s co-operative shop, Little Women, and then in a small Home Care co-operative, Little Women Household Services Ltd. This co-op used Social Security benefits to cover the cost of the help. It built up close contacts with Social Services, Trade Unions and the Voluntary Sector.

After a stint at the Prince’s Trust and a study visit to care co-operatives in New York, Margaret established the hugely successful Sunderland Home Care Associates in 1994 that received the UK Social Enterprise of the Year award in 2006. Currently, SHCA employs over 420 people and has an annual turnover of £5.3 million.

Margaret is also a founder member of Care and Share Associates (CASA). CASA develops companies based on the SHCA model. There are currently six companies that have been developed and are supported by CASA’s Social Franchise model.

Margaret’s commitment to participation in the workplace is as strong now as it was when she first learned of this totally different way of working in the early seventies. Her dedication and achievements were recognised with the awarding of an OBE in 2009. She is regularly invited to participate in meetings to discuss the shaping of government policy in areas of social enterprise, mutualisation and employee ownership. Margaret’s way of working will continue to inform the development of Sunderland Home Care Associates and CASA.
Margaret Elliott

Margaret launched two co-ops in the 1970s and now leads Sunderland Home Care Associates which is fully employee-owned and provides care to over 500 elderly and disabled people. How will Margaret inspire and educate us about the employee ownership?

http://www.sunderland2020.com/independentfutures.html
- LinkedIn
Margaret Elliott OBE has been involved in co-operative and employee ownership development since the 1970s, first as founder member of a worker’s co-operative shop, Little Women, and then in a small Home Care co-operative, Little Women Household Services Ltd. This co-op used Social Security benefits to cover the cost of the help. It built up close contacts with Social Services, Trade Unions and the Voluntary Sector.

After a stint at the Prince’s Trust and a study visit to care co-operatives in New York, Margaret established the hugely successful Sunderland Home Care Associates in 1994 that received the UK Social Enterprise of the Year award in 2006. Currently, SHCA employs over 420 people and has an annual turnover of £5.3 million.

Margaret is also a founder member of Care and Share Associates (CASA). CASA develops companies based on the SHCA model. There are currently six companies that have been developed and are supported by CASA’s Social Franchise model.

Margaret’s commitment to participation in the workplace is as strong now as it was when she first learned of this totally different way of working in the early seventies. Her dedication and achievements were recognised with the awarding of an OBE in 2009. She is regularly invited to participate in meetings to discuss the shaping of government policy in areas of social enterprise, mutualisation and employee ownership. Margaret’s way of working will continue to inform the development of Sunderland Home Care Associates and CASA.
David Hieatt

David Hieatt is a founder of Hiut Denim, a company that seeks to create the finest handmade jeans in the world, using the skills of grandmaster jean makers in West Wales. What will David tell us about purpose and craftsmanship?

PROFILE & 2012 VIDEO
Founder of Howies, Hiut Denim and The Do Lectures. An entrepreneur on a mission to do one thing well.

http://www.davidhieatt.typepad.com/
- Twitter
- LinkedIn
David is an entrepreneur, he co-founded Howies with his wife Clare in 1995. The company was later sold to Timberland and David moved on to start the Do Lectures in his native Cardiganshire - a weekend of camping and brainfood which is based on the simple idea that people who do things can inspire the rest of us to do things too. Places at the Do Lectures now sell out even before the speakers have been announced.

David's latest venture Hiut Denim brings jean making back to the town of Aberteifi in Wales which once produced 35,000 pairs a week. Having reopened the original factory the tremendous skills of local craftspeople are once again used to produce handmade jeans for the international market, breathing new life into the local economy.

David is also author of The Do-Book, a pocket guide to helping you to achieve more - to help you understand the ebb and flow of making something happen.
David Hieatt

Founder of Howies, Hiut Denim and The Do Lectures. An entrepreneur on a mission to do one thing well.

http://www.davidhieatt.typepad.com/
- Twitter
- LinkedIn
David is an entrepreneur, he co-founded Howies with his wife Clare in 1995. The company was later sold to Timberland and David moved on to start the Do Lectures in his native Cardiganshire - a weekend of camping and brainfood which is based on the simple idea that people who do things can inspire the rest of us to do things too. Places at the Do Lectures now sell out even before the speakers have been announced.

David's latest venture Hiut Denim brings jean making back to the town of Aberteifi in Wales which once produced 35,000 pairs a week. Having reopened the original factory the tremendous skills of local craftspeople are once again used to produce handmade jeans for the international market, breathing new life into the local economy.

David is also author of The Do-Book, a pocket guide to helping you to achieve more - to help you understand the ebb and flow of making something happen.
Karen Pine

Professor Karen Pine is an expert in behaviour change and runs behaviour change programmes to help people in communities and organisations change their habits. How will Karen help us experience and better understand how to effect change?

PROFILE & 2012 VIDEO
Professor Karen Pine is a woman with a mission – to get one million people doing something different. Karen talks about how behaviour change can boost happiness, wellbeing and success at home and at work.

http://karenpine.com/
Karen Pine is Professor of Developmental Psychology at the University of Hertfordshire, a member of the British Psychological Society, a Chartered Scientist and a Professor in the Department of Fashion at Bilgi Istanbul University. But in her spare time she’s a woman with a mission – to get one million people doing something different. Talking, thinking, analysing … these are all very well, according to Karen, but it’s doing that really makes a difference. To our own lives and those of others.

As a psychologist Karen has notched up some okay credentials; a professor at two esteemed universitites, hundreds of papers published in academic journals and conference presentations all over the world. On top of this she has managed to squeeze out a few books: The No Diet Diet, Sheconomics, Love Not Smoking, The Do Something Different Journal and Flex: Do Something Different. But in recent years what’s really fired her up has been transitioning the 'Do Something Different' behaviour change theory into a set of tools that genuinely transform lives. Karen talks about how this approach boosts happiness, wellbeing and success at home and at work.
Karen Pine

Professor Karen Pine is a woman with a mission – to get one million people doing something different. Karen talks about how behaviour change can boost happiness, wellbeing and success at home and at work.

http://karenpine.com/
Karen Pine is Professor of Developmental Psychology at the University of Hertfordshire, a member of the British Psychological Society, a Chartered Scientist and a Professor in the Department of Fashion at Bilgi Istanbul University. But in her spare time she’s a woman with a mission – to get one million people doing something different. Talking, thinking, analysing … these are all very well, according to Karen, but it’s doing that really makes a difference. To our own lives and those of others.

As a psychologist Karen has notched up some okay credentials; a professor at two esteemed universitites, hundreds of papers published in academic journals and conference presentations all over the world. On top of this she has managed to squeeze out a few books: The No Diet Diet, Sheconomics, Love Not Smoking, The Do Something Different Journal and Flex: Do Something Different. But in recent years what’s really fired her up has been transitioning the 'Do Something Different' behaviour change theory into a set of tools that genuinely transform lives. Karen talks about how this approach boosts happiness, wellbeing and success at home and at work.
Indy Johar

Indy is a ground-breaking thinker and do-er with a voracious interest in both macro-economics and social change. This is twinned with practical hands-on ventures in an architectural design practice and the well-loved Hub Westminister. How will Indy blow our minds about the future of business?

PROFILE & 2012 VIDEO
Indy is a ground-breaking thinker and do-er with a voracious interest in both macro-economics and social change. This is twinned with practical hands-on ventures in an architectural design practice and the well-loved Hub Westminister. How will Indy blow our minds about the future of business?

http://www.architecture00.net/people.php
- Twitter
- LinkedIn
Indy Johar is a qualified architect and place strategist. He co-founded 00:/ [zer’o zer’o] in 2005, a research-driven design practice focused on re-imagining, re-thinking, re-designing and re-organising place. The practice’s work supports physical and spatial interventions catalysed by the synthesis of quantitative & qualitative research with a community & market generative approach. Projects range from the scale of bespoke place shaping strategies to the detailed design & delivery of prototypes such as low-carbon homes, world class – co-working & learning institutions, community led neighbourhood retrofits and ‘self-commission masterplans’ - amongst others.

Indy has taught at various institutions from Columbia University New York to Said Business School Oxford. He is also a Demos Associate and Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.
Indy Johar

Indy is a ground-breaking thinker and do-er with a voracious interest in both macro-economics and social change. This is twinned with practical hands-on ventures in an architectural design practice and the well-loved Hub Westminister. How will Indy blow our minds about the future of business?

http://www.architecture00.net/people.php
- Twitter
- LinkedIn
Indy Johar is a qualified architect and place strategist. He co-founded 00:/ [zer’o zer’o] in 2005, a research-driven design practice focused on re-imagining, re-thinking, re-designing and re-organising place. The practice’s work supports physical and spatial interventions catalysed by the synthesis of quantitative & qualitative research with a community & market generative approach. Projects range from the scale of bespoke place shaping strategies to the detailed design & delivery of prototypes such as low-carbon homes, world class – co-working & learning institutions, community led neighbourhood retrofits and ‘self-commission masterplans’ - amongst others.

Indy has taught at various institutions from Columbia University New York to Said Business School Oxford. He is also a Demos Associate and Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.
Luis Suarez

Luis has spent the past four years living in a corporate world at IBM but without the use of email. What can Luis tell us about freeing ourselves from conventional working practices?

PROFILE & 2012 VIDEO
Luis Suarez is a seasoned Social Business evangelist and 2.0 practitioner at IBM.

http://elsua.net/
- Twitter
- Google+
- LinkedIn
Luis has over 15 years experience of knowledge management, collaboration, learning, online communities and social networking for business. For the last four years he has been living in a corporate world without email. He challenges the status quo of how knowledge workers collaborate and share their knowledge by promoting openness, transparency, trust, sustainable growth, engagement, connectedness and overall smart work.
Luis Suarez

Luis Suarez is a seasoned Social Business evangelist and 2.0 practitioner at IBM.

http://elsua.net/
- Twitter
- Google+
- LinkedIn
Luis has over 15 years experience of knowledge management, collaboration, learning, online communities and social networking for business. For the last four years he has been living in a corporate world without email. He challenges the status quo of how knowledge workers collaborate and share their knowledge by promoting openness, transparency, trust, sustainable growth, engagement, connectedness and overall smart work.
Pamela Warhurst

Pam will tell us the inspiring story of what started as a seed swapping project to get the local community growing its own food on unused land. The organisation she is now chair of has become an inspiration for urban regeneration and education projects around the globe. What can Pam teach us about the power of small action?

PROFILE & 2012 VIDEO
Pam will tell us the inspiring story of what started as a seed swapping project to get the local community growing its own food on unused land. The organisation she is now chair of has become an inspiration for urban regeneration and education projects around the globe. What can Pam teach us about the power of small action?

http://www.incredible-edible-todmorden.co.uk/projects/
- Twitter
Pam is a do-er. She believes in just getting on with it and she’s proved that small steps can make a huge difference. In her hometown of Todmorden in West Yorkshire the food growing project she started inspired the whole community into action. Todmorden now has edible gardens in every possible place, even the churchyard and the police station forecourt. She didn’t ask permission and she didn’t stop to fill out forms. Incredible Edible Todmorden now attracts visitors from all over the world seeking inspiration for their own urban regeneration projects.

Pam is a member of the Board of Natural England, where she was the lead non-executive board member working on the Countryside & Rights of Way Bill. She is a Fellow of the RSA and chairs Pennine Prospects, a regeneration company for the South Pennines.

Pam has also been Deputy Chair and Acting Chair of the Countryside Agency, leader of Calderdale Council, a board member of Yorkshire Forward, and chair of the National Countryside Access Forum and the Calderdale NHS Trust.

Pam was awarded a CBE in 2005 for services to the environment.
Pamela Warhurst

Pam will tell us the inspiring story of what started as a seed swapping project to get the local community growing its own food on unused land. The organisation she is now chair of has become an inspiration for urban regeneration and education projects around the globe. What can Pam teach us about the power of small action?

http://www.incredible-edible-todmorden.co.uk/projects/
- Twitter
Pam is a do-er. She believes in just getting on with it and she’s proved that small steps can make a huge difference. In her hometown of Todmorden in West Yorkshire the food growing project she started inspired the whole community into action. Todmorden now has edible gardens in every possible place, even the churchyard and the police station forecourt. She didn’t ask permission and she didn’t stop to fill out forms. Incredible Edible Todmorden now attracts visitors from all over the world seeking inspiration for their own urban regeneration projects.

Pam is a member of the Board of Natural England, where she was the lead non-executive board member working on the Countryside & Rights of Way Bill. She is a Fellow of the RSA and chairs Pennine Prospects, a regeneration company for the South Pennines.

Pam has also been Deputy Chair and Acting Chair of the Countryside Agency, leader of Calderdale Council, a board member of Yorkshire Forward, and chair of the National Countryside Access Forum and the Calderdale NHS Trust.

Pam was awarded a CBE in 2005 for services to the environment.

SCHEDULE

Meaning was a one day conference on 01 October 2012.
See our awesome speaker line-up below. A sit-down lunch together provided a low-key way to get to know other participants.

To enable the carers of young children to participate in Meaning we offered free childcare for under 5's on a first come first served basis.

MORNING

9.00

Registration

9:45

Welcome
Will McInnes

10.00

Stowe Boyd
The future of work

10:30

Caroline Lucas
Sustainbility in business

11.00

David Hieatt
Purpose in action

11:30

BREAK

12.00

Indy Johar
The future of capitalism

12.30

Karen Pine
Behaviour change
AFTERNOON

13:00

Lunch
created by Secret Restaurant

14:00

Alexander Kjerulf
Happiness at work

14.30

Pamela Warhurst
Action for change

15.00

Margaret Elliott
Employee ownership

15.30

BREAK

16.00

Vinay Gupta
Open source business

16.30

Luis Suarez
A collaborative future

17.00

Wrap-up
Will McInnes
EVENING

17.15

Drinks
In the foyer bar

THEMES

Here are some of the issues that were explored on the day:

Organisational design & structure

Is top-down, command and control fit for the 21st century?
Workplace democratisation

Will businesses with collaborative decision-making practices get the edge on old-school competitors?
21st century leadership

What kind of leaders do the challenges of our time demand, and what is leadership today?
Steady state economics

Can we keep growing in conventional terms and if not, what are the alternatives?
Sustainability in business

What are the opportunities for businesses to embrace sustainability?
Technology disruption

What technology themes are imminent and likely to disrupt business as usual?
The future of work

What do people want from work and what can they expect from progressive businesses?