Camp digital — reflections
Our first Camp Digital, and a chance to return to Manchester. A place I was familiar with in my youth — Afflecks Palace, Cyberdog, and a couple of nights out at Sankeys, as well as an Oasis exhibition once! It was the place for shopping for cool stuff — before I got everything from the internet.
Great venue for the event, at the Royal Northern College of Music. Seeing students rolling instruments through the corridors, and the lecture theater itself, was a great setting for the event!
Unlike GovCamp, where I spend most of the day talking and buzzing from one conversation to another, I didn’t mingle that much — but enjoyed a day of mostly listening to some very knowledgeable people. Proper “brain food” kind of day.
Hope, outrage and the internet
Rachel Coldicutt started us off talking about hope. Not before giving us all a chance to let out our grumbles first!
Secretly I often think (and hope?) about the internet dying forever. It’s the source of so much that’s wrong in the world, and I dream of a more peacful existence without it!
Rachel got started on lifting us back up... Talking about hope, and the power of the people in the room -people that care about others and the environment, and actually have the expertise to make things better.
Rachel introduced the Society for Hopeful Technologists- the idea of people working in technology speaking collectively as a force for good. A trusted voice against misinformation, hype, and some of the nonsense around AI.
Those of us in the audience were asked what we were hopeful about. We managed to find a fair amount of hope in the room — from the youth, to better representation, and examples of what could be possible if good people work together properly. It was a talk to put us in to a good mindset for the day!
Sustainable intensity
Himal’s talk on sustainable intensity- or how not to burn people out (or yourself) was probably the one that stuck with me most.
He used the diagram many of us have seen online — the one with a whole stack of things balancing on “a project some random person in Nebraska has been thanklessly maintaining since 2003” — to talk about the people in organisations that quietly carry too much.
He talked honestly about his own experience of being that person, the impact it had on him personally, and the techniques he now uses to avoid ending up there again.
The people holding things together without anyone really noticing. Or worse, where the organisation does know, but just assumes they’ll keep catching things.
I think most of us can picture people like that in our own workplaces. And probably recognise a bit of ourselves in it too.
A theme running through a few talks during the day was psychological safety. Having space to think, spot patterns, ask difficult questions, and say the obvious thing that nobody wants to hear.
I lose track of the number of times you want to point out something that is clearly broken — while also knowing you’ve probably raised it before, but also that it’s “not the time”. Knowing there’s a risk of being seen as disruptive or negative. Speaking up depends on the right conditions. It depends on trust.
He also talked about burnout, and what it took to step back into work while protecting himself. The phrase “sustainable intensity” really stayed with me. Most stuff is not urgent. I often see people rushing, reacting, firefighting- and it’s a constant reminder for me that we probably need to slow down instead.
Not mistaking urgency for importance is something we all need to continue to practice.
300 Seconds
Over lunch we dropped back into the theatre for the 300 Seconds talks, hosted by Sharon O’Dea. A really nice idea to help people build confidence and experience speaking in public.
I’d heard Ann Kempster mention it online, but this was the first time I’d seen it in person. Brilliant idea and all great speakers were great. Maybe something for GovCamp Cymru this year? I’d love to see us create more opportunities for different people to speak and share.
Teams, practice and playful minds
Dan Barrett was next — someone I’ve followed online for years. I follow him for the digital stuff, but it’s probably the sandwiches I remember most 🥪
His talk reinforced the point that practice and patterns matter more than technology choices. Teams and ways of working matter more.
I’ve admired the work of Citizens Advice for a long time — mainly as their content teams do great work and work in the open. It was also interesting hearing from Dan as Head of Data, and how closely content and data seem to work together there to understand user behaviour, shape what they do, and keep iterating together.
Laura Yarrow, Head of Design for UK Government, talked about “serious work, playful minds”. Again, touching on psychological safety and the importance of giving teams space to experiment, play and think differently — something that’s more important than ever “the world is changing too fast for safe ideas”.
“A doctor and a designer walked into a hospital…” was a great session with Emma and Videha, about designing services with people, and the relationships we depend on if we’re going to tackle bigger problems properly.
It was a good reminder that combining design and clinical perspectives can help create healthcare services that work better for both users and staff.
We managed to grab some of the last seats for our final session — Shelter’s content designers talking about “Artificial Intelligence and Advice Seekers” — before needing to head back to Wales to vote in the election!
Really interesting session. People’s behaviour around finding information and advice online is changing rapidly. Probably more over the last couple of years than the previous twenty.
What does that mean for organisations? What does it mean for content teams? What does it mean for advisors? And what’s the risk for people needing advice if they’re not getting the human support they need during difficult times?
Kate and Andy shared some of the work they’re doing to better understand both the people seeking advice, and the colleagues who have traditionally played that support role up to now.
Good reminder for me to catch up on the latest Content Club recording from Nia about the impact of GenAI on user behaviour!
I understand that the sessions from Camp Digital were recorded and will be available online soon. I’d thoroughly recommend checking them out!
