Two dozen people gathered at Madlab last night for the latest interactive meeting of the “Steady State Manchester” project. The project’s first report, which will detail things that we can do in Manchester to prepare for the post-growth world*, will be released in late October, ahead of a formal launch event in mid-November. That launch, and the sorts of things that happen at it, was one of the many things under discussion.

After meeting “a stranger” and introducing them to everyone else, small groups formed and tackled various questions. We then reformed, quickly re-introduced ourselves (more people had turned up and made new groups to brainstorm at “cultural” events/the launch.  People then had a chance to mingle (swap cards/email addresses etc) before the meeting finished promptly at nine.

Questions
Given the recent unprecedented melting of Arctic sea ice, the hypothetical question was posed “if it ‘snowed for seven days’ in Manchester this winter, what would you do to prepare, both for your own household, and to be useful to your neighbours?”

Other questions tackled included – “what would you need to become an ‘ambassador’ for Steady-State Manchester, how do we engage ‘the big players’” and what sort of cultural events could Steady-State Manchester either stage or attend to start having conversations (instead of the top-down “two academics and a politician at the front of a room” style thing that is the ‘green’ movement’s default-setting).

What next
Over the next couple of days the ideas and issues collected last night will appear as blog posts on this site. Over the coming weeks, more information about the launch, and “after” will appear on the site. We will “cross-post” stories on Manchester Climate Monthly, and also post them both to the facebook group and the linked-in page.