Collaborating to do social good (and a cuppa tea too)

by
When we heard of What's Brewin, the monthly meet up in London that involves collaborative chat over a cuppa tea, Startacus thought it best to make a pot, take ten minutes out and ask the What's Brewin team a few questions to find out more...
What's Brewin is the brainchild of Make:Good a Design Studio based in London. With Startacus' own collaboration platform nearly ready to unleash itself on the World, we spoke to Catherine Greig, Owner of the Business, to find out more about their businesses and how they involve collaboration to make and do social good.
So because I found out about What's Brewin indirectly via Make:Good, I've now got slightly confused...Make:Good is a Design Studio, so are you are social enterprise type design studio or do you focus on social good type projects? Explain all!
make:good is a design studio which focus on projects that have a social value. All of our projects involve us spending time in a space, meeting and engaging with people who live, work & play around the area and trying to understand what positive change would mean for those communities. Change means different things in different places and to different people so our engagement process means that sometimes we are designing parks & playgrounds, sometimes we are supporting new enterprise and sometimes we developing campaigns to support behaviour change. It is really varied and exciting!
We love the idea of What's Brewin, but can you explain to the Startacus readers, what exactly What's Brewin is?
What's brewin' is the space where we think about the issues that bubble up through the projects we work on & we think resonate with other creative practitioners working in the field of participation & engagement. We do, of course, think outside of this one hour a month! but it is really useful to have a structured time to bring other people in, share ideas about practice and get some insight because we don't want to end up just doing the same old stuff over & over again. We started by inviting a couple of people each and then those people pass their invite on to somebody they think would be interested so we get to meet more & more interesting and innovative folk.
The idea of passing the tea bag on at the end is great - but can you go back for a second meetup, or is your tenure up, when you pass the tea bag on?
We probably shouldn't say this but rules are made to be broken right? Some people come back because they are really interested in the next topic and want to keep involved in the dialogue. We also get some people who just find out about us and want to come along & that's OK as well!
Collaboration is key to Startacus and on the What's Brewin page you say that collaboration is going to help build the world we want to live in. Why?
Collaboration is so important because we don't live isolated lives or access isolated services so people need to work together in all senses. Our work is all about communities of people rather that a client of just one individual so we see the communities we work with as collaborators as well as the organisations we partner with & people whose skills we bring in on particular projects. Nobody does this stuff alone and for us a project isn't a success if a group we have been working with don't feel like they did it with us or, even better, think we just helped them out but really it was their project.
Cheers Catherine for your time and we hope to meet up at What's Brewin for a cup of tea sometime!
Join the Self Start society! If you like what you see here on Startacus and want to get involved yourself, why not become a member of our growing community by joining for free here!
Subscribe to our newsletter
If you would like to receive our startup themed newsletter, full of the latest startup opportunities, events, news, stories, tips and advice, then sign up here.
Tech Nation calls for tangible support to secure capital, talent, growth and exits needed to accelerate the growth of UK tech in decade ahead.

Glasgow-based This is Milk seeks investment for Neve Learning, its cloud-based Ed-Tech platform that has inclusivity and accessibility at its core.

With the UK facing a clear digital skills gap, Amy Caton, Digital Talent and Impact Senior Manager at BT Group shares some insights on what businesses should do to close that divide.

The lowdown on Berlin-based Beazy and its innovative solution that helps teams to plan, produce and deliver creative content and helps businesses to connect with talented content creators.

The lowdown on Fluffy, the app offering dog training, 24/7 vet messaging and insurance to give pet owners peace of mind and support them with their pet care responsibilities.

Huckletree's new Web3 HQ aims to put London’s West End at the forefront of Britain’s tech superpower ambitions.

Leading sports marketing platform, OpenSponsorship announces move into music sector, the first new vertical industry for the trans-Atlantic martech business.

Kingussie High School scoops first place for Junior and Senior categories at this year’s Growing Future Assets Competition.

The lowdown on Manchester-based Arctic Shores and its innovative recruitment solution to help candidate potential count as much as skills and experience.

With the demand for tattoo removal now greater than ever, specialist NAAMA Studios makes a bid for a further £11m in funding.
Published on: 1st November 2012
If you would like to enable commenting via your Startacus account, please enable Disqus functionality in your Account Settings.







- Tech Nation report reveals UK Tech could quadruple in value by 2032 with right conditions 23rd Mar 2023 Tech Nation calls for tangible support to secure capital, talent, growth and exits needed to accelerate the growth of UK tech in decade ahead.
- Neurodiverse learning and training platform Neve shares major six-figure investment opportunity 22nd Mar 2023 Glasgow-based This is Milk seeks investment for Neve Learning, its cloud-based Ed-Tech platform that has inclusivity and accessibility at its core.
- Huckletree opens new London hub for tech companies pioneering Web3 solutions 16th Mar 2023 Huckletree's new Web3 HQ aims to put London’s West End at the forefront of Britain’s tech superpower ambitions.
- OpenSponsorship making its move into the music sector 16th Mar 2023 Leading sports marketing platform, OpenSponsorship announces move into music sector, the first new vertical industry for the trans-Atlantic martech business.