This is a CTP of initiative: Omstilling Ry (Transition Ry - Denmark)
The Energy Expo was a large scale event that was held over two days. It attracted a lot of people (estimated at around 1000).
It was a critical turning point because it put Omstilling Ry on the map and got them a lot of exposure with the local community who then understood better what they were trying to achieve.
It was extremely important in attracting new people to help as, at that point, the initiative was in much need of fresh impetus and new energy to keep going. At that point in time, the initiative was still very reliant on the three main founders - one of which (Jenna) was beginning to step back. Hence, the Expo helped Omstilling Ry to develop their ‘brand’ with a wider range of people. After this event more people contacted them and got involved.
The Energy Expo started on a Friday night with a dance. On Saturday, the main expo opened with the stalls, talks, activities and workshops such as ‘art from waste’. On Sunday, people could also visit people’s houses to see installed technologies.
The Expo included a range of activities. There were over 100 stalls with local businesses, technical demonstrations (e.g. solar panels, biological cleaning of water, but also: “entertainment and the scouts came and made a fire and there were electric cars you could try, competitions, people selling food, so there was a lot of things going on and a workshop making arts from rubbish, things like that.”
It resulted in a lot of press coverage both locally and nationally. The motivation for the event was not to promote Omstilling Ry. Rather, the Expo aimed to inform people about sustainable energy technologies and sustainable building practices/ materials. and to encourage their uptake. It was also aimed at encouraging the support of local businesses that are involved in these sectors: “insulation of houses, solar cells, etc. and building materials for houses, sustainable building materials. We wanted to make it easy for people to actually do something, easy for them to get in contact with the people selling these things and we also wanted them to get in contact with people who had already bought solar cells etc.”
There were transport elements too. People could try out Segways and electric bikes, as well as have a ride in a Telsa sports car.
The organising group which established the event emerged from one of the initial Omstilling Ry public meetings. They then became a separate sub-project and developed the Expo on their own initiative. There was very little contact between the Omstilling Ry core group and the Energy Expo group in the period running up to the Expo. They operated pretty much as an autonomous group, running in ‘parallel’. There were three of them initially - subsequently rising to around five members. All of the members of the group were 50 or over.
The idea of an expo itself emerged as part of a co-productive framework. A cousin of one of the group’s founders had arranged an energy expo in Africa on different energy saving initiatives. It's not clear if this was the original seed of the idea, but it was certainly part of the discussion that led to the group forming around this particular event.
They managed to secure some financial support for the event. They received some funding from a scheme that encouraged older people to be active. They also got some money from a fund that supported cultural activities in the locality.
One member of the group focused on approaching local businesses and encouraging them to participate.
There was a considerable amount of marketing for the event: articles / adverts in the newspaper, banners were put up in the town, etc.
One interviewee described how a special atmosphere was created at the event though having cultural elements alongside the businesses on the stalls etc.
However, there is a question as to whether the success of the expo was in part down to the high levels of social capital and creative/ alternative culture in the area.
Preceding events:
The first meetings of Omstilling Ry were important as this is where the idea first came from and the organizing group was formed. The Expo group wanted to do something more practical rather than just talking. Early on, they arranged a meeting with businesses, trade people, retailer associations etc. They didn’t really offer to help but they were sympathetic to the idea.
Subsequent events:
The group organized another expo for the following year which was more focused around waste. It had a similar format but contained a lot more presentations: “Presentations on upgrading things from being waste to being products, we had an architect give a presentation on solar cells, who they could actually be used to create beautiful buildings, we had an electric car alliance, which is promoting electric cars, coming to tell us about what is the situation right now on electric cars and so on. We had a woman that came and made a presentation on food and wastage of food.”
It didn’t attract quite as many visitors although it was much easier to get people to help with the event management (e.g. parking etc). This was part of the wider positive effect on generating publicity and support for Omstilling Ry. This was the last big event that they organized.
In Ry there is an annual late night shopping night which is also a small festival. Omstilling Ry rent a shop and put on an event and the Expo group participate in that by putting on some activities.
There were some minor tensions between the Expo group and the core-group.
The Expo group didn’t feel that they received enough support from the core group. MT explains that, from her perspective, she prefers to put her energy into a wider range of activities over a period of time rather than one big periodic event. So, to some extent, this was a disagreement about how to be active or effective.
A disagreement arose as to how to distribute the surplus (20,000 Danish Krone) that was generated by the event. There was a dispute as to whether this ‘belonged’ to the organizing Expo group, or to the wider Omstilling Ry group. The Expo group wanted to use it to organise another expo. On the other hand, Omstilling Ry didn’t have any funds to even purchase the lentils for their lentil soup. In the end they split the funds: half went to Omstilling Ry and half was used for the future event.
The Expo group had also approached the local municipality for help or support but nothing had been forthcoming. Then, a few weeks before the Energy Expo, the municipality had its own Energy Expo which was a copy of many of the ideas that were in the Transition Expo. They invited Omstilling Ry and they had a stall but it felt very weird. They felt that it was not as successful as their Expo.
They realized that it was significant at the time in terms of raising the profile of Omstilling Ry and developing the reputation of the group.
With hindsight, they realized that it was critical for attracting more people to participate in Omstilling Ry.
It made them think about how you allocate your resources - e.g. the extent to which you put them into large scale events and the extent to which you need to reserve energy to keep things going.
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