before says it’s a bit like when you
hire one of those little motor boats at
the seaside and you set off and for the
first 20 minutes you don’t seem to be
able to steer it doesn’t seem to go
anywhere and finally when you get
control of it you realize you are
actually five minutes left on your
higher and 20 minutes away from the
shore so as this goes through and you
begin to think what’s he talking about
don’t worry in the final minute it’ll
begin to make some sense possibly right
this is me on the right at the age of
roughly four or five the thing in the
middle is a Christmas tree this was
going to be the future of Christmas
trees apparently they were made by a
company that worked out that their
brooms if you stuck him together would
make a false Christmas tree they were
going to take over the world as your
faces suggest they never did on the left
hand side is my brother he’s 10 years
older than me one of the most beautiful
human beings you will have the pleasure
to meet which puts me in the position of
being the disappointment of the family
when we were six or when I was six
rather there were other people being six
but in relation to this when I was six
my family decided to move from alden
just outside of manchester down to
kingston I didn’t get a big vote in this
but I was told it was going to be
brilliant first experience of my family
lying to me when I went to my new
primary school it was awful and I’ll
tell you for why it was awful two things
first off I noticed my voice didn’t sit
with anybody else’s in the playground in
fact people kept coming up and saying
say that again it sounds funny so I
spent the first few days merely
repeating things while people laughed at
the other thing that happened on the
first day I taken in a Dalek because in
oldham you worked in the morning and in
the afternoon you’re allowed to play I
was six in the afternoon at school I
lifted up my darling onto the desk and
the teacher said and at this point I
normally say Hutchinson but its primary
school so I imagine they used Robin it
was probably more polite what are you
doing Robin so I said I’m going to which
she went why and I said because we play
in the afternoon said not here we don’t
and I had to put the Dalek off and the
punishment of work continued and inside
of me a little part died because
actually play is the great place of
discovery and one of the themes that
will come through this for me is how we
re event reimagine play for adults let
me move my life on a bit I regard myself
as a very lucky man I’m lucky because
I’ve never really have much control over
my life wonderful things seem to happen
I get great opportunities I’m surrounded
by brilliant friends I have a loving
family and a wonderful wife I’m lucky
I’ve worked in large organizations
whenever you say lucky there’s always
some macho guy goes you make your own
luck in this world you don’t I didn’t
choose to be born in the UK that was
luck that gave me such a head start you
can make fortune but you have to realize
the minute you talk as luck as something
that you’ve made and others somehow have
got it wrong is the start of the
separation between perceived success and
failure and it’s a very difficult thing
so I’m lucky I’m a manic-depressive in
the year 2000 it was identified at I’m a
manic-depressive actually I’m no longer
her manic depressive I’m bipolar I was
rebranded I am personally preferred
manic-depressive I don’t know it just
sounds more like you know oh yeah
biology I do anyway so
this is kind of influenced I believe a
lot of the way that I live my life I’ve
been in depression now for about six
months in the last five weeks I’ve
started having anxiety attacks I can’t
tell you how good it’s been this event
for me and sitting waiting over there
perfect absolutely perfect so let me
tell you a little bit about certain
where I live certain is a fascinating
place if you say to most people hey what
do you like about certain those I
brilliant 20 minutes to London 20
minutes to the countryside and one day
about six years ago it struck me fancy
living in a place where you describe it
through the speed you can leave it I
mean what an astonishing psyche that is
what’s great about where you look I get
away from it really quickly it actually
started to beg a question about the sort
of place it was it’s a dormitory place
by and large like a lot of the suburbs
it’s a place where people sleep they
shop they work in London potentially if
they’re going to have a good time
they’re going to stay in London and you
end up with people who ghost walk
through their lives where they live and
all the animation happens elsewhere we
are the shorthand for suburbia suburban
is a classic expression we’ve been
helped in marketing terms like things
like the good life which have said there
are more Margot’s & jerry’s in surbiton
than there are Tom and Barbara’s my
experiences actually we’re populated by
Tom and Barbara’s and the perception of
certain is entirely wrong and actually
the suburbs are no longer what they used
to be they are full of dynamic brilliant
people who generally speaking a time
poor and the old fashioned route of
involvement and engagement rotary round
table political party in actually has
fallen by the wayside because very few
people are now prepared to commit
themselves to that regularity nor do you
see people rushing up the street going
can I be the treasurer so what is the
new form of engagement volunteering
we were looking at a place where a lot
of people described it as solace that
they didn’t know how to fit they were
passing through it ghosts in their lives
and we did the one thing I suspect
everybody would do at that point we
created the legend of a little goat boy
it’s the classic response in these
situations as men I’ll tell you a little
bit about the legend of laughy laughy
arrives in a place called Mount seething
seething we use seething rather than
served him because I was extraordinarily
nervous at the start of all of this that
if we use the term surbiton we would
find hostility from some quarters are
you here you come here giving us all
this about served and when we love it
too much so seething was this kind of
fantasy place weirdly enough it’s
actually real its geographic
geographically there but it just fallen
out of the local parlance so in seething
you have a village that is terrorized by
a giant that lives at the top of Mount
seething call Thomas Deaton but like all
Giants he’s only there once every four
years I don’t need to tell you that
you’re all experts in giant transitory
movement so you’re okay why are you
wasting your time on that Robin we
understand the basics of giants um and
when the giant goes away one time a
little baby goat boy is found at the
bottom of this mountain now because he
is different the adults who’ve grown up
in fear want to forget that it’s there
but the children who don’t have that
fear tend and care for the little goat
boy and the little goat boy grows at a
rate a goat boy he will grow so within
three years and the Giants coming back
that’s a reasonable size goat boys go
boys go don’t use the dating app when
the giant comes back levy effectively
tricks him the giant has to honor his
word and leave but in doing so smashes
down the mountain and in doing that
lettuce appears and we published a
little book which if you don’t mind I’ll
just read a tiny extract from while
shaking badly so if it actually looks
so you got it picture the scene the
villages are all standing round they’ve
realized that lefty has gone but not
only did they realize left he has gone
they realized the adults that they
treated him terribly they’d rejected him
they spurned him and despite all of that
he had helped them and so this is the
little caption bit the leader of the
village spoke villages of seedings she
said we must learn from today and never
behave again like this seething must
become a village that is open to all it
shouldn’t matter what you look like
where you come from or who you are
you’ll be welcome here and Levy as shown
as the way and that’s sort of the
underpinning principle of the state of
seething a non geographical space in
which everybody is welcome if they come
with their hearts believing the world
can be beautiful if we give the space to
make it beautiful and if we support
other people they can realize their
ambitions and if they fall we’re there
to pick them up and not to ridicule them
so on I think it was 2009 we decided in
honor of the book and where it’s
mentioned we’d have a procession in
honor of the little goat boy in my head
this procession was going to be
absolutely wonderful it was due to set
off at three o’clock we’d invited people
to wear fancy dress do whatever they
want and we were going to parade around
the state streets and people would stop
in or and go goodness is this what
happening now that’s a sentence but in
the wrong order so
at quarter to three five of us at about
10 to 37 and I’m beginning to think I
may be the only person who thinks this
is worth doing and at three o’clock
suddenly we have between 250 and 300
people who turned up and walk round the
streets and when people were stopping
and saying what’s this about they’re
going about the goat boy it’s about
taking this land back and the police in
fairness were even better than that the
police were going I’ve no bloody idea
but it’s fun so why do we process what’s
it about it’s actually about story it’s
about giving people their space back
space in place it’s really interesting
the concept architects talk of spaces
places are the plate bits people inhabit
it’s when it changes we realized part of
our issue was nobody had a narrative for
certain you either got the suburban or
you got the good life how do you counter
that by actually say no it’s full of
dynamism it’s full of fun it’s full of
spirit will you create absurdity the
other thing absurdity does is it draws
out creatives if you look at the
regeneration certainly of Europe in
particular what you get is very rundown
areas the rent is cheap the artists go
there because quite honestly that’s the
only place they can afford they start
their activity it creates a bars of the
bars start to fill we are energy
vampires where’s the energy it’s over
there oh and then a developer goes oh
look we could knock all that down and
build something spectacular in the
artists who are now by used to it go
okay we’re going to find somewhere else
cheap to live for a while and we’ll do
it again actually certain is full of
creators and they want to play there’s a
really interesting was playing upstairs
sir ken robinson with his talk on
creativity his great sentence we educate
creativity out of children it is our
belief we then d skill adults at work
but actually the real danger of our life
is not that we haven’t got the resource
we don’t have the talent it’s the fact
we manage
out of people and they become they be
gray and they become dull what these
things do is to fold it makes people
smile and laugh and it makes people
think anything might be possible we take
the boundaries away and we witness
change we see people’s patterns changing
they begin to make decisions I don’t
know what the next like oh this is jay
yet just people making food but how
lovely coming together to share food
making a celebration together why is
this important because actually without
these stories we’ve got nothing to say I
don’t like when people come together and
talk about programs they’ve seen that’s
very passive to me I like the animation
of people explaining the absurdity of
something they’ve been engaged with a
few years ago and I won’t go into too
much detail we were covered in the
evening standard and they put something
like if you want to go and see real
community go down to seething and
experience it was very kind we got an
email from somebody saying I’d like to
join your club and I think she the
person said I’m 55 years old or whatever
it was and I turned to my wife I know
and yeah goodness look says it’s a club
and look at the age and my life so did
you actually read the article said no
I’m quite shallow like that headliner
that’s about it for me said well they
described as a clock I’ll forgive of
that look think of the Asian beats your
agent yep okay that’s great anyway so
this person then turns up and gets
involved now the business of brilliance
and the danger of torque strut and Ted’s
is actually you’ve got people who have
gone right up there and the world seems
very unachievable for most of us
actually being brilliant is only being
the best you can be and this person came
along actually with an ambition to put
on a yellow marshalls jacket and walk
alongside what we did that was it what
was interesting a few months later after
this person who got more and more
engaged some people came from work she
invited these people down and one of
them came up to me afterward and said
you’ve no idea what you’ve done
I normally take that as a threat to be
honest with ya at normally when Sundy
clouts me but on this occasion just said
that up till very recently on a Monday
all this person could talk about work
was the difficulty of the weekend and
now they came in infused and passionate
with stories that said actually we’ve
got importance now the issue haven’t
gone away but the balance had been
struck there was something there gosh is
at the time right these are some water
works I thought you’d be interested
guinea pigs lovely let’s get guinea pigs
so we recently won the Britain has
spirit award it came with it with a
twenty-five thousand pound check for our
work which is just unbelievable the
reason that says not to go woohoo it was
actually thousands upon thousands of
people voted and they all then said when
they came up we won didn’t we we’ve won
haven’t we and that’s the greatest shift
from you over there I to we the world is
full of people tell you what you should
do do you know what you should do you
shouldn’t hold on the moment what should
we do we now get people coming up to and
same do you know what I’ve always wanted
to do and you genuinely have to go no
and then they’ll say this and you go you
should do it and they go oh thank you
and there is something weird about our
lives and we now call it permission to
be brilliant actually people need that
support tonight take the first step
you’ll get this but basically what this
says is people who participate get
happier that they feel they’ve got more
influence on their lives they feel that
they can influence where they live the
correspondence for this is actually
those people who filled in our survey we
do an annual survey who don’t
participate higher fear of crime higher
sense that actually they can’t influence
anything it really is there here are
some comments imagined I’d time this
the reason this the reason this one’s up
is because people go you’re really lucky
there where you live because all these
people want to do it this is as down in
swanage in Dorset where we actually said
wouldn’t it be great if there was a fish
festival here and just said does anybody
fancy organizing the fish festival and
as their business said we’ve never had
so many businesses in one room this was
last year’s fish festival absolutely
going strong brilliant it’s not about
where you live it’s about the attitude
to where you live we recently opened the
Museum futures this is a place where
people can curate their lives we’ve
created a space where people Kaname and
realize their imagination their dreams
their ambitions it’s being used
extensively already it’s your playground
that’s we’ve opened a community kitchen
in there so that people can scale their
businesses nesta recent report this week
people helping people why on earth we
have to go in commission loads of
reports to tell us that actually the
world is a better place when we stay
together this is the final bit you’ll be
pleased to hear relieved actually
probably tamest eaten the giant I told
this story at one of our events and a
kid of about this age has came up and
said to me why a giant’s always bad and
it really rocked me back actually
because we try desperately I hope to
live without prejudice to live without
fear and yet it’s implicit within us
that there are certain ogres certain
ghosts certain things and as a result of
that we’ve written the story before levy
now that actually explains that his
anger his hate his destruction was based
around a simple word fear and actually
if there’s one thread that’s gone
through the whole of this it’s how we
dispense with fear because this little
circle here that we stand on is our live
Shirley Valentine why do we lead such
little lives and actually all you have
to do is that and the world changes a
little bit you’ve broadened the circle
in which you operate we educate
creativity out of children we descale
adults at work
I want to create playgrounds where an
adult can imagine putting their coat on
their head and running fast and
believing they could fly because the
reality is with the right people around
you you can you can do all those things
that you wanted to do and it might be
creating a new empire it might be choked
it might be wearing a yellow fluorescent
jacket it doesn’t matter just be the
best you you can be and we’ll all have a
much better world thank you [Applause]