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Hey Linkys, what a week! The first FiftyFifty event – that is now a thing – happened and loads of ideas spawning from it.
The movement is growing and we are learning plenty of new things (well, new to us anyhow). Help everyone learn more – set up / attend and and join the conversation.
Check out the LinkedIn Group and Facebook Group to get involved.
Summary
The first ever Linkybrains Dinner with equal mix of male and female participants happened this week.
We broke through 600 signups to the Mission.
Learnings from ‘non HQ’
Projects are coming…!
There are Linkybrains who have committed to spark interesting things. We are going to support them with promoting them – these projects are very closely aligned with the values and goals of the mission
So if you fancy supporting interesting and potentially transformational experiments; from how to help improve the experiences of Linkybrained kids in education, to supporting linky founders with peer mentoring and navigating the difficult world of startups – stay tuned!
The FiftyFifty Pledge
Sparked by Chris’ determination to promote equal gender representation in the Linkybrains, this exciting new project will put equal gender representation at the heart of its events and activities.
The first experiment of this principled stance was the Linkybrains FiftyFifty dinner
As soon as the event was published and ‘sold out’, more people joined in to create more – Helene Guillaume spontaneously organised the next one – for 22 Linkybrained people to have dinner – again a 50:50 mix. That was booked out completely in 3 days!
And Joan Lockwood also has another in the works.
The First FiftyFifty Dinner
Chris’ first experiment was an invite only dinner with a 50:50 gender mix was held on May 1st.
It was hosted by Notion and invitees included some of the earliest committed supporters of the project including Emily de Groot, Suki Fowler, Aarish Shah amongst a distinguished gallery of 22 people.
Of course, the Underbosses were in attendance – except Mike who was commiserating into some Guinness on business in Dublin!.
Chris affectionately calls this LinkyBrains FiftyFifty Dinner 1.0 and intends to keep having them – same format but new people at each. The next one- LinkyBrains 50:50 Dinner 2.0 – will be on May 15th.
Dinner Takeaways
Some really key feedback and much welcomed insights were shared at the dinner, Alex followed up with thanks :
We would like linkybrains to be a broad church We welcome your collective help in weeding out behaviours that aren’t cool. Do not be shy in calling them out. We loved it when people did this in person.
We listened to feedback on how we should behave as a group and we want to move quickly on guidelines for do’s and don’ts. Here are key ones;
- Shouty people shout less. Especially men.
There is a lot of energy and passion but please try to be inclusive. Be aware of how you come across. Create safe spaces. Focus on helping others up. This is online and in person.
- Linkys are not special
We believe everyone can be linky. Saying ‘look at us we are a special mutant breed’ is not the point. This is divisive and we should stop this talk now. Waleed has a good post on this.
We wholeheartedly agree. Feel free to share.
- The dinner did not anoint special ones
We love everyone who came. However, it is not a club.
There will be lots of coffee and dinner but it is critical to recycle with new people. Dinners 2.0, 3.0 will have new attendees. Attendees will create and lead things they want to. We cross pollinate. Group to group, dinner to dinner.
50:50 obvs.
There are no leaders. Yet. They will emerge. Imagine 6 months not 6 weeks. Now imagine 6 years. This is no way a reflection on anyone. It is an exercise in patience. And a desire to serve the wider community as best possible.
Remember it is early.
- It is all a bit incoherent isn’t it?
This is deliberate. We are testing and learning to see what emerges. It is dumb to tell the community what to do yet. We are like scientists discovering penicillin. We have much to learn. We are not short of vision but are patient. We are throwing lots of things at a Petri dish to see what emerges.
Where are we going?
The working articulation is that we are an umbrella. We are a platform for people to attach their desires to. We ultimately believe Linky sectors will be set up by passionate people who want a platform:
Linky publishing
Linky schools
Linky consult
Linky events
Linky etc
But we are now simply exploring .
Stats and Growth
Linky ‘Hires’(Those changing their job title on Linkedin): 206
Published Articles: 10+
Events: check them out here. 18 hosted / 12 created
New Event Locations: 0 (more venues in same locations)
Registered Volunteers: 74 (+2)
Sign ups to newsletter: 629
Traffic to the site: 200 – 400 (same)
Facebook Linkys: 612
More next week – Dizzy Do.
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