Ambitious and ever faithful to the COP21 experience, Place To B wants to continue innovating in a multi-disciplinary way through a community that develops narratives about our changing world.
The balance sheet
Before looking to the future of Place To B, we created a 50-page document analysing what happened during COP21– discover the highlights (FR) and fallout from the first version of a project that just keeps on growing in Paris and elsewhere in France (& beyond).
Although this document is far from exhaustive, it gives you some insight into what was created, thought, imagined and lived, as well as the boundless energy given by each person involved in this magical co-creation. This was a human adventure that can never be fully conveyed in a single document!
A flourishing community
The seeds planted during the 15 days in Paris and elsewhere have grown quickly. Far more quickly than we’d imagined. At the beginning of 2016, we were asked to organise a version of Place To B in Montreal, get our COPilots ready for COP22 in Marrakech, organise wacky and creative workshops inspired by Creative Factory. We’re over the moon that Place to B sparked such a hive of interconnected activity!
TimeToB, launch event for Place To B, 9 March, Chez Justine, Paris
Part II: a storytelling project
Place To B’s mission remains unchanged: reinvent storytelling to create modern stories about the climate. To achieve this, we’ve already started organising some big events, as well as fixing three pillars to structure the project. 
1- Narrators for change: storytelling community focusing on ecological transition
As the diagram above suggests, Place To B lies at the crossroads between 3 main aims: Rallying, Studying, and Transmitting. The Narrators for Change community is a response to the need for communication and media professionals to connect around the subject of ecological transmission. How can it be covered more effectively? How can we ensure that the message resonates with society? So many questions and so much at stake that the only way forward is working together.
This network will also provide those involved with:
- Information about ecology produced by experts
- Lists of events relating to ecological transition and global warming
- Access to a dedicated newsletter
- An international address book of professionals following Place To B
- Promotion of content through Place To B channels: website, social media, conferences, programmes etc.
We will soon be carrying out a survey to co-build this network and decide exactly how it will work with anyone and everyone keen to be involved. The second version of our website will also include functionalities adapted for this network.
2- The Baseline: idea laboratory to study narratives about climate change
The aim of The Baseline resource centre is to make scientific knowledge and ideas relating to climate change more accessible to everyone. This idea laboratory will promote the work carried about by academics through illustrations, infographics, articles, films and interviews, so that the information reaches a wider audience.
This international initiative will allow different researchers and experts to meet, share ideas and co-develop new research. The idea is to mutualise the work by researchers and Narrators for Change network – studies will be simplified and published more widely, while articles will be enhanced with in-depth studies and scientific credibility.
In this context, we will also develop workshops similar to those organised for Creative Factory. With Swarm Dynamics and other partners, we’re hoping to repeat the operation as many times as possible while these experimentation spaces remain useful in helping us imagine new stories together.
The experts will be invited to take part in events organised by Place To B to achieve our third objective of transmitting information to the general public.
3- The Place To B community: transmission & co-creation
The third and final pillar is based on passing on knowledge and the new stories we’re writing together. Thanks to the different tools we’ve implemented, the whole Place To B community can take part in creating new narratives.
The blog
This space allows us to share our favourite ideas, decipher information and analyse the new stories created by local authorities, ONGs and communication agencies. Everyone can submit their content, provided that it respects our editorial guidelines.
The blog will also be available to members of the Narrators for Change network and contain in-depth content provided by The Baseline.
Social media
Borderless, accessible to all and ideal for sharing information, social media is without doubt an important part of the Place to B project. Don’t hesitate to follow us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, and also share your ideas, and Place to B news 🙂
Place to B events
Designed to be inclusive, Place To B Events are being kicked with a new generation of Place To Briefs (renamed B-on Stage), inspired by the programmes taking place during COP21 at the youth hostel we took over during the negotiations. The first edition will take place in Paris (date to be confirmed), the second in Bordeaux and the third…Any suggestions?
These events are an amazing opportunity for the Place To B community to gather, share and bring the world of scientific research, media and the general public together.
We’ve also received lots of invitations to take part in different climate events. The first of these to be confirmed is:
- La Fabrik à Déclik, which will bring together more than 500 young people in Bordeaux from 29 June to 2 July 2016 to give them a voice and concrete ways to meet the challenges facing society. The Place to B team will be running the media section, in particular talking about the role of journalism and new forms of expression in the media in the ecological transition.
We’re also excited to see lots more local and international Place to B communities hatching. Although we don’t have the means to support each of these initiatives in the same way we did Place To B COP21, we’ll do everything we can to boost these independent projects (described as “beacons lighting up all over the place” by Nicolas Bienvenu during the Time To B soirée) by guiding them through the creation process.
- Place To B will be the Official Media Center at the World Social Forum, from 9 to 14 August 2016 in Montreal
- Our contributors will also be present at COP22 in Marrakech next December
The Place To B is based on these three interrelated pillars that draw on the strengths of the communities they address. It is important to remember that Place To B is a collaborative project, built for and by a network of professional storytellers and citizens who want to bring about change.
Interested?
Join us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter, sign up to our newsletter or write to us at: contact@placetob.org.
