Events

Connect directly with the people and places making change. Join our walking tours and study trips.

Walk away with:

Connect theory to reality, focusing on the skills and competences that accelerate change:

  • Transformative green skills
  • Green life skills
  • Sustainability competences

Examples of real-world contexts where collaboration, creativity, critical thinking and new forms of leadership are driving progress in:

  • Addressing fast changing regulations
  • Addressing skills and talent gaps
  • Informing and influencing policy

Connections between professionals from industry, advocacy, policy, education and community initiatives:

  • unlock innovation and spark new ideas
  • hear how green skills agendas meet other real-world contexts
  • exchange and collaborate for systemic change
Group of people taking a guided tour in an industrial food production space

Spring Edition: Prototyping Alternatives

Our learning events are opportunities to connect to (and between) the people and places making change. From industrial locations to places of production, join walking tours for inspiration and study tours for a deeper exploration of the skills needed for systemic transformation on the ground.

Our Spring Edition examines the specific skills needed to imagine alternatives and make them real, from the vision of a repair based economy in North London to the, at the time unimaginable, industrial futures of the 19th and 20th centuries and the reinvention required in their wake.

It includes:

  • Online primer and debrief sessions setting out the big questions and relating them to examples we can learn from
  • A programme of walking tours in London
  • A 2-day study tour – with 5 connected events – in the Midlands (Stoke-on-Trent and Derby)

Sign up for individual events or the whole series of walks. The Midlands study tour is booked separately.

First Hand Spring Edition: Prototyping Alternatives

Skills Briefing (Online)

A 45-min primer for insights on our Spring Season curriculum

19 March 2025, 12:35-1:30 pm

Free, open to all

First Hand: Fixing Factory Camden

Material Systems Walking Tour

Creativity & Collaboration at Camden’s Fixing Factory

20 March 2025, 12-1pm

Only 8 places

First Hand: The Felix Project

Food Systems Walking Tour

Complexity & Creativity at Felix’s East London facility

4 April 2025, 9:30-11:30

Only 10 places

First Hand: Neighbourhood Food Model

Food Systems Walking Tour

Collaboration & Leadership in Walworth’s high street

2 May 2025, 10 am-12 pm

15 places

First Hand Spring Edition: Prototyping Alternatives

Learning Debrief (Online)

A 45-min closing session to catch up or consolidate your learning

7 May 2025, 12:35-1:30 pm

Free, open to all

First Hand Spring Edition: Prototyping Alternatives

Series of 5 learning events

The full series: online briefing, 3 walking tours and debrief

19 March-7 May 2025

Limited places

Stoke-on-Trent Potteries

First Hand: Materials Heritage in the Midlands

Material Systems Study Trip

Creativity, Complexity and Leadership in the birthplace of the industrial revolution

July 2025 – 1.5 days

This trip will only go ahead with at least 10 people. Want to join? Register your interest below!

Autumn Edition: Scaling Change

We’re working on dates and timings for our Autumn Edition! Register your interest (no commitment) to help shape the collection and be the first to know when we go live 🚀

First Hand Autumn Edition: Scaling Change

Skills Briefing (Online)

A 45-min primer for insights on our Spring Season curriculum

Nighttime activity at the wholesale market

First Hand: Food Market Ecosystem

Food Systems Walking Tour

Collaboration and Leadership: a night time wholesale market experience

First Hand: Energy Recovery Facility

Materials Systems Walking Tour

Collaboration & Complexity at an urban waste to heat and power plant

First Hand: A Tideway Itinenary

Materials Systems Boat Tour

Complexity and Leadership: large scale infrastructure project

First Hand Autumn Edition: Scaling Change

Learning Debrief (Online)

A 45-min closing session to catch up or consolidate your learning

First Hand Autumn Edition: Scaling Change

Series of 5 learning events

The full series: online briefing/debrief and 3 walking tours

A group of wind turbines

First Hand: Orkney Islands

Material Systems Study Trip

Systemic energy transition in Orkney

September 2025 – 3 days

This trip will only go ahead with at least 10 people. Want to join? Register your interest below!

European city Seen-From-the-Forested-Natural-Park

First Hand: European Food Innovation Hub

Food Systems Study Trip

Transforming the food system in a European capital

October 2025 – 3 days

This trip will only go ahead with at least 10 people. Want to join? Register your interest below!

Past events

Online

The Only Way Is Open Series

Part 2: What’s stopping us from taking collective action?

January 2025

Online

The Only Way Is Open Series

Part 1: How being open helps industry (learn to) transform

November 2024

Launch Event

Sharing Event & Workshop

Exploring Green Skills and Change at the Thames Tunnel with UCL Climate Action Unit

July 2024

Online

Sharing Event

Place-Based Learning: Benefits and Relevance of Getting Hands-On for Climate Action Skills

January 2024

Walking Tour

Food Systems

First Hand tour, volunteering session and skills workshop at The Felix Project Poplar Depot

November 2023

Walking Tour

Food Systems

First Hand tour and skills workshop at the Small Beer Brewery in Bermondsey

November 2023