This document summarises the discussions held by a group of funders and other supporters of innovation spaces internationally. The event took place in London on 24th September 2015 and was hosted by The British Council, Hivos and The Indigo Trust. We explored factors which contribute to their success and failure and the challenges of monitoring impact, before exploring the following themes in breakout sessions: 1) Hub leadership 2) Community building and skills development 3) Financial sustainability 4) Hub communities addressing civic/social issues We hope that this discussion sparks greater strategic thinking and collaborative programming amongst philanthropists, the corporate sector and other stakeholders.

1. SUPPORTING INNOVATION SPACES
INTERNATIONALLY
Sensemaking of the session
September 28th, 2015

2. SUPPORTING INNOVATION SPACES INTERNATIONALLY
WHAT?
Our challenge is to collectively explore the beginnings of new collaborative programmes and
initiatives that can help strengthen the sustainability of hubs and the role they play in civic
engagement.
WHO?
You are invited as an expert within a diverse group of practitioners, funders, convenors and
infrastructure builders.
WHY?
Hubs have extraordinary potential to deliver high impact solutions and civic impact but too often
they are working in isolation, unable to learn from or inspire one another. They can also suffer
from a disjointed funding model and are at high risk of failing.
HOW?
Swarm will facilitate a collaborative working session where we will learn from each other and via
case studies to co-design some potential areas for future cooperation

3. WORKING SESSION FLOW
3
Introductions and sense of purpose around HUBs
Playback of what you told us you were looking to collaborate on
Examples of HUBs that are innovating
Participation in a theme to find common ground on solutions
Close with a sense of where overlap and commitments can be made

4. PARTICIPANTS AND INTENTIONS
4
DUNCAN EDWARDS, INSTITUTE OF DEVELOPMENT STUDIES - Interested in the intersection of technology and
hubs and aligning commitments
PAUL MILLER, BETHNAL GREEN VENTURES - Have a number of informal relationships with other hubs and
interested in how support can be further developed across the hub community
ROBIN MILLER, DALBERG - As head of their technology practice and as a former hub founder and member,
interested in how growing gaps in digital inclusion can be bridged - through Hubs and Hub programmes - to
ensure technological innovation creates positive disruption
SAMEER PADANIA, OPEN SOCIETY - An interest in how journalists interact with Hubs and civic spaces
INDERPAUL JOHAR, ARCHITECTURE00 - How Hubs can move from a pseudo real estate model to a movement
model that focuses on systems change and is legitimate and adaptable in different geographic and economic
contexts
SIMON MARSHALL, BIG LOTTERY FUND - Interested in how you can take tech out in the wider world
BEATRICE PEMBROKE, BRITISH COUNCIL - Interested in financial sustainability as well as how these often
quite elite and inward-looking spaces can be opened up to broader communities
LYSNSEY SMITH, BRITISH COUNCIL - Interested in how Hubs can better communicate with one another

5. PARTICIPANTS AND INTENTIONS
5
JONATHAN ROBINSON, IMPACT HUB - Looking to create a new, bolder model of support for communities that
goes beyond the bricks and mortar hub approach
LOREN TREISMAN, INDIGO TRUST - Interested in how funders can better support Hubs and how they can
integrate civic engagement
FRAN PERRIN, INDIGO TRUST - As a funder, interested in how funders can better support these spaces
BEN MOSKOWITZ, MOZILLA - Digital skills are important for individuals and society and Mozilla has an
interest in potentially adapting its own skills programmes to hub environments to create sustainability and
leadership
MARK CRIDGE, MY SOCIETY - Hubs have been a successful user base for many My Society products but there
is still a feeling that they are not maximising potential
GIULIO QUAGGIOTTO, NESTA - Has made many mistakes in setting up Hubs and wants people to learn from
that
BRENTON CAFFIN, NESTA - Focus on capacity building and creating tools that help Hubs and their
stakeholders do innovation better
KHURAM HUSSAIN, OMIDYAR NETWORK - Have invested in hubs with a certain amount of success and failure.
Interested in sustainability, business models, successful collaborations,

6. PARTICIPANTS AND INTENTIONS
6
THOMAS FEENY, RESULTS FOR DEVELOPMENT - Interested in working with donors to understand how they
can support innovation directly, align their goals and build a sustainable pipeline
HELEN TURVEY, SHUTTLEWORTH FOUNDATION - Interested in the collective intelligence in the room and in
highlighting the cultural relevance of what Hub spaces are working on as well as incorporating ideas into
new Principe venture
ANNA CHOINICKA, THE FOUNDATION - They help to support start-ups is interested in how they can use
partnerships for sustainability
MATTHIAS FROEHLICH-REHFELD , GIZ - Looks at collaborative systems of exchange between digital
innovation, maker cultures and startup ecosystems
SARAH DRINKWATER, GOOGLE CAMPUS - Campus has expanded around the world but tech is still too siloed -
interested in where there is overlap with civil society and how those bridges can be built
SOPHE LEFERINK, HIVOS - Leaving role as a traditional funder but interested now in sustainability and civic
engagement for hubs and how they open to a broader community
JONATHAN WONG, DFID INNOVATION HUB - Interested as a funder in hearing a compelling evidence-based
narrative as to why to invest in hubs in preference to other areas of innovation and to hear about
sustainability models and the role of donors in catalysing them
NICOLAS FRIEDERICI, OXFORD INTERNET INSTITUTE - Researchs hubs and innovation spaces

7. HUBS exploration - A summary of factors for
success and failure
7
SUCCESS FAILURE
Leadership
• Driven and ambitious leaders
Execution
• Tailored, structured and well considered support
• Open and flexible
Community and wider ecosystem
• Strong and diverse partnerships - with corporates, funders and
civil society
• A strong understanding of local context - skill level,
connectivity, social and cultural context
• A well nurtured broader community
• Ability to harness diverse talents - from individuals, activists
and creatives, not just NGOs
• Global and local connections
• Inspire communities
• Aligned with the needs and agendas of stakeholders
Sustainability
• Sustainability is built in from the start
Impact
• Ability to articulate a broader impact beyond the Hub
Mission
• Mission undefined
Leadership
• Failure to develop wider management team and plan for
succession
• Leaders that are unfocused and distracted
Execution
• They try to do too much and end up being too generalist
• Too much talking, not enough doing
Community and wider ecosystem
• Failure to articulate and define value proposition
• Elitist and separate from the wider community
• Failure to align activities with broader government agendas
• Too donor focused
• Too much belief in their own hype
Impact
• Failure to demonstrate impact

8. HUBS exploration - Success and failure - the
importance of definition
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Participants also pointed out that the sector suffers from a lack of alignment around definitions and expectations.
This lack of alignment contributes to the erosion of trust between stakeholders, difficulty in getting initiatives off
the ground and a lack of direction for the wider Hub community. In particular:
1. DEFINITIONS OF SUCCESS - Success is variably defined. Narrow measures focus on number of sustainable
start-ups created
2.EXPECTATIONS AROUND TIMEFRAMES - Funders often focus on short timeframes for impact but this is to miss
the point that many hubs are operating in difficult market conditions that have an influence on innovation
cycles
3.EXPECTATIONS AROUND HUB ROLE - Hubs are part of wider systems. While Hubs need to assess the dynamics
of these systems accurately and create relationships with other parties in order to generate success, not
everything can be achieved through Hubs.

9. Learnings from THEMES
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Financial
Sustainability
• Models are quite varied really; rent vs. consulting vs.
return from startups vs. grants vs. crowdfunding
• Renting vs. owning property makes a big difference
• Do the founders, stay on as CEO/MD
• This is not a big or high margin business
• Ability to monetise the intangible assets created
• Based on the legitimacy of the group and its purpose
• Naming of research & development vs. Innovation
Leadership
Community
development
Civic
engagement
• Could you back and piece together existing programs to
create a suite for the leaders
• Should the vision be 1000 ten person hubs, rather then the
other way around
• HUB might just be a spot that has a need that it is serving
• Natural emergent from the roots of where the need is
• Spokes rather then HUBs maybe
• Stop unfocused hackathons, the solution is rarely a
mobile app, do not let donor drive the problem
• Deliberate cross-fertilisation of groups (tech, policy,
design, funders)
• No need to continue to ‘romantise' the new, start with
what is already there in the community
• Who is framing the problem? civic works better when
addressing real need, not always tech answer!
• Recognise role of existing hub in the existing ecosytem
• Skills exchange are needed
• Building and upskilling in the community
• Let the building happen more organically, coming from
the community and not push too much from donors
• Networks & groups can facility this building with
introductions as groups exist
• DIY toolkit and other online tools exist
• Need to be matched by the on-ground person knowledge
and then supplemented with on-line community

10. SUMMARY of the session
10
Indy: in just 10 years there are now 700 of them, that
is quite something. regardless of full evidence of
impact, something is happening
Indigo: 1/10 of the time we need on this topic
Lots and lots of summits and conferences coming up
very soon…seems like an opportunity to gather
again at the right opportunity; SOCAP is a place
where a gathering of social accelerators always
meetup together
More research is really needed on the
impact, the space//skills//value that has
been gained
Civic program looking at 12
places to doing testing
and understanding against
Traditional donors might need training or coaching as
they get involved in this space
Could we more clearly figure out the
failures and get them better
documented

11. hello@swarm.gd
@channelswarm
www.swarm.gd
SWARM IS A
CREATIVE
COLLABORATION
COMPANY

12. Appendix
12

13. SUPPORTING INNOVATION SPACES
INTERNATIONALLY
The British Council, 10 Spring Gardens,
London, SW1A 2BN
Thursday 24 September, 2015
10:30 - 13:00
with Lunch to follow

14. Have you worked with and/or through hubs?
CURRENT AND PLANNED WORK
Are you currently developing and/or delivering
programmes in Sub-Saharan Africa?
Yes -10
No -1
Yes -12
No -1
Multinational programmes

15. Would you be interested in working with other
attendees?
COLLABORATIVE INTENTION
Would you be able to provide resources and/or
funds to a programme that interested you?
Yes - 9
Yes, in the future - 2
Yes -14
No answer - 2
Potentially - 1
No answer - 3
The results from the questionnaire point to great experience and a great desire to collaborate
on new projects

16. PROGRAMME THEMES TO EXPLORE
Financial
Sustainability
Business models
Products and
services
Learning
communities
Digital
skills
Leadership
skills and
development
Products and
services for civil
society
Digital
journalism
Policy
engagement
Increasing
diversity
Youth
employmentCreative
economy
Digital skills
and access
Financial
product
development
Leadership
Community
development
Civic
engagement
The group coming have pointed at these specific areas, that group into themes that they are
exploring around Hubs

17. HUBS exploration; factors of success and failure
group #1
17
•Local context, eg. tech skills, connectivity,
society’s understanding
•Strong partnerships with corporates, funders,
civil society
•Tailored and structured support to startups and
social organisations
•Community strength behind the HUB
SUCCESS FAILURE
•Champion distraction, leader dependent
•Hard to clearly define what will happen need
stronger value proposition
•Hard to demonstrate impact
•Local communities do not understand it
•Can be elitist
•Could they have more relationship to government
and align with agenda
•Too generalist and try to do too much
•Over pulled in direction of donors focus

18. HUBS exploration; factors of success and failure
group #2
18
•Density and willing
•Open
•Of the community
•Flexible
•Connections, globally and locally
SUCCESS FAILURE
•Lack of knowledge of local needs
•Unclear mission
•Inflexible
•Lack of clarity
•Ability to demonstrate impact
•How does one define success?

19. HUBS exploration; factors of success and failure
group #3
19
•Bring in diversity
•Critical mass & density of community &
connections
•Good local drivers, eg. regulations, skills,
infrastructure
•Good reputation/well known
•Use opens to share/scale
•Build strong community first and focus on their
needs
•Tailored, structured support for members,
startups, social orgs
•Strong, diverse partnerships, breakout of silo,
corporate, civil society, funders
•Harness the talent of individuals, activists,
creatives to tackle social challenges — not
just traditional NGOs
•Focus on need/challenges of local communities,
map the interests of wider community
•Narrative around contribution to change, impact
beyond the hub
SUCCESS FAILURE
•Exclusive/elitist
•Talk shop and lack action
•Champion/leader distracted
•Hard to define value prop clearly
•Hard to demonstrate impact
•Wider community do not understand role
•Too generalist
•Over pulled in directions of donors
•Struggle to bring in diverse player too capital city
focussed, english speaking, wealthy, just
techies, etc

20. HUBS exploration; factors of success and failure
group #4
20
•Inspiration
•People who lead Hubs, board, operations
•Sustainability built-in from the start
•What is success? Sustainability? number of
startups? donors can just ask for numbers
•Build ecosystem from the start
•Action based research, aligned with international
community
•Hub collaboration more broadly with wider
system actions more broadly
SUCCESS FAILURE
•Not given a chance to prove themselves
•Evidence point
•Mismatch between donor and community
expectations
•Disconnect with policy and government structure
and systemic change
•Innovation takes a long time
•Cultural dimension is important
•Only look at things from their own perspective
and believe the hype