Notes from Meeting at Reading University 22nd September

The project is beginning to take shape. We now have a good idea of budgets and deadlines. This meeting ranged from talking about publishing deals, to looking at the level of technology we'd need to film design meetings. Present were Peter Lloyd, Janet McDonnell, and Rachael Luck. Fraser Reid and Nigel Cross sent their apologies.

Proposal
Peter now has a draft proposal in reasonable shape, having worked in initial reactions to the proposal. After speaking to the AHRB it looks like the best source of funding will be their Workshops & Networks scheme. These have a maximum of £30,000 (full economic costs) and will allow us limited support during the project - hopefully in form of web-design, data-collection. The proposal is currently in a generic format and Peter will fill out the AHRB forms and case support and circulate for another round of commentary before final submission. Turnaround time is reasonably quick and if successful we should be able to begin after four months. Hopefully next March.

Funding
Rachael has asked the DRS to sponsor the event and has received positive noises. It was mentioned that the DRS like their costs to be fully specified so we agreed that if we could arrange £1500 for printing the proceedings and student bursaries combined that would be nice. Rachael will fill out the appropriate forms and submit them at the next DRS meeting in November.

Janet gave an overview of the conference costs which came to £8500 (approx). We briefly discussed arrangements such as dinners, accommodation, etc.. We agreed on a registration fee of around £250 (a total of £15,000 with 60 participants). Peter expressed worry that the event might prove too successful attracting many more people than planned, 60 being considered ideal. We also discussed what we would do with any profit considering a number of options; plough it back in to the conference itself (champagne reception!?), use it to develop the book after the conference, or split the money somehow. We agreed thatinstitutionation underwriting the conference against loss should receive any profit it generates.

So in summary we are looking at three streams of funding. The AHRB to fund data-collection and web-development. The DRS to fund the proceedings and provide student bursaries. Registration fees to pay for the conference itself with any profit being used in the subsequent book production. Funding is also being provided in kind by our universities for our time on the project (and also by any collaborating organisations for their time).

Timeplan
Peter has produced a revised timeplan in the light of RAE publishing requirements. The conference is now due to take place in September 2007. We are currently on course. The next phase of the project is pilot studies, which is due to end next April.

Collaborating Organisations
Peter reported his discussion with Milton Keynes council (see earlier post). He will resume communication when he returns from holiday at the beginning of October. He has also had some contact with the Design Council, and suggestions for suitable organisations to work with, The Technology Partnership in Cambridge being one. Janet will also contact the estates division of Greenwich University and the school of Architecture for any further leads. Janet identified getting the data as critical for the success of the project. Peter commented that the higher up the foodchain we could go the better. Getting to film a design meeting at Ove Arup being preferable to filming at John Smith & Partners round the corner. We discussed the different disciplines we might film. Architecture and Product Design seem logical. Computer system development was discussed but considered 'a different kind of process'. Engineering companies like Arup or Rolls Royce would also be suitable.

Publishers
Janet has had some contact with Taylor-Francis on the recommendation of Steve Scrivener. They need a detailed overview of the book along with potential markets. Peter mentioned playing up the business school angle and also possible development of an OU course. We talked about a number of publishers and the differences between publishing conference proceedings (which you pay for) and books (which you don't). Janet will complete a generic book proposal form that we can then send to prospective publishers.

Titles
We talked about possible titles for the book. 'Describing Designing:' with something after the colon was thought to be good, although quite wide ranging. The words 'in action' to appear somewhere in the title were also considered good. Peter mentioned the idea of a 'how' title:How Designers Communicate in Design Meetings for example, or How Problems get Solved in Design Meetings. Again playing up the business school angle and implying that the answer lies in the book. Peter commented that the book should be significantly different from the conference proceedings with maybe considerable re-writes required from authors to fit a number of themes.

Equipment
Peter had talked with a project officer (PO) at the OU about the whole camera setup. Previously we had agreed upon obtaining high quality data, but the PO questioned this strategy suggesting instead the use of webcams which have the benefit of being 'better quality that you think', cheap, unobtrusive, and easy to record to hard disk. As an illustration the meeting was filmed using a webcam and generally considered to be of good enough quality although the sound quality needed improving. The PO will specify a system for further discussion.

Actions arising

Peter:
Fill out AHRB forms and circulate
Contact possible collaborators - MK council, The Design Council, The Technology Partnership
Assess different solutions for the equipment setup
Contact Mangold about sponsorship of the event

Janet:
Complete a book proposal and circulate
Contact possible collaborators at Greenwich

Rachael:
Fill out DRS forms and submit to the next DRS meeting

Fraser:
Contact any potential collaborators