We're talking facts and figures about Glasgow at this year's Firestarter Festival

Since the launch of our new Higher or Lower game in the summer, we’ve been busy using it to start conversations and share facts and figures from Understanding Glasgow across the city (and beyond). Travels with the Game so far have led us to Glasgow Science Centre, to community events from Calton to Castlemilk and even a meeting in Edinburgh Zoo (at a meeting of the National Records of Scotland).

We’ve had fascinating and unexpected conversations at all of these places. You’ve been challenging us to explore the language that’s used in big datasets (just exactly what is a ‘positive destination’ for a school-leaver?), to questions about who is and isn’t represented in the information available. We’ve talked about what would happen if census questions about health and wellbeing were only asked on days with good weather (always on our minds on the wet west coast of Scotland). And we’ve met people who think they’re probably not represented in any datasets at all!

We’re very excited to be bringing more of these conversations to the upcoming Firestarter Festival. The Festival is a cross-Scotland extravaganza of collaborative learning events, looking at creative, disruptive and innovative ways in which we can all transform ourselves, the organisations we work within and with, and our society.

For the Festival in 2019, we're hosting a series of conversations, using our Higher or Lower game as the starting point, and asking about what ignites our curiosity about the Game, and what information motivates us to bring positive change to our communities?

Booking for our conversations (and the rest of the Festival) is already open. We’re running four sessions, half an hour each, on the afternoon of Thursday 7th February in Bridgeton Library in Glasgow (the ground floor of our Olympia Building home on Bridgeton Cross). Get directions. We look forward to seeing you there – please join us for a tea or coffee and a chat!