There is only one week to go until MAKE:shift – Wolverhampton and we have some cracking ideas lined up for the event.  Over the two days we will have people working on these ideas to develop them into prototypes and eventually projects that will change the face of Wolverhampton.

Gap Fillers will explore how to give unused space new life

Over the summer, we put out a call for ideas under the themes of Making, Assets and People and received a stunning 69 submissions, all of which will get a chance to be discussed and developed at the free event on the 21st and 22nd  September in Wolverhampton’s Light House.  Four of the ideas really stood out and will get intense development at the event.  They are:

Free Organic Gardens - This idea got lots of votes. It’s all about turning the disused areas of Wolverhampton into allotments and spaces to grow food organically. Local people will work together to get stuff growing in wasteland, making the most of it the crops with clever design.  The harvest will be shared throughout Wolverhampton.  Yum!  Making / Elliot Lord

Gap fillers -  Inspired by work in New Zealand, the project will fill unused spaces with everything from cycle powered cinemas to giant monopoly boards, community games and pop-ups. There’s even loads of potential for the project to give space to some of the other great ideas submitted to MAKE:shift.    Assets / Steph Jennings

Scibble and Scribe: Community form filling service  – This idea is ripe for further development at MAKE:Shift.  The basic idea is to help people fill out forms and paperwork for those who can’t manage it themselves, which is a big problem in Wolverhampton.  The challenge for the event will be to find neat ways to do this that use the city’s communities along with innovative technology.  People – Friday only / Craig Alford

Wolvopedia: Make Wolverhampton a Wikipedia city  – Spreading the word about Wolverhampton’s innovative past and future, this idea is all about promoting the city through a wiki. Getting the people of Wolverhampton to use the web to document the city’s stories and cultures online, the idea is to mix in offline activity too, like using QR codes on buildings, statues and art.  People – Saturday only / Andy Mabbett

If you’re interested in any of the ideas and you’re up for the challenge, you can join a team to help develop it.  MAKE:shift is a free festival of ideas, and you can register for your free tickets here. As well as developing ideas, there is a packed agenda of inspirational speakers, films and workshops.

We’re particularly keen on people with coding and developing skills to sign up to help the teams develop the technical parts of their ideas, so please do put the word out there to your contacts.  We would also love to hear from you if you have any support to offer, whether it’s expertise, knowledge, contacts or resources (financial or in-kind) that would benefit one of these teams. Please do join us and help make these great ideas for Wolverhampton become a reality.

For more info and pre-event buzz, check out our Facebook page or follow us on Twitter.