Fail fast, fail cheap.
Or is it “fail fast, fail often”?
On Saturday, 7 Nov we’re uniting with some of our friends, including The Design Salon and The Potting Shed, for an all-day event, as part of the first ever Belfast Design Week. You’re invited to join us in a creative, hands-on, welcoming environment, as we all take the journey from idea to soup.
Event Summary: Sat 7 Nov 2015 // 10:00 until late (12:30 – 16:00 at Farset) // Register here: FailFast: Makers’ Day Field Trip to Farset Labs // It’s all FREE OF CHARGE.
Yes, soup. We will begin the day at The Hive, venture over to Farset in the afternoon, then end up back at The Hive for a pitching session, while we enjoy some hot refreshment with Belfast Soup. Mmm, soup.
Then we’ll all go to the pub. Mmm, beer.
That Saturday of Design Week is designated as Makers’ Day so roll up your sleeves and come f*@k things up with us. You don’t need to consider yourself a designer or maker to get value out of the day. It’s a good chance to make some smart, creative friends and take part in the fascinating process of developing ideas.
Here’s the planned Itinerary:
- 10:00 – 12:00: The Potting Shed @The Hive : Bring your new or existing idea to the Potting Shed team and get their multidisciplinary input on how to make it happen or bring it to its full potential.
- 12.30: Walk from The Hive to Farset Labs.
- 13:00 – 16:00: FailFast @ Farset Labs: taking the ideas and designing prototypes to see how they might function in reality.
- 16:00: Walk back from Farset Labs to The Hive.
- 17:00 – 19:00: Belfast Soup @ The Hive: Buy some soup and pitch your ideas for the chance to win some startup money to make it happen!
- 19:00 – Collapse: Drinks at The Sunflower.
And here is the official page and links to register for other parts of the day.
For our part, we’re going to focus on that challenging step in the creative process where you have to get your idea out of your head and into the world so it can be given a chance to fail. During the workshop we’ll talk about what prototyping involves, and look at the recent revolution in rapid prototyping, assisted by technologies like 3D printers and the internet. Then we’ll stop talking and play – making simple prototypes with paper and pen and whatever we have to hand.
You can come to all or just part of the day’s events. Or just meet us in the pub in the evening. Mmm beer. There’s no charge but please register if you’re coming so we know the numbers. And we’re seeking techie, creative and communicative people to be in the room to help facilitate progress – please contact me if you can help.
We’re calling it FailFast to resurrect an old project that never got much momentum. I guess you could say it failed, rather fast. But that’s the whole point. There’s a popular sentiment in the entrepreneurial world that failure is a big part of innovation and creativity. So much so that it has become trendy. Most ideas don’t grow into anything substantial. Most startups collapse. The important thing is to try – develop your idea, get your prototype out into the world, see if it works and iterate on its development, and do so as quickly and cheaply as possible. It will probably fail so if you want something to succeed, fail fast, fail cheap and fail often. So yeh, we’re calling it FailFast.
Oh, and it rhymes with Belfast. Sort of.