The 'REACT Showcase:Heritage' event on Friday included opening words from John Dovey and Clare Reddington (Director and Executive Producer of REACT), a great keynote from Charles Leadbeater and six short films about each of the Heritage Sandbox projects. These will all be available on the brand spanking new REACT site shortly. Matt and I also had a little cameo role to outline Sandbox and to introduce the films. In case you missed it, here is what we said (we looked confident and stylish by the way if your imagination needs a prompt):

We have heard already about what we are trying to achieve with REACT. We also wanted to tell you, very briefly, a little about how we are making that happen.

Sandbox is about turning wild ideas into working prototypes. It is about place, this place, and it is about people. Its about creating a space in which ideas can be born, stretched, discarded or realised - together. It is founded on the belief that sharing stuff makes it better and that making stuff helps you understand its value. Despite the complex context and structure of REACT, at its core Sandbox is quite simple.

So in April this year we took this brilliant group of passionate people who had some, slightly vague, ideas about how digital technology could help us create more meaningful heritage experiences and set them off on a journey. Nearly 6 months later and its been really hard work. But with help from: some money; this marvellous building and its community; a great group of advisors; our team; and each other they’ve shared those ideas bravely and generously and they’ve made some pretty awesome stuff.

You are about to see just what they’ve been up to and get a sense of where they might go next. The Heritage Sandbox projects challenge us to use technologies in surprising ways, they tempt us to play with the past and they wet our appetite for knowledge. Before we show the films we just wanted to say what a total pleasure its been to working with them and learning from them. So thanks to you all, and well done.

It was a fantastic afternoon; the films looked great, the Panels interesting and the cakes a triumph. We hope it did justice to the work that the projects have done over recent months. Just one extra thank you from me, to Matt, for producing such a slick event and being such a wonderful other half.

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