ClimateXChange Assembly 2026
A 100-person climate assembly, redesigned so participants set the agenda, chose their conversations and left with next steps rather than notes.
The brief: A large-scale assembly advancing climate action
Scotland isn't on track to meet its climate targets, and the usual conversations aren't producing change at the pace required. ClimateXChange, Scotland's centre of expertise on climate change, had reached a clear conclusion: putting brilliant people in a room to listen to panels doesn't unlock their collective knowledge, networks, or will to act. Climate conferences need to look different.
They asked us to design a large-scale assembly that would advance climate action by putting its participants in charge.
What we did: Participant led agenda
We replaced the typical conference format with Open Space: a participant-driven model in which the people in the room build their own agenda, live, around a single central question. Ours was: "How can we collectively step up climate action in Scotland, working together across public, private and third sectors, academia, communities and individuals?"Â
Anyone could propose a topic and host a conversation. Anyone could move between conversations as their interests, skills and experience dictated, following Open Space's one rule, the Law of Mobility: if you're neither learning nor contributing, move on.
After six short provocations from host speakers, we opened the marketplace and invited the assembly's 100 participants to put forward the topics they believed had to be on the table. Twenty conversations emerged, among them:
- What are the blue-sky scenarios for Scotland's climate futures?
- If climate action has to win public trust in the next two years, what should the Scottish Government prioritise?
- How do we make big decisions on incomplete evidence, and accelerate the impact of research?
- How can communities be active participants in delivering transition solutions?
- What public pedagogies can counter a media environment that manufactures ignorance of complexity?
Every conversation had a scribe. Key points were displayed in the venue’s atrium as the day unfolded, so nothing said in a breakout stayed there, and we digitally gathered thematic feedback from the whole room at the close.
Around the Open Space, we built in creative provocations to shift how people arrived and how they left:
On arrival: every attendee brought a natural object representing the experience they hoped to have. Bay leaves, ancient anthracite, pine cones and treasured feathers were shared in a breakout that set the tone for the day.
On leaving: each person received a blank postcard and wrote themselves one pledge (what will you do from here?) and one reminder (how will you take care of yourself?). We posted the cards to their homes three months later.
You can read more about the event in their report here.
What people said
"The response to the day was overwhelmingly positive. Thank you for helping us to create an open, interactive and engaging experience that led to truly meaningful conversations and ideas."
- ClimateXChange
"The format was great. I went in with a topic I hoped would get discussed. I was really pleased I had the opportunity to put it out there and get a whole group of experts to help develop the thinking and come up with some next steps. Perfect."
- Attendee
"A great understanding of how people socialise and what is needed to get the engine of ideas going."
- Attendee
Want to work together?
Say hello, and let's have an chat about how we can work together to spark creativity in your space.
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