September 2024: Richard and Simon took the short trip over to Essex to connect with cooperative technologist friends old and new.
Cooperative Technologists (CoTech) has been going now for 8 years and in that time we have met and collaborated with many designers and developers in the tech coop world in the UK. This was the first meetup since the organisation had voted to join a larger grouping, workers.coop, so it was a great opportunity to think about what we want CoTech to do in the coming years as part of that wider movement.
The one-day event was hosted in the beautiful studio, gardens and hotdesking workspace of Creative Coop at the Minories, in the heart of Colchester. The Creative team of Ben, Sofia, Alan, Artem and Rowena hosted with aplomb, showed us some of the highlights of the city, and set up a day of networking and discussions. Breakfast and lunch were provided by Marley in the in-house cafe, Common Ground coop. Pop in if you're in town!
We covered what we want CoTech to do, what finances it will need, what tech and processes we are all using, and how we might share resources and bid for large projects together. Amongst other highlights it was great to hear about Polly and Natasha's plans for Space4 in London, discover that Impact Box are CRM specialists, find out about the work that Go Free Range have been doing with Government Digital Service, meet two new companies in the process of becoming worker-owned cooperatives, and chat to Muntazir about his PhD research into business ethics.
We left with several chats to pick up in the coming weeks and inspired again by the power of cooperatives to transform the world of work and the economy.
We left also with two other recommendations if you happen to be in Colchester: Roots and Grooves Cafe, and Two Brews bar - they have more than two brews :)
