Welcome to the den

Ever since early man gathered round the fire to discuss how to get closer to the tasty looking wildebeest in the next valley, there has been brainstorming.

And probably since very shortly afterwards, people have looked for alternative ways in which they can generate good ideas.

One of the most popular formats in recent years has been the ‘Dragons’ Den’. In the television programme of that name, would-be entrepreneurs pitch business ideas to four cash-rich, if charm-poor, moguls. If they do well, they walk out of the room with a new business partner. If they fail, they are the laughing stock of water cooler conversations across the land.

Housing organisations have leapt at the format, whether to encourage tenant participation, generate new community projects, or just for some diverting entertainment.

The challenge for landlords is to adapt a ruthless and often cruel set-up to get the best out of people who may be vulnerable or lack confidence. Here’s how three different organisations have gone about it.

1. A big night out for supported tenants

Axiom Housing Group’s Dragons’ Den event not only raised £400 after costs for the landlord’s homelessness charity, Axiom Homeless Action; it also proved an excellent way to encourage resident participation and has left a legacy of successful projects.

In 2008, Cambridgeshire-based Axiom’s eight supported housing schemes were invited to compete for a share of a £4,000 funding pot, with ideas that would either benefit the schemes themselves or the wider community. Project manager Angie Smallwood organised the event, and believes that the experience allowed the projects to develop a range of valuable skills.

‘Each project had to put together a team and then an action plan showing how they would carry out their idea should they be successful,’ she explains. ‘They had to put their bid together and argue the case.’ Seven projects took part - four foyers, two homeless hostels and a scheme for people with learning disabilities.

On television, the actual dragons’ den is a small-scale affair, but Ms Smallwood wanted to make it a significant event for participants. She hired a local nightclub in Peterborough and asked a couple of local bands along to provide extra entertainment. Around 100 people turned up, each paying £5. The teams took it in turns to pitch their ideas to a panel of three dragons - a councillor, the Foyer Federation’s innovations director and a former supported housing manager. The format was altered so the panel reported its funding decision at the end of the evening, rather than on the spot.

Ms Smallwood began preparations in spring, and the event took place in August 2008. She advises others not to underestimate the amount of time and effort required in setting it up and supporting the teams.

‘Obviously the Dragons’ Den format is quite stressful,’ says Ms Smallwood. ‘You have to make sure you have the right people standing up and speaking. On the night the dragons did ask lots of difficult questions, but they tried to make them appropriate for the projects. The learning disability project had an easier time than the foyers, for example.’

The only one of Axiom’s supported projects not to take part was the mental health scheme, as it was felt it might be too traumatic for participants.

The teams came back with diverse suggestions, some of which have now been adopted throughout Axiom’s schemes. One of the foyers wanted to run a Halloween party to keep young trick-or-treaters off the streets. There were two suggestions for community arts projects, a cycle repair scheme, a Christmas party and a healthy eating campaign. Most ambitious of all, the Peterborough foyer wanted to build a community garden.

No one went home empty-handed - each of the projects received grants ranging from £200 up to £1,200. The Peterborough garden project got £600. It also became a pilot for the national Foyer Federation’s working assets scheme, which helps young people develop essential skills. ‘It was a big project and they always knew it would cost more than they would get on the night, but it gave them an incentive,’ explains Ms Smallwood.

The initial grant galvanised the foyer team to raise a further £650, partly from John Lewis’s community fund. Around 15 young people aged 16 to 20 were involved over the life of the project. Work started on the garden in January 2009, and it officially opened in March.

‘During the process, the young people had to negotiate for the materials, and they got someone from a local builders’ merchants to help them build the decking. They wanted to build a garden but they didn’t have the skills, and they ended up achieving much more than they intended,’ she says. ‘We deliberately started in January when it was very cold, and then there was all the snow in February. It was a real test of their endurance.’

As for the Dragons’ Den, Ms Smallwood hopes to repeat the event, but perhaps on a regional scale, with foyers from eastern England. ‘We’re trying to get other housing associations that have got foyers to put £1,000 in each.‘

2. Opening the doors to young people

Darlington Council used the Dragons’ Den format to encourage the borough’s young people to bid for little-known community grants. The 5,500-home stock retaining council receives £155,000 of youth opportunity funding from central government annually, which funds youth-led community projects.

In 2007, when the council found itself with more than £30,000 left in the budget, youth worker Andy Whittam set up a Dragons’ Den at a local leisure centre. One Sunday in March, young people aged 13 to 19 were invited pitch their ideas to Darlington’s youth board, a 15-strong panel aged between 13 and 17.

Fourteen groups came along, and the board distributed a total of £29,764.74 to six of them. One of the successful schemes related to an existing event for local bands. ‘They had no way of recording the music,’ explains Mr Whittam, ‘so they came along to the Dragons’ Den and asked for a grant to buy music and video equipment. The board gave them £6,640. Now they go along and record the band and they end up with a demo disc and DVD.’

Another group wanted to plant a legacy garden in remembrance of friends who had been killed on the railway line, and another a gardening club which grew vegetables and gave them to elderly people in the community. The Duke of Edinburgh scheme needed to update its equipment, and a local youth club applied for a laptop and digital equipment so it could have internet access.

‘Because young people are getting money to run their own projects, it contributes to their personal development, and that’s going to have a community benefit as well,’ says Mr Whittam.

The Dragons’ Den format was so effective at drawing new ideas that it is now a regular annual event, though there are some differences with television format. ‘It’s nowhere near as ruthless,’ says Mr Whittam. ‘The panel did make comments but they were constructive or just trying to draw a bit more information out about the project. You do have a top table like on the telly, but people can present in any format they want to. You’ve got to make them feel as relaxed as possible.’

The Dragons’ Den approach may put people off, Mr Whittam concedes, but he points out that they may still apply for funding via the conventional route - the buzz the events generate just means they’re more likely to have heard of it. ‘The point is to get ideas from young people. Most of the time the things they come up with are really good ideas, they’re not pie in the sky. You think “why didn’t we fund that anyway?”’

3. Entertaining the conference troops

For the Chartered Institute of Housing, the Dragons’ Den at its annual conference in Harrogate is intended to keep the audience engaged to the end of the graveyard sessions, rather than to generate new ideas.

But it is also, according to Sam Lister, policy and practice officer at the CIH, a chance to debate controversial or way-out ideas that might not get a look-in otherwise.

For the past two years, it has pitted big names of the housing world and unknowns from every corner of the sector against each other in pitching new ideas to a panel of senior industry figures, tenant representatives and journalists.

The audience votes on whether each suggestion is a good or bad idea, though the panel publicly debates the winner between themselves.
‘It’s quite a good format for getting people to think outside of the ways they usually do, and for getting ideas aired,’ says Mr Lister.

‘The pitcher has to make a case for something rather than discussing it in the abstract. For a lot of controversial issues, people tend to have a fixed, black-and-white view. This format is engaging and it gets people to listen to the debate.’

Mr Lister has been surprised by the results. Last year for example, second place went to a suggestion that instead of bailing out the banks, the government simply give every person in Britain £1 million to spend.

Less popular with the judges was a suggestion that tenants be offered lessons in running a hygienic home, dismissed as patronising and Big Brother-esque.

There is no shortage of budding entrepreneurs and would-be inventors willing to take part in the television programme. However, Mr Lister says he struggled to find people prepared to stand up, not only in front of an intimidating panel of judges, but an entire conference audience.

He had to brief the contestants carefully. First, to help them perfect a concise, punchy pitch and second, to take any of the judges’ more cutting comments in good humour.

‘You do get people with ideas who are not prepared to go through the trauma of having them trashed in that format,’ he says.

‘If you’re having a panel session, the fact that it’s a bit like interview might put people off. You do need people who are very confident about their ideas.’

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