Imagine you are trying to galvanise people to take action on climate change and that part of this is to organise a big annual conference for “stakeholders.”

Would you delay the details of time, venue and how to sign up to a mere six weeks in advance?
What signal would that send? That the issue didn’t really matter?

Would you keep your publicity simply to an email – and one bit of text on a website? (No letters to the paper, no request that groups publicise the conference far and wide?)
What signal would that send? That only those “in-the-know” matter?

Would you have the “conference” be a mere three and a half hours long?
What signal would that send? That the issue didn’t really matter?

Would you have a sign-up process that tells people they will be selected on “merit” (but not enable them to say why they deserve to be part of the conference
What signal would that send? That there are cool kids and lamoids, sheep and goats?

Would you fill the already short agenda with speeches that have been heard and presentations about what is happening elsewhere?
What signal would that send? That people’s time is not precious and that there is nothing inspiring in Manchester to talk of?

Imagine no more, friends. This is happening, here and now, here in Manchester.

 “… and a late update to the event roster is that we’ll be including presentations from our neighbouring cities of Liverpool and Leeds on the progress they’re making on climate change.”

Great. A three and a half hour “conference” (cough cough) that they have had all year to prepare. Apparently no elections, though these were promised.

And it’s now going to have a speech from Sir Richard Leese (1) but presentations about what OTHER cities are doing. What about what we are doing? Or are we doing so little that is interesting, so little that is inspiring that we have to look east and west?

I am not saying Leeds and Liverpool aren’t to be learnt from, but if the Steering Group was so keen for us to learn, maybe they could have, you know, put these events on at another time, instead of “talking out the clock” – crowding out much-needed time for real discussion of the barriers, obstacles and inadequacies of Manchester’s current (in)action on climate change. This simply isn’t fit for purpose.

What is to be done

1) Drastically lower your personal expectations of the 2013 conference, if you even get to go along. Just for the record, the screengrab of my “confirmation” (aka, application) is here.

2) Ensure the 2014 conference is not as shambolic and elusive as this.

Lobby the Neighbourhoods Scrutiny Committee (it has plenty of members. Some of them are probably your councillors. Find out here) to call in a report on the Steering Group, and especially on the “planning” (har har) for the 2013 “conference”.

Constant pressure and oversight to make sure the 2014 conference is at least a full day, with the date announced by October 2013.
Make sure the format and content is democratically constructed (not necessarily “unconference”, but consultative in its agenda setting).

And if it looks like the same old nonsense is being repeated, then groups and individuals in Manchester are just going to have to get together and put on a Real Stakeholders’ Conference. We couldn’t do worse than what we have now.

This three year farce must stop of cancelled, truncated and frankly embarrassing inaction and ineptitude must stop. IMHO, the only people who can stop it are the “outsiders.” The current Steering Group (and there are individuals within that who are very hard-working and effective in their other work)  is hopelessly compromised by their silence (collusion) with the omnishambles that is currently unfolding.

Footnotes
1) To be fair, no-one ever gets to hear what the man thinks, since he virtually never gets invited to be on panels, is never quoted in any newspapers, followed on twitter etc. Virtually invisible.