The Doughnut has landed (in Kate Raworth's lap)

A few months ago Tracy Horton from the University of Sheffield emailed me. Would I like to host an intern?

I wasn't sure. Flourish Economics is just me, a self employed mum, juggling family life struggling to find paid work.

What project would interest interns, allow them to develop their skills and have a tangible output they could showcase their work?

Doughnut Economics sprang to mind. I'd been thinking of trying to create a Sheffield Doughnut for a while. This was the perfect opportunity.

Sean Bowdin and Yan En Pang stepped up to the challenge. They researched Doughnut Snapshots from around the world, explored indicators and figured out the maths behind how to illustrate their findings using the Doughnut diagram.

By pure chance Kate Raworth was scheduled to speak about Doughnut Economics, an idea she coined and wrote a best selling book about, at the Festival of Debate on the last day of the internship.

Knowing this was our chance to get the Sheffield Doughnut in front of local people we knew we needed a way to share our work. I hastily put a poster together in a few hours (having only agreed the data the evening before), collected it from the printers just 20 minutes before they closed and a couple of hours before Kate Raworth was due to speak in Sheffield about Doughnut Economics.

We were hoping to put the posters up at the venue, around the entrance and hoped that a few people might be intrigued and get in touch.

What we didn't expect was the bump into Kate Raworth in the lift as she made her way to the lecture theatre. I literally gave an elevator pitch, waving the hot off the press posters at her excitedly.

Not only was she interested, complimentary and genuinely happy to see our work; she asked "can I take a poster to show the audience?"

We agreed, not quite believing our luck.

True to her word, she showed off our work to the audience of several hundred local Doughnut enthusiasts, encouraged people to reach out to us and even took the poster with her when she left 🥹💚

I'm so, so proud of Sean Bowdin and Yan En Pang for their incredible work and perseverance on this project. I have been so impressed with their thoughtful questions, research skills and ability to work to incredibly tight timescales to pull this off. The Sheffield Doughnut wouldn't exist without you!

At the start of the project I was worried about what I could offer the interns. Interning with a tiny organisation doesn't look too impressive on your CV; but thanks to Opus Independents for running the Festival of Debate, Kate Raworth and the wonderful audience I really feel Sean and Yan En have received the recognition they deserve for their hard work.

If you want to learn more I'll be sharing the data, approach and next steps for the Sheffield Doughnut over the next week or so. Get in touch directly if you can't wait!

Huge thanks to Indy Johar and James Lock for beautiful provocations and invitations last night 💚

PS Also a huge thank you to the photograph that captured this amazing photograph! I will be forever grateful!

What. an. evening.