Outside the Box at Nixon McInnes Social by The Sea 2011

One of the reasons people sometimes give for owning a car is the need to make multiple trips on the same day. I had one of those days last week – starting off at home in the west of Brighton (Hove, actually), then travelling across the city to teach at Lewes Road, then back into central Brighton for an engagement before returning home to Hove. No car was needed for this itinerary, which could have been tailor-made for using a Saver ticket from the local bus company: £4 bought on the bus, £3.20 if you buy it online. No fuel costs, no parking charges or hassles. The trip into central Brighton was to carry out an engagement for social media agency Nixon McInnes. I spoke at “Social by the Sea 2011,” an invite-only mini-conference on social media attended by some of the UK’s biggest charities, including WWF-UK, Oxfam GB, RSPCA, Age UK and Childline. I’d been asked by Max St. John, Nixon McInnes’s lead consultant for non-profit and the public sector, to speak in a slot tagged “Inspiration” - the subject being what Behavioural Economics might mean for the people in the room, their organisations, and their clients. It was a great opportunity to meet an interesting bunch of people, doing good things. Here’s hoping that a bit of behavioural economics could help them do even more.