Hello!
Nathan here, writing from Bidjigal Land where I’m enjoying the slightly cooler (but no less chaotic) weather. I’m also excited that we’re headed into honeyeater migration season, and have my binos pointed firmly to the sky whenever I can.
I’ll miss some of that though, because I’m embarking on my own migration—in April I’m headed to Vancouver to present a Discovery Session at TED2026. I’ll be working with our UK collaborator Mel Frances to run The Future For Beginners, a game about climate risk and adaptation. If you or someone you know will be at TED and are interested in having a chat, let me know!
We’ve had a cracking start to 2026, working on new games and attending events where people are putting research and community together to tackle tricky problems.
The Future for Beginners, image by Timothy Eliot Spurr
In early Feb, Julia and I attended Hot City, Cool People, run by our friends at Sweltering Cities. A huge audience gathered to discuss urban heat and the power of community to advocate for change. We heard from medical professionals and athletes, listened to a beautiful performance from Noqu Vanua Youth Choir and a stirring keynote from author Winnie Dunn. It was an energising night that left me with plenty to think on.
This year we’ve also continued our collaboration with the Mulloon Institute, making games to help people explore landscape systems management. At Mulloon’s recent Professionals Intensive, we were able to test two new games, Busy Rural Mayors and Cup Runneth Over. It was a real joy to play with the group, and we gained a lot of insights for our next steps.
We finished off a busy February with a trip to Adelaide on Kaurna Country to spend time with The Algal Bloom Shed, a collective of researchers and citizen scientists who have gathered in response to the toxic algal bloom off the South Australian coast. It was a wonderful few days of conversation and cross-collaboration. One of the group’s aims is to increase systems literacy around events like this—algae blooms don’t have simple causes (or solutions), but the narratives about the bloom have struggled to hold that complexity.
We ran Best Festival Ever for the team and some invited guests as an example of how to introduce systems thinking to different groups. We’re excited to see how we can contribute to the Shed’s work going forward. We’re also very grateful to our friend Andrew Mears from the ANU School of Cybernetics who took these lovely Polaroid snaps of the game.
Best Festival Ever — EOFY Bookings
Speaking of Best Festival Ever, we’ve got some availability before the End of Financial Year, so if you’re interested in booking a session, get in touch! Lock us in financially before 30 June, and run your event in the new financial year—we’re friendly and flexible to your group’s needs.
Over the last year we’ve run it for think tanks, councils, community groups and more, and it’s been a wonderful way to have conversations about complexity and resilience. We’re also available to run our other games and workshops, so drop us a line and let’s figure out the best fit.
Look after yourself, and tell me if you spot any migrating honeyeaters!