On Saturday 16th January The Agency opened their doors to the public from Battersea and beyond.

All of the Agents had their own space in Providence House, to scratch an aspect of their idea, communicate their vision to the public and get valuable feedback in preparation for The Panel. The building was buzzing. People were crowding round the food table before pouring into the different spaces to experience a wealth of different activities, while professionals from Safe Ground and Run Dem Crew had 1-on-1s with 30 Days of Disconnect (Zara) and What We Want (Zennae-Kay and T).

Let’s take a tour:

Keron hosted Game Hub in one half of the computer room, treating unsuspecting visitors to a Virtual Reality dance competition courtesy of the Oculus Rift, and incredible piece of tech/headwear that transports the wearing into a 360 virtual reality. He also had co-gaming challenges set up on the PS4.

Mohamed got to work transforming the literacy rate of Battersea, delighting the young people he met the week before while flyering and doing outreach. I’ve never seen young people so enthused by antonyms! SmartZone is evidently an incredibly fun place to be.

Pop Up With A Mic (Badr & David) took over the workshop room with a soundsystem and a keyboard, hosting musicians from different genres and styles, encouraging them to collaborate and giving them a space to shine.

Zennae-Kay and T were up in the sports Hall and had curated an exhibition of sporting equipment combined with prompt cards about issues concerning females in particular (consent, body image). They took people on tours of their space, explaining their idea for a female led initiative that started with sports workshops and mentoring.

Abdi showed us all that Universal Language was a hit, running taster football sessions and explaining to people what his project was about, connecting people through football, transcending language barriers and giving people who couldn’t speak English a chance to socialise, integrate and aspire to more.

Meanwhile Zara was in the kitchen, showing people the incredible set of cards and provocations she’d been working on to help people connect to their locality.

After the crowd left (it took a while to shut down Pop Up With a Mic – the room was popping off!) Deanna brought the group back together with real finesse, harnessing the power of the day to bring into for the Panel and the mountain to climb before then.