FEAST makes it as easy as possible for people to produce their own panel discussions, game shows, or live music sessions on the radio. We provide templates and training to enable radio stations and individuals to produce their own shows and take part in decentralised radio conferences that take advantage of the networked gatherings that FEAST facilitates. In this way we can organise a variety of simple forms of interaction between the audience and the radio shows we produce.
In particular we will be able to organise a new form of dialogue between groups of people that we call “FEAST Conversations”. FEAST Conversations are structured after the World Café workshop format, in which small groups sitting around a table feed back to the main group following a brief introduction to a discussion topic.
We take this simple format and reproduce it on the radio, using mobile phones to allow conversations that happen around the world to feed back to the live radio show. We then archive these conversations, linking them together together with research and background material to form an open resource that researchers and the global community can use to take forward practical action.
Participants invited to a home or local community organised FEAST gather together in a physical location greeted by the host for the evening. Prior to serving the meal the participants listen to a short radio piece, or watch a short video “provocation” that has been designed to stimulate conversation. Next food is served and the participants discuss the topic in small groups around the table.
At the end of the meal the host for the evening encourages appointed individuals to summarise their discussion and records them on a mobile phone to be sent back to the radio station. Contributions from a number of FEASTs can then be collaged and broadcast over the radio to all participants together with live commentary from the radio station show producers. These live shows can then be post produced from the raw clips to a higher standard to be released at a later date.
We are currently working on a number of talk show and game show formats that are designed to facilitate conversation both between FEASTs and between participants around the table.