INSP opened the 2019 Global Street Paper Summit, held in Hannover and hosted alongside the city’s street paper Asphalt, earlier today.
The first full day of the annual meet-up was led by a showcase of INSP’s efforts to quantify the value of its work for the benefit of street paper members, spurred on by the fact that this year the organisation celebrates its 25th anniversary.
To do this, INSP invited members of FreshSight – a University of Edinburgh affiliated student-led consultancy agency offering socially-conscious and innovative business solutions – to present an overview of the research project they worked on over four months earlier this year to place a value on the tangible benefits of being an INSP member.
The FreshSight team were tasked with building a tool that would attempt to calculate the value of certain INSP member services.
In the end, the scope of their work became much wider, as they took on the challenge of trying to make sense of the social value of the less tangible services and support INSP offers.
The calculator tool and the Theory of Change Road Map they developed was officially presented to attending delegates as the opening gambit of #INSP2019. According to initial estimates, INSP’s News Service alone provided around £650,ooo worth of value for street paper members who utilise it.
INSP has been pushing to convey this information since before FreshSight came on board, and the fruits of that work were also put under the spotlight. The development of a Membership Benefit Catalogue, which was launched earlier this year ahead of #VendorWeek and to coincide with the official start of #INSP25 celebrations, allowed INSP to condense and express the multi-faceted aspects of its work – from consultancy and editorial support to advocacy – to street papers who are current, and prospective, members of the network.
The opening day of the Summit provided the perfect opportunity for attending delegates to gather round, hear more about both these advancements and discuss them with street paper colleagues.
@FreshSight consultants presenting their @_INSP membership value calculator #INSP2019: INSP's News Service alone produced nearly £650K of value to members last year. pic.twitter.com/3WVSZRiu0V
— Maree Aldam (@mareealdam) June 18, 2019
As the Summit continues through the week, delegates will have the opportunity to learn further about the value of being an INSP member, even getting the chance to take part in a mini-consultancy project hosted by the attending FreshSight student consultants for the duration of #INSP2019.