I deliver talks and facilitate sessions that help people move from ideas about sustainability… into practical, shared action.
Over three decades of community practice, BBC broadcasting, and sustainability work means I’ve spent a lot of time on stages, in panels, and in front of rooms. More than 300 engagements, from community settings to stadiums.
The record: Recent keynotes and panels include:
- Keynote Speaker, Humber Business Week Launch 2026, on Earth Day.
- The Green Rooms Project Launch at Hull Uni 2026.
- RSA Space Unites 2026, RSA House, London, during Space Comm Europe.
- UK Tech Week 2025. Green Innovation Revolution event.
- Space Tech Assembly 2025, Earth Observation Challenges.
- UK-EONS (Earth Observation Network for Sustainability) 2024
I have spoken and facilitated across sustainability conferences, space sector events, creative festivals, university graduations, and community settings in the UK and Europe. I chair and convene, as well as speak, including facilitating the monthly Grokkist Press Writing Salon and running climate storytelling workshops for RSA Playful Green Planet, Hull University, and the RSA Northern Writers’ Group.
In November 2026, I’ll be part of the first TEDx event at the National Forest.
Core talks:
1/ Writing the Future, how creativity helps us imagine and build sustainable change.
Most people care about the future. But the future is often discussed in ways that feel abstract, technical, or out of reach. This talk explores how creativity, writing, visual arts, storytelling, and oral history recordings of lived experience can help people engage with sustainability in a more meaningful and practical way. Drawing on work across the arts, media, community practice, and environmental projects, I show how stories are not separate from action; they are where action begins.
Works well for: conferences and public events, sustainability and innovation projects, creative, cultural, and educational settings.
2/ Already Here. Activation, Solarpunk, and Making Things From What’s Available.
For thirty years, I’ve been turning empty spaces into something: disused shops into galleries, abandoned buildings into stages, volunteer time into 120 exhibitions across 34 venues. Humber Eco Fest reached 60,000 people across three local authorities, no budget, entirely volunteer-run. It’s the same story for HIP Fest which was the UK’s biggest annual photography festival for many years. None of it waited for permission or resources that weren’t there.
That’s the activation practice. And it turns out it has a name: Solarpunk. The idea that the future isn’t built by institutions with resources, it’s built by communities using what’s already available: the empty building, the found material, the people who care, the open-source tool, the solar-charged rig. The future is already here. It just needs to be activated.
This talk explores what thirty years of making things happen with nothing teaches you about change, and why the solarpunk frame is the most honest and practical model for community-led action that I’ve encountered.
Works well for: communities and organisations navigating austerity or limited resources, change-makers working inside institutions, creative and cultural settings, sustainability and futures conferences.
Formats:
- Keynotes (10–20 minutes).
- Workshops (one hour to multi-week courses).
- Facilitated strategy sessions.
- Panels, interviews, and podcast conversations.
- In-person or online
What people say:
“Alan’s insight into situations and his ability to bring out the best in people is unrivalled by anyone I’ve ever met. He’s one of the wisest people I know, and his advice has been of great value to me. Alan oozes inspiration.”
Graham Albans, BBC Radio 2 Breakfast Producer.
“Alan Raw is a motivated, positive, enthusiastic person who gets things done. Innovative, pioneering, charismatic character, with the eye of a hawk for detail.”
Fiona Whitley, Programme Executive, The Prince’s Trust.
invitation
f you’re planning an event, conference, or conversation around sustainability, creativity, and the future, I’d be glad to be part of it.
I am insured by Arts Union England and work at their recommended rates.
artistsunionengland.org.uk/rates-of-pay
Alan Raw 