Reimagining Scale: From Concept to Practice
About the session
Over the past decade, the concept of “scaling” has evolved significantly. Yet many practitioners are still asking how these shifts should change the way we work in practice.
This session builds on a series of ongoing conversations, including reflections from Re-envisioning Scale: A 10 Year Review and Scale Over Communities, as well as a virtual roundtable held in late 2025. While these discussions surfaced valuable insights, they also raised important questions that remain unresolved.
Among them:
Can we work within existing systems to improve them while also working to transform them, or do these approaches pull in different directions?
How do we balance different ways of working, such as evidence-based and relationship-based approaches, or structured pathways and more emergent, adaptive ones?
How do we remain open to collaboration, listen to local partners, and adapt our approaches as we learn?
This session invites a broader group of practitioners into that conversation.
Designed as an interactive and discussion-led session, it will create space for participants to share experiences, challenge assumptions, and explore how approaches to scale are continuing to shift across contexts.
The focus is not on defining a single model, but on learning together and supporting one another in developing more thoughtful, adaptive approaches to scaling impact.
Who this is for
This session is primarily for NGO and social enterprise practitioners, and will also be relevant for those in government, research, and other sectors interested in shaping and supporting approaches to scale.
What you will get out of it
Exposure to different perspectives on how the concept of scale is evolving
A space to reflect on your own approach to scaling and its underlying assumptions
Insights from peers navigating similar tensions and trade-offs
The opportunity to contribute to an ongoing, multi-sector conversation about what comes next
This session is part of a continuing dialogue that began at previous Sidebar gatherings and will continue beyond this one, inviting participants to help shape the next phase of thinking and practice around scale.
Hosted by
Bonnie Koenig, Phoebe Khagame, and Oluwatamilore Oni
Location & access
Accessibility matters deeply to us, and we do our best to choose spaces that reflect that. That said, some of our Oxford venues are in historic buildings without lifts. This room is unfortunately not accessible for wheelchair users, those with mobility challenges, or anyone needing step-free access.