High Street Camp is intended as an unconference to follow up the Portas Review published in December 2011. The aim is to bring together innovators in local government, community activists, artists, retailers and traders, and others interested in creating vibrant town centres. New thinking is needed to reverse the decline of many of our towns and to find new functions and purposes for town centres.

An early post on the Revive Our Town Centres Ning forum generated a lot of interest and there is likely to be an enthusiastic audience for this event.

We already have a venue lined up – a former library in Willesden Green, north London – which itself is an illustration of the hollowing out of town centres the event is seeking to address. The likely date is 18 or 25 May.